[Disorders of autonomic responses to emotional stimuli in patients with unilateral hemispherical lesions].
The authors have studied in 31 patients affected by right (N = 12) or left (N = 19) hemispheric lesions and in 10 normal controls the autonomous response to emotional stimuli. Stimuli consisted of 3 short films, aiming to provoke respectively a negative emotional reaction, a positive emotional response or a non-emotional reaction. Galvanic skin response and heart rate were considered as the dependent variables of our research. Both normal controls and left brain-damaged patients were very influenced by the emotional nature of the stimuli and showed clear signs of activation of the sympathetic and para-sympathetic systems in front of emotional films. By contrast, right brain-damaged patients were not influenced by the emotional or non-emotional nature of the stimuli and showed neither a clear galvanic skin response nor a significant decrease of heart rate in front of emotional films.
D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*
Perturbation des réponses végétatives aux stimuli émotionnels au cours des lésions hémisphériques unilatérales.