title: Lateralization of emotional prosody in the brain: an overview and synopsis on the impact of study design.
abstract: Recently, research on the lateralization of linguistic and nonlinguistic (emotional) prosody has experienced a revival. However, both neuroimaging and patient evidence do not draw a coherent picture substantiating right-hemispheric lateralization of prosody and emotional prosody in particular. The current overview summarizes positions and data on the lateralization of emotion and emotional prosodic processing in the brain and proposes that: (1) the realization of emotional prosodic processing in the brain is based on differentially lateralized subprocesses and (2) methodological factors can influence the lateralization of emotional prosody in neuroimaging investigations. Latter evidence reveals that emotional valence effects are strongly right lateralized in studies using compact blocked presentation of emotional stimuli. In contrast, data obtained from event-related studies are indicative of bilateral or left-accented lateralization of emotional prosodic valence. These findings suggest a strong interaction between language and emotional prosodic processing.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. kotz@cbs.mpg.de
authors.forename: Sonja A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kotz
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paulmann
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D019260:Expressed Emotion / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*