title: Different hemispheric roles in recognition of happy expressions.
abstract: The emotional expression of the face provides an important social signal that allows humans to make inferences about other people's state of mind. However, the underlying brain mechanisms are complex and still not completely understood. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we analyzed the spatiotemporal structure of regional electrical brain activity in human adults during a categorization task (faces or hands) and an emotion discrimination task (happy faces or neutral faces). Brain regions that are specifically important for different aspects of processing emotional facial expressions showed interesting hemispheric dominance patterns. The dorsal brain regions showed a right predominance when participants paid attention to facial expressions: The right parietofrontal regions, including the somatosensory, motor/premotor, and inferior frontal cortices showed significantly increased activation in the emotion discrimination task, compared to in the categorization task, in latencies of 350 to 550 ms, while no activation was found in their left hemispheric counterparts. Furthermore, a left predominance of the ventral brain regions was shown for happy faces, compared to neutral faces, in latencies of 350 to 550 ms within the emotion discrimination task. Thus, the present data suggest that the right and left hemispheres play different roles in the recognition of facial expressions depending on cognitive context.
authors: Department of Clinical and Experimental Neuroimaging, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan ; Method and Developmental Group "MEG and EEG: Signal Analysis and Modelling", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Akinori
authors: A
authors: Nakamura
authors: Method and Developmental Group "MEG and EEG: Signal Analysis and Modelling", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Burkhard
authors: B
authors: Maess
authors: Method and Developmental Group "Cortical Networks and Cognitive Functions", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Thomas R
authors: TR
authors: Knösche
authors: Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Angela D
authors: AD
authors: Friederici
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000502:physiology*; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult