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Sex differences and cerebral asymmetry in facial affect perception as a function of depressed mood
Abstract
Twenty-four right-handed subjects (12 men and 12 women), half within each sex classified as with depressed mood and the other half as nondepressed, participated in a tachistoscopic study of the influence of depressive symptomatology on the hemispheric processing of emotional faces (happy, angry, and neutral). Slower emotional processing was found in women with depressed mood than was found in nondepressed women, whereas diametrically opposite effects were seen in men. Cerebral asymmetry was also found as a function of affective valence, with a right-hemisphere advantage for the identification of angry faces. Symmetry was found in the identification of happy faces. Additionally, women with depressed mood more often identified neutral faces as angry, whereas depressive symptomatology reduced the strong negative response bias in men, with increased ambivalence or uncertainty in neutral affect perception. These results are discussed in light of hypothesized differences in cerebral asymmetry with depression and according to sex.
... Untersuchungen von Reuter-Lorenz und und Moretti, Charlton und Taylor (1996) geben Hinweise darauf, dass Dekodierungsprozesse abhängig von der Valenz der präsentierten Emotion sind. In einer Literaturübersicht kommt Putz (1988) zum Schluss, dass es genügend Hinweise für eine eindeutige Lateralisation negativer Emotionen in der rechten Hemisphäre gibt (Best, Womer & Queen, 1994;Crews & Harrison, 1994b;Harrison & Gorelcenko, 1990;Harrison, Gorelcenko & Cook, 1990;Kayser & Erdmann, 1990. Tabelle 2 im Anhang A gibt einen Überblick über Studien, in denen Stimulusmaterial verwendet wurde, von dem man annimmt, dass es bevorzugt in der rechten Hemisphäre verarbeitet wird. ...
... Imipramin-Responder zeigen im Vergleich mit den Nonrespondern und den Gesunden beim ersten Messzeitpunkt eine signifikante Verringerung des Vorteils des RVF für die verbale Aufgabe und einen verringerten Vorteil des LVF für die Zählaufgabe. Dies bestätigt die Ergebnisse einer reduzierten funktionellen Asymmetrie der bereits in diesem Abschnitt dargestellten Untersuchungen (Silberman et al., 1983;Crews & Harrison, 1994b;Jaeger et al., 1987;Moretti et al., 1996). Zum zweiten Messzeitpunkt vergrößerte sich der Vorteil des LVF für die Zählaufgabe. ...
... Die Untersuchungen an Depressiven (Crews & Harrison, 1994a/1994bBruder et al., 1997) zeigen, wie wichtig der Einfluss von Ängstlichkeit auf die funktionelle Lateralität ist. Vor dem Hintergrund epidemiologischer Daten zur Komorbidität von Angst und Depression in Verbindung mit den Überlegungen von H eller und Mitarbeiter (1995) zur Überlagerung funktioneller Asymmetrien bei Depressivität und Ängstlichkeit, fällt auf, dass viele der Untersuchungen an Angstpatienten keine Aussagen zur Komorbidität oder dem Vorliegen subklinischer Depressivität machen (Kopp, 1987;Wexler & Goodman, 1991;Otto et al., 1994;Tyler & Tucker, 1982;Yeudall, Schopflocher, Sussmann et al., 1983;Carter et al., 1986;Tucker, 1978). ...
In dieser Arbeit wird die funktionelle Hemisphärenasymmetrie bei Menschen mit Angsterkrankungen untersucht. Während bisherige Forschungsergebnisse auf Untersuchungen an Personen mit variierender Ausprägung der Persönlichkeitsdimension „Ängstlichkeit“ und unter Berücksichtigung der situativen Ängstlichkeit basieren, wird in der vorliegenden Untersuchung eine klinische Stichprobe von Patienten mit Angsterkrankungen untersucht und mit gesunden Kontrollpersonen verglichen. Die Gruppe der Angstpatienten umfasst Patienten mit Paniksyndrom und Patienten mit phobischer Symptomatik. Theoretische Modelle zur Beschreibung des Zusammenwirkens von funktioneller Lateralität und Affektivität liefern die Theorie der Aufmerksamkeitssteuerung der Arbeitsgruppe um Tucker (1990) und das Modell der Aktivitätsmuster von Heller und Mitarbeiter (1990, 1993). Tucker geht bei Angst von einer Überaktivierung der linken Hemisphäre, die zu einer Leistungsbeeinträchtigung führt, aus. Heller und Mitarbeiter nehmen bei Angst eine verbesserte Leistung in der rechten Hemisphäre bei Aufgaben an, die rechtsparietal verarbeitet werden. Angsterkrankungen haben eine hohe Komorbidität mit depressiven Erkrankungen. Patienten mit depressiver Symptomatik zeigen Verschiebungen in der funktionellen Lateralität. Bei Komorbidität können die durch eine Angsterkrankung bedingten Veränderungen der funktionellen Lateralität dadurch verzerrt werden. Aus diesem Grund werden in der vorliegenden Untersuchung Patienten mit aktuell bestehenden depressiven Erkrankungen ausgeschlossen. Mit der Angsterkrankung einhergehende depressive Symptome werden berücksichtigt und in die Auswertung einbezogen. Außerdem wird untersucht, ob sich Veränderungen in der funktionellen Asymmetrie während einer massierten Konfrontationsbehandlung zeigen. Die genaue Untersuchung der Kontrollgruppe ermöglicht darüber hinaus die Möglichkeit die Ergebnisse bisheriger Studien zum Zusammenhang des Persönlichkeitsmerkmal „Ängstlichkeit“ und funktioneller Lateralität zu bestätigen.
37 Patienten mit Angststörungen und 32 gesunde Kontrollpersonen wurden zu zwei Messzeitpunkten untersucht. Für die Patienten-Gruppe fielen diese Zeitpunkte mit Aufnahme und Entlassung in die Selbstkontrollphase statt. Vor Teilnahme an der Studie wurden alle Probanden einer genauen Diagnostik unterzogen. Zur Überprüfung der Effektivität der Therapie und möglicher Zusammenhänge zur Lateralität werden 6-Wochen-Katamnesen in die Auswertung miteinbezogen. Operationalisiert wurde die funktionelle Lateralität durch eine verbale Worterkennungsfrage und einer Aufgabe zum Emotionsgehalt dargebotener Gesichter. Beide Aufgaben werden lateralisiert präsentiert.
Die Ergebnisse zeigen moderate Unterschiede zwischen Angstpatienten und Kontrollpersonen. In der verbalen Aufgabe unterscheiden sich Angstpatienten nicht in der funktionellen Lateralität. Hingegen kann die Vermutung einer besseren Leistung der rechten Hemisphäre bei Angstpatienten im Vergleich zu den Kontrollpersonen in der Gesichter-Aufgabe bestätigt werden. Bei differenzierter Betrachtung zeigen sich Auffälligkeiten, allerdings nicht im Ausmaß der funktionellen Asymmetrie sondern im Zusammenwirken unterschiedlicher Aspekte von Lateralität. Es ergeben sich deutliche Hinweise auf in den Hemisphären konträr ablaufende Prozesse. Die rechte Hemisphäre zeigt eine über die Messzeitpunkte hinweg unveränderte Leistung im linken visuellen Feld in der Gruppe der Angstpatienten. Bei Kontrollpersonen hingegen variiert die Leistung in Abhängigkeit von der Antworthand. Angstpatienten haben im Vergleich zu gesunden Kontrollpersonen möglicherweise nicht die Möglichkeit, die rechte Hemisphäre zu mobilisieren. Eine völlig andere Bedeutung hat den Ergebnissen dieser Untersuchung zufolge die linke Hemisphäre. Hier kommt es in Abhängigkeit von der Angsterfahrung in den Konfrontationen zu einer Steigerung der Leistungsfähigkeit. Die Leistung der linken Hemisphäre verbessert sich erst im Therapieverlauf, daher ist die Annahme plausibel, dass dieser Prozess eine konstruktive Auseinandersetzung mit der Angst widerspiegelt. Die Untersuchung legt die Annahme einer stabil ausgeprägten funktionellen Hemisphärenasymmetrie bei Angsterkrankungen nahe. Gesunde verfügen demzufolge über eine geringer ausgeprägte flexible funktionelle Lateralität. Die Modellvorstellungen der Arbeitsgruppen um D. Tucker und um W. Heller konnten nur teilweise an einer klinischen Stichprobe bestätigt werden.
... In a similar previous experiment (using only reaction time as a dependent variable) that utilized depressed and nondepressed men and women and similar emotional stimuli, Crews and Harrison (1994) found the following: (1) right hemispheric superiority (faster reaction time when stimuli were presented to the LVF) for the processing of emotional faces, (2) faster emotional processing (e.g., reaction time) for facial affect among depressed as opposed to nondepressed men, and (3) slower emotional processing for facial affect among depressed as opposed to noridepressed women. Given the well-documented association between anxiety and depression, it may be assumed that many of the subjects also experienced elevated levels of anxiety. ...
... Based on previous findings that anxious individuals without depression have larger left hemispatial biases than do nonanxious individuals, that negative affect is processed faster in the left visual field (right hemisphere), and that depressed men who were likely anxious processed emotional stimuli faster than nondepressed men (Crews & Harrison, 1994), it was predicted that anxious men would have faster reaction times than would nonanxious men for affective stimuli. ...
... Analysis of the data from Experiment 1 revealed three relevant findings. First, as demonstrated in previous tachistoscope studies (Crews & Harrison, 1994;Harrison & Gorelzcenko, 1990), right-hemisphere (LVF) superiority was found for the processing of facial affect stimuli, suggesting that the right hemisphere is dominant in the processing of facial affect stimuli. Second, consistent with previous reports (Crews & Harrison, 1994), happy affective stimuli were identified more quickly than angry af-FACIAL AFFECT PERCEPTION AND ANXIETY 93 fective stimuli. ...
In two experiments a tachistoscopic paradigm was used to examine hemispheric differences in facial affect perception among anxious and nonanxious men without depression. In Experiment 1, hemispheric processing of Ekman and Friesen's (1978) happy, angry, and neutral emotional faces was tachistoscopically examined, with reaction time as the dependent variable. The following results were obtained: (1) a right-hemisphere (LVF) advantage for the perception of facial affect, consistent with previous reports of the right hemisphere's relative specialization for facial affect perception and (2) slower reaction time to facial affect stimuli for anxious men, regardless of valence and visual field. Similar procedures were used in Experiment 2, but with accuracy rather than reaction time as the dependent measure. Analyses yielded a three-way interaction, with anxious men identifying angry affects in the left versus right visual field more accurately, whereas nonanxious men demonstrated symmetry for the processing of angry affects. Implications for hemispheric asymmetry (i.e., relative right posterior activation) among anxious individuals without depression are discussed.
... Untersuchungen von Reuter-Lorenz und und Moretti, Charlton und Taylor (1996) geben Hinweise darauf, dass Dekodierungsprozesse abhängig von der Valenz der präsentierten Emotion sind. In einer Literaturübersicht kommt Putz (1988) zum Schluss, dass es genügend Hinweise für eine eindeutige Lateralisation negativer Emotionen in der rechten Hemisphäre gibt (Best, Womer & Queen, 1994;Crews & Harrison, 1994b;Harrison & Gorelcenko, 1990;Harrison, Gorelcenko & Cook, 1990;Kayser & Erdmann, 1990. Tabelle 2 im Anhang A gibt einen Überblick über Studien, in denen Stimulusmaterial verwendet wurde, von dem man annimmt, dass es bevorzugt in der rechten Hemisphäre verarbeitet wird. ...
... Imipramin-Responder zeigen im Vergleich mit den Nonrespondern und den Gesunden beim ersten Messzeitpunkt eine signifikante Verringerung des Vorteils des RVF für die verbale Aufgabe und einen verringerten Vorteil des LVF für die Zählaufgabe. Dies bestätigt die Ergebnisse einer reduzierten funktionellen Asymmetrie der bereits in diesem Abschnitt dargestellten Untersuchungen (Silberman et al., 1983;Crews & Harrison, 1994b;Jaeger et al., 1987;Moretti et al., 1996). Zum zweiten Messzeitpunkt vergrößerte sich der Vorteil des LVF für die Zählaufgabe. ...
... Die Untersuchungen an Depressiven (Crews & Harrison, 1994a/1994bBruder et al., 1997) zeigen, wie wichtig der Einfluss von Ängstlichkeit auf die funktionelle Lateralität ist. Vor dem Hintergrund epidemiologischer Daten zur Komorbidität von Angst und Depression in Verbindung mit den Überlegungen von H eller und Mitarbeiter (1995) zur Überlagerung funktioneller Asymmetrien bei Depressivität und Ängstlichkeit, fällt auf, dass viele der Untersuchungen an Angstpatienten keine Aussagen zur Komorbidität oder dem Vorliegen subklinischer Depressivität machen (Kopp, 1987;Wexler & Goodman, 1991;Otto et al., 1994;Tyler & Tucker, 1982;Yeudall, Schopflocher, Sussmann et al., 1983;Carter et al., 1986;Tucker, 1978). ...
... Diejenigen Beispiele kognitiver Verarbeitung, die in der Literatur als geschlechtsspezifisch dokumentiert sind, z. B. Sprache, Gestik, die Interpretation des Gesichtsausdrucks, Gedächtnis, visuo-räumliches Verständnis, haben ihr strukturelles Korrelat im wesentlichen in der Großhirnrinde (Burton & Levy, 1989;Freeman & Traugott, 1993;Ladavas, Umilta & Ricci-Bitti, 1980;Harrison, Gorelczenko & Cook 1990;Kimura, 1992;Kingsberg, La Barba & Bowers, 1987;Strauss, Wada & Goldwater, 1992a;Strauss et al., 1992b;Crews & Harrison, 1994). Unterschiede in der Funktionsweise des cerebralen Cortex, die geschlechtsspezifisch sein könnten, erklärt man ebenfalls durch steroid-induzierte rechts-links Unterschiede im Aufbau der Großhirnrinde (Geschwind & Galaburda, 1987) und daraus resultierend auch durch eine Geschlechtsabhängigkeit in der Größe des Balkens. ...
... Das gilt z. B. für die Wahrnehmung von Gesichtern (Harrison, Gorelczenko & Cook, 1990;Burton & Levy, 1989;Crews & Harrison, 1994;Magnussen, Sunde & Dyrnes,1994). Wie nachstehend gezeigt werden wird, ist für die Lateralisierung einer Funktion nicht unbedingt die Anzahl der Neurone, d. h. ...
Gehirne von Männern und Frauen sind unter-schiedlich. Diese Verschiedenartigkeit läßt sich auf anatomisch-morphologischer und anatomisch-bio-chemischer Ebene nachweisen und impliziert Un-terschiede im Verhalten. Dies wird anhand einer Übersicht neuerer Arbeiten aus dem Tier-und Humanbereich belegt, wobei auch darauf einge-gangen wird, daß selbst die sexuelle Orientierung (Homo-/Heterosexualität) sich anatomisch wider-zuspiegeln scheint. Gleichwohl wird betont, daß anatomische Grundgebenheiten erst durch um-weltspezifische Einwirkungen ihre letztendliche Ausprägung erhalten. Abstract Sexual dimorphism: To what degree influence differences in brain structure differences in behavior? Male and female brains differ. This difference can be demonstrated morphologically as well as biochemically; it implies differences in be-havior. This is demonstrated on the basis of a survey of recent studies on animals and human beings. It is shown that even sexual orientations Anschrift der Verfasser: Prof. Dr. Monika Pritzel, Fach-bereich Psychologie, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Im Fort 7, D-76829 Landau/Pfalz. Prof. Dr. Hans J. Markowitsch, Physiologische Psychologie, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 10 01 31, D-33501 Bielefeld. (homo-/heterosexuality) are reflected anatomi-cally. It is nevertheless emphasized that only environmentally induced influences provide the final shaping of anatomical structures.
... For instance, older adults make more errors in indicating the emotion expressed through prosody (Kiss & Ennis, 2001), as well as through facial expressions (Phillips, MacLean, & Allen, 2002). Also, women and men seem to perceive facial expressions differently: young women rate male faces more positively than young men (Van Strien & Van Beek, 2000), and men identify neutral faces as being angry more often than do women (Crews & Harrison, 1994). However, no such sex-related differences have been reported for the perception of emotional prosody. ...
... In general, studies on sex difference, using categorical judgment, suggest that women and men perceive facial expressions differently, especially in valence ratings. For example, Crews and Harrison (1994) reported that men identify photographs of neutral faces as being angry more often than do women. Also, Van Strien and Van Beek (2000) found, using a two-alternative forced-choice, that young women tended to rate male cartoon faces more positively than young men (however, as the authors suggested, this sex difference could have been due to the fact that only used male faces were used). ...
Humans make extensive use of vocal information to attribute emotional states to other individuals. To date, most studies exploring perception of vocal emotions have done so in the context of speech prosody, although nonlinguistic emotional vocalizations represent an important, perhaps more universal, means to express emotions. Here, we explored the perception of emotional nonlinguistic vocalizations in healthy individuals, with an emphasis on potential age- and sex-related differences. Sixty participants rated 563 positive (e.g., laughs, sexual vocalizations), negative (e.g., cries, screams of fear), and neutral vocalizations (e.g., coughs), according to the valence, intensity, and authenticity of the emotion expressed. Ratings were consistent among individuals, suggesting that valence is an adequate measure of emotional categorization. An important effect of age emerged: (a) age by vocalization category interactions were observed for both valence and intensity ratings, and (b) younger participants rated stimuli as more emotional than older individuals (i.e., higher valence for positive, lower for negative, and more intense for both positive and negative). We also found a sex effect in the authenticity ratings: older women rated the vocalizations as less authentic than younger women whereas authenticity judgments did not differ between the two age groups in men. Taken together, these findings suggest that, as previously observed for facial expressions and prosody, the judgments of emotional vocalizations may vary with age.
... With regard to previous studies in facial affect processing, some studies have demonstrated that women perform better in speeded emotion recognition tasks (Natale, Gur, & Gur, 1983) and are more expressive (Asthana & Mandal, 1998). It is of note, however, that some studies have found that men demonstrate faster reaction times than do women when emotional facial stimuli are presented to the right hemisphere (Crews & Harrison, 1994;Harrison, Gorelczenko, & Cook, 1990a, 1990b). Regardless of differences in these studies (which may be in part attributable to task-related differences), it is the general consensus that women recognize facial, gestural, and vocal expressions more accurately than do men (Hall, 1978;Schirmer, Kotz, & Friederici, 2005). ...
... Although these issues are now acknowledged, the area of sex-related differences and sex hormones remains understudied. A few groups (Everhart et al., 2003;Sander et al., 2003;Schirmer et al., 2002) have highlighted the importance of these differences and are actively pursuing this line of research, whereas the importance of sex-related differences in facial affect processing has already been acknowledged in both behavioral and neuroimaging studies (Crews & Harrison, 1994;Killgore, Oki, & Yurgelun-Todd, 2002). ...
The overall purpose of this article is to review the literature that addresses the theoretical models, neuroanatomical mechanisms, and sex-related differences in the perception of emotional prosody. Specifically, the article focuses on the right-hemisphere model of emotion processing as it pertains to the perception of emotional prosody. This article also reviews more recent research that implicates a role for the left hemisphere and subcortical structures in the perception of emotional prosody. The last major section of this article addresses sex-related differences and the potential influence of hormones on the perception of emotional prosody. The article concludes with a section that offers directions for future research.
... In order to increase the homogeneity of variance attributable to cerebral laterality, only men were recruited for participation. Considerable evidence suggests that differences in emotional processing and laterality exist among men and women (e.g., Crews & Harrison, 1994;Harrison, Gorelczenko, & Cook, 1990;Hiscock, Perachio, & Inch, 2001). To avoid confounding these laterality effects the exclusion of women was necessary. ...
... We speculate that this difference in the task or information processing requirement may potentially contribute to the noted discrepancy in patterns of hemispheric asymmetry in depression. For example, a study revealed that the observed hemispheric asymmetry in depression may differ depending on the nature of stimuli used to assess the asymmetry (Crews & Harrison, 1994). These researchers found that women with depressed mood displayed significantly faster reaction time to sad faces presented in the right visual field and happy faces presented in the left visual field. ...
The present study hypothesizes that the observed inconsistency in findings may be because of the influence of comorbid presence of anxiety with depression and/or variations in the task/information processing requirement of the measures of hemispheric asymmetry. In view of this the present study examines the role of co-occurring anxiety and task requirement on the relationship of depression and hemispheric asymmetry. Fifty right-handed undergraduate students were assessed for their level of anxiety and depression using self-report measures. The pattern of hemispheric asymmetry in processing emotional and non-emotional information was also assessed using free viewing measures analogous to splitfield technique. The findings revealed that depression and some forms of anxiety (trait and free-floating anxiety) were associated with enhanced right hemispheric performance on emotion processing task but not on task requiring processing of non-emotional information. Further, the co-occurring anxiety was not found to significantly alter the relationship of depression and hemispheric asymmetry. However, the anxiety-hemispheric asymmetry relationship was significantly influenced by the coexisting level of depression. The findings imply that the enhanced right hemispheric asymmetry, particularly in processing of emotional information, is associated with increased likelihood of having anxiety and depression. However, it is likely that the mechanism linking hemispheric asymmetry with depression and anxiety may differ. Further, the observed nature of hemispheric asymmetry in anxiety and depression may differ depending on the nature of the task or information processing requirements. The emotion processing tasks are more likely to bring out the anomalous pattern of hemispheric asymmetry in these psychopathological conditions as compared to non-emotional tasks.
... В ряде экспериментальных исследований [41,57] была показана склонность пациентов с депрессией негативно воспринимать нейтральные или даже позитивные стимулы и/или ситуации. В частно-сти, пациенты с депрессией достоверно чаще воспринимают нейтральное выражение лица на портретах как проявление печали или гнева [14,31,41]. Кроме того, в многочисленных нейрофизиологических исследованиях была выявлена типичность для пациентов с депрессией асимметрии мощности α-ритма в лобных отведениях [17,27]. ...
Данные современных нейровизуализационных исследований свидетельствуют, что депрессивный паттерн внутренних переживаний и поведенческих проявлений (негативное восприятие событий, самоуничижение, ощущения тоски и пустоты, безразличие, и т.д.) являются следствием доминирования активности ряда подкорковых и корковых структур лимбической системы, относимых некоторыми исследователями к структурам «негативного мозга». Так, типичной находкой у депрессивных больных является гиперактивация амигдал и тесно связанных с ними структур вентромедиальной префронтальной коры при предъявлении стимулов, имеющих негативное содержание. Помимо гиперсенсетивности структур «негативного мозга» у пациентов с тяжёлыми затяжными формами депрессии нередко выявляется дефицит серого вещества в орбито-фронтальной, дорсолатеральной префронтальной и височных структурах коры мозга. Снижение компьютационных возможностей корковых структур обедняет адаптационные способности таких пациентов. Кроме того, недостаточность префронтальной коры сопряжена с дефицитом ингибирующего влияния данной структуры мозга по отношению к структурам «негативного мозга», в частности, по отношению к амигдалам. Показано также, что длительная депрессия усугубляет дефицит серого вещества в префронтально-височных структурах коры мозга, что создаёт порочный круг и приводит к хронизации депрессивных расстройств.
... It was consistently shown that depression is associated with an increased tendency to perceive negative emotional states in others when judging facial expressions (Gur et al., 1992;Hale, 1998;Leppanen et al., 2004). The most typical characteristic of depression is the bias towards false sad responses (Leppanen et al., 2004) or angry responses (Crews & Harrison, 1994) while processing emotionally neutral faces. Anxious individuals also tend to interpret ambiguous facial stimuli in a negative fashion demonstrating the bias towards interpreting the neutral faces as threatening (Yoon, & Zinbarg, 2007). ...
In a range of clinical situations evaluation of depression and anxiety is important but problematic.
For instance, depression and anxiety are risk factors of poor outcomes of cardiac operations.
However, verbal approaches to the diagnostics of depression and anxiety commonly increases
nervousness in patients. Therefore, we undertook two studies in order to develop a non-verbal tool
for screening diagnostics of depression and anxiety. The first study included 33 patients awaiting
on-pump operations. The second study included 62 neurotic patients. Szondi portraits were used
for evaluation of facial perception. We asked subjects to select one of two responses concerning
mood of a person at the portrait: good versus bad mood. Then we asked subjects to select one of
responses concerning friendliness of a person at the same portrait: friendly versus unfriendly.
Cardiac surgery patients with moderate depression selected significantly more 'bad mood' and
'unfriendly' responses in comparison with non-depressed patients awaiting operation. Facial
perception task allowed to correctly classify 84.8% of patients. In addition, the patients showed
significant decrease of 'bad mood' responses at discharge in comparison with preoperative period.
The results of the second study did not confirm the Szondi portraits task to be an efficient tool for
the screening diagnosis of depression. Nevertheless, we observed a range of significant associations
between severity of depression or anxiety and performance on the facial perception task. We
concluded that facial perception tests are promising tools for nonverbal screening diagnostics of
depression and anxiety, and further research in this field is needed.
... For the current research, women were not included for participation due to sex differences in cerebral laterality Crews & Harrison, 1994;Kimura, 1987). Men were classified as either high-hostile or low-hostile using scores obtained from the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Cook & Medley, 1954). ...
... Hence, the depressed women, as opposed to the nondepressed group, reported elevated levels of both temporary, situational, state anxiety as well as high levels of relatively stable, long-lasting, anxiety proneness (trait anxiety; Spielberger, 1983). These findings were not unexpected as elevated levels of anxiety are often an associated feature of depression (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and also paralleled previous empirical findings (Crews & Harrison, 1994a, 1994c. Furthermore, sympathetic autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal, which produces symptoms such as increased heart and respiratory rates, muscle tension, and diaphoresis (Duffy, 1962;Lindsley, 1951) may likely be interpreted as anxiety and result in heightened, self-reported anxiety. ...
Thirty young, unmedicated, outpatient, depressed women were compared to an equal number of matching controls on a series of neuropsychological tests purported to be sensitive to the executive functions. Specifically, the measures included the Design Fluency Test, Hand Dynamometer tasks of grip strength, perseveration, and fatigue, the FAS Verbal Fluency Test, the Stroop Color and Word Test, and the Trail Making Test (Parts A and B). Despite past research which has indicated anterior hemispheric asymmetries and impaired neurocognitive performances in depressives, this research failed to identify any reliable differences between depressed and nondepressed women on any of the neuropsychological measures. These results argue against the frequently held stereotype that depressed individuals typically display impaired performances on neurocognitive tasks. Furthermore, since the profile of the depressed sample appeared to differ significantly from past studies, a discussion is provided as to how the characteristics of this group may have impacted the results. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and future research are also provided.
... Hartley et al. (1991) found that tachistoscopically-presented neutral faces were processed faster in the left cerebrum while negative faces were processed more quickly in the right cerebrum. Last, Crews and Harrison (1994) studied 12 depressed and 12 non-depressed right-handed undergraduate men and women. Using tachistoscopic methods to present negative, positive, and neutral faces, they found that normal controls showed symmetry in the identification of positive valences. ...
... These catastrophic and indifference reactions are hypothesized to result from a breakdown of the reciprocal interaction between the damaged and undamaged hemispheres . Crews and Harrison (1994a) investigated the influence of depression on the hemispheric processing of emotional faces and found a slower reaction time to affective stimuli in depressed women than that in nondepressed women. Further, the depressed women more often identified neutral faces as angry. ...
... Hartley, Ireland, Arnold, and Spencer (1991) found that tachistoscopically presented neutral faces were processed faster in the left cerebrum while negative faces were processed more quickly in the right cerebrum. Last, Crews and Harrison (1994) studied 12 depressed and 12 nondepressed right-handed under--graduate men and women. Using a tachistoscope paradigm to present negative, positive, and neutral faces, they found that normal controls showed symmetry in the identification of positive valences. ...
This experiment was primarily designed to identify higher cortical correlates of cardiovascular arousal. Low- and high-hostile right-handed undergraduate men were identified using the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (CMHS; Cooke and Medley, 1954). All participants (N = 30) completed the cold-pressor paradigm. Cardiovascular (heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure) and electroencephalographic (beta magnitude) data were collected before and after the stressor. As predicted, high-hostiles showed greater increases of heart rate and systolic blood pressure to the stressor relative to low-hostiles. The primary findings of this research include significantly greater beta magnitude recorded by the T3, relative to the F7, electrode among low-hostiles. This may suggest that low-hostiles experience left-frontal disinhibition of left-temporal regions, thereby strengthening cardiovascular regulation during the cold-pressor stress. In addition, irrespective of condition, high-hostiles evidenced significantly greater beta magnitude at regions corresponding to the F7 and F8 electrodes. This perhaps suggests that high-hostiles have a relative inability to increase their rostral modulation of posterior systems related to cardiovascular reactivity/regulation.
... We speculate that this difference in the task or information processing requirement may potentially contribute to the noted discrepancy in patterns of hemispheric asymmetry in depression. For example, a study revealed that the observed hemispheric asymmetry in depression may differ depending on the nature of stimuli used to assess the asymmetry (Crews & Harrison, 1994). These researchers found that women with depressed mood displayed significantly faster reaction time to sad faces presented in the right visual field and happy faces presented in the left visual field. ...
... The study here used only female participants since the previous study did not observe valence specific laterality effects in males (Rodway et al., 2003). Additionally, baseline mood was also measured as the state of participants has been found to affect their perception of facial affect (Bouhuys, Bloem, & Groothuis, 1995; Rodway et al., 2003) and to influence valence specific laterality effects (Crews & Harrison, 1994). ...
Recent research has looked at whether the expectancy of an emotion can account for subsequent valence specific laterality effects of prosodic emotion, though no research has examined this effect for facial emotion. In the study here (n=58), we investigated this issue using two tasks; an emotional face perception task and a novel word task that involved categorising positive and negative words. In the face perception task a valence specific laterality effect was found for surprise (positive) and anger (negative) faces in the control but not expectancy condition. Interestingly, lateralisation differed for face gender, revealing a left hemisphere advantage for male faces and a right hemisphere advantage for female faces. In the word task, an affective priming effect was found, with higher accuracy when valence of picture prime and word target were congruent. Target words were also responded to faster when presented to the LVF versus RVF in the expectancy but not control condition. These findings suggest that expecting an emotion influences laterality processing but that this differs in terms of the perceptual/experience dimension of the task. Further, that hemispheric processing of emotional expressions appear to differ in the gender of the image.
... These authors had their participants fill in missing features of male, female, and unisex stimulus faces and found that women drew faces that were more positive than faces drawn by men. Crews and Harrison (1994) reported that men identified photographs of neutral faces as being angry more often than did women. Our study suggests that the positive bias in women is a function of the left hemisphere, because this bias was observed on RVF trials in particular. ...
Sixteen right-handed participants (8 male and 8 female students) and 16 left-handed participants (8 male and 8 female students) were presented with cartoon faces expressing emotions ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. A forced-choice paradigm was used in which the participants were asked to rate the faces as either positive or negative. Compared to men, women rated faces more positively, especially in response to right visual field presentations. Women rated neutral and mildly positive faces more positively in the right than in the left visual field, whereas men rated these faces consistently across visual fields. Handedness did not affect the ratings of emotion. The data suggest a positive emotional bias of the left hemisphere in women.
... There has been little focus on affect recognition in individuals with psychiatric disorders other than schizophrenia and depression. It is suggested that depression alters facial affect perception (e.g., Marcel, Samson, Cole, & Schatzberg, 1993), resulting in less specificity for sadness discrimination (Gur et al., 1992), misidentification of neutral faces as anger (Crews & Harrison, 1994), and the attribution of sadness whenever the affective content is not recognised (Mandal & Bhattacharya, 1985). 2.2.1. ...
Disturbances in affect recognition may be one of the most pervasive and serious aspects of the schizophrenic patient's interpersonal problems. Interest in the decoding of emotional information in schizophrenia has focused on facial affect recognition with 29 experimental papers on that topic published since 1987. A smaller literature exists on the topic of recognition of affect in speech and there are at least seven studies, which have examined both face and voice perception in the same individuals with schizophrenia. This paper includes a comprehensive analysis of the schizophrenia facial affect recognition research over the past decade and the schizophrenia literature on affective prosody, and provides the first review of the schizophrenia literature on multichannel emotion recognition research. The weight of evidence would suggest that individuals with schizophrenia experience problems in the perception of emotional material; however, the specificity, extent, and nature of the deficits are unclear. Emotion recognition research in schizophrenia should be informed by the general literature on emotion recognition with serious attention paid to methodological issues.
... These catastrophic and indifference reactions are hypothesized to result from a breakdown of the reciprocal interaction between the damaged and undamaged hemispheres . Crews and Harrison (1994a) investigated the influence of depression on the hemispheric processing of emotional faces and found a slower reaction time to affective stimuli in depressed women than that in nondepressed women. Further, the depressed women more often identified neutral faces as angry. ...
Neuropsychological research provides a useful framework to study emotional problems, such as depression, and their correlates. This paper reviews several prominent neuropsychological theories. Functional neuroanatomical systems of emotion and depression are reviewed, including those that describe cerebral asymmetries in emotional processing. Following the review, a model that is composed of three neuroanatomical divisions (left frontal, right frontal, and right posterior) and corresponding neuropsychological emotional sequelae within each quadrant is presented. It is proposed that dysfunction in any of these quadrants could lead to symptomatology consistent with a diagnosis of depression. The proposed model combines theories of arousal, lateralization, and functional cerebral space and lends itself to scientific methods of investigation. Accordingly, research, prevention, and treatment programs in accordance with the proposed model may promote an improved understanding of the neuropsychological mechanisms involved in depression.
... Hence, the depressed women, as opposed to the nondepressed group, reported elevated levels of both temporary, situational, state anxiety as well as high levels of relatively stable, long-lasting, anxiety proneness (trait anxiety; Spielberger, 1983). These findings were not unexpected as elevated levels of anxiety are often an associated feature of depression (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and also paralleled previous empirical findings (Crews & Harrison, 1994a, 1994c. Furthermore, sympathetic autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal, which produces symptoms such as increased heart and respiratory rates, muscle tension, and diaphoresis (Duffy, 1962;Lindsley, 1951) may likely be interpreted as anxiety and result in heightened, self-reported anxiety. ...
Thirty young, unmedicated, outpatient, depressed women were compared to an equal number of matching controls on a series of
neuropsychological tests purported to be sensitive to the executive functions. Specifically, the measures included the Design
Fluency Test, Hand Dynamometer tasks of grip strength, perseveration, and fatigue, the FAS Verbal Fluency Test, the Stroop
Color and Word Test, and the Trail Making Test (Parts A and B). Despite past research which has indicated anterior hemispheric
asymmetries and impaired neurocognitive performances in depressives, this research failed to identify any reliable differences
between depressed and nondepressed women on any of the neuropsychological measures. These results argue against the frequently
held stereotype that depressed individuals typically display impaired performances on neurocognitive tasks. Furthermore, since
the profile of the depressed sample appeared to differ significantly from past studies, a discussion is provided as to how
the characteristics of this group may have impacted the results. Implications of these findings for clinical practice and
future research are also provided.
... It is important to note that while these asymmetries are common, they are not as straightforward as is presented. Individual differences in lateralization of functions may exist based on handedness (Pauli, Wiedemann, & Nickola, 1999b), sex (Crews & Harrison, 1994), age (Alden, Harrison, Snyder, & Everhart, 1997), or personality characteristics (Compton & Weissman, 2002). Additionally, while each division is functionally different, they are intimately connected via neural fibers and pathways. ...
Emotion and pain are psychological constructs that have received extensive attention in neuropsychological research. However, neuropsychological models of emotional processing have made more progress in describing how brain regions interact to process emotion. Theories of emotional processing can describe inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric interactions during emotional processing. Due to similarities between emotion and pain, it is thought that emotional models can be applied to pain. The following review examines the neuropsychology of emotion and pain using a functional cerebral systems approach. Specific comparisons are made between pain and anger. Attention is given to differences in cerebral function and physiology that may contribute to the processing of emotion and pain. Suggestions for future research in emotion and pain are given.
... In order to increase the homogeneity of variance, only men were recruited for participation. Although controversial, evidence suggests that sex differences in emotional processing (Crews & Harrison, 1994; Harrison, Gorelczenko, & Cook, 1990) may exist. ...
The current experiment examined the effects of hostility and a pain stressor on affective verbal learning. Participants were
classified as high or low hostile and randomly assigned to a cold pressor or a non-cold pressor group. The subsequent effects
on acquisition of the Auditory Affective Verbal Learning Test [AAVLT; Snyder, K. A., & Harrison, D. W. (1997). The Affective
Verbal Learning Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 12(5), 477–482] were measured.
As expected, high hostiles learned negative emotional words significantly better than they learned positive words. Additionally,
high hostiles were impaired in their acquisition of verbal material relative to low hostile participants. A significant primacy
effect for negative emotional words and an overall better recall of negative information was also found. These results support
the idea that high hostiles differ from low hostiles in a number of modalities and demonstrate the persistence of negative
emotional material. Future work should address the implications these results have on high hostiles in daily interactions.
Male and female brains differ. This difference can be demonstrated morphologically as well as biochemically; it implies differences in behavior. This is demonstrated on the basis of a survey of recent studies on animals and human beings. It is shown that even sexual orientations (homo-/heterosexuality) are reflected anatomically. It is nevertheless emphasized that only environmentally induced influences provide the final shaping of anatomical structures.
Interpersonal needs of the individual are the facilitator in the choice of his career.
Individual make such choices which gratifies his need. This paper focuses upon
the management students and their choice of electives. The sample size for the
study is 396 management students who are sub-grouped on the basis of gender,
category and the choice of electives. The research proves that the interpersonal
needs have impact on the choice of electives.
The asymmetrical breakdown of the blood–brain barrier to Evans-blue was studied in male and female rats during epileptiform seizures and in acute hypertension. The animals were divided into six groups. Group I: control female; Group II: control male; Group III: female+acute hypertension; Group IV: male+acute hypertension; Group V: female+seizure; Group VI: male+seizure. Asymmetric breakdown of the blood–brain barrier had been seen in female rats treated with pentylenetetrazol. Pentylenetetrazol-induced seizure produces less disruption of the blood–brain barrier in right cerebral hemisphere than in left cerebral hemisphere in female rats. There were no asymmetrical changes of blood–brain barrier permeability between the left and right hemispheres in acute hypertension in both sexes, and male rats treated with pentylenetetrazol.
In order to examine the neuropsychological effects of hostility on emotional and pain processing, auditory emotion perception before and after cold pressor pain in high and low hostile men was examined. Additionally, quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) was recorded between each experimental manipulation. Results indicated that identification of emotion post cold pressor differed as a function of hostility level and ear. Primary QEEG findings indicated increased left temporal activation after cold pressor exposure and increased reactivity to cold pressor pain in the high hostile group. Low hostile men had a bilateral increase in high beta magnitude at the temporal lobes and a bilateral increase in delta magnitude at the frontal lobes after the cold pressor. Taken together, results from the dichotic listening task and the QEEG suggest decreased cerebral laterality and left hemisphere activation for emotional and pain processing in high hostile men.
Two studies are presented that evaluate emotion recognition accuracy and interpretative processing of facial expressions in relation to depressive symptoms in women. Dysphoric women more often attributed themselves as the cause of negative expressions, more often made negative interpretations of others’ thoughts, and had more negative thoughts about themselves when viewing facial expressions. However, dysphoric women were not less accurate or rapid in recognizing facial expressions. An integrative model, the “levels of self-processing view,” is discussed as a synthesis of the results across studies. Limitations of the current studies and future research directions are discussed.
Regulatory control of emotions and expressive fluency (verbal or design) have historically been associated with the frontal lobes. Moreover, research has demonstrated the importance of cerebral laterality with a prominent role of the right frontal regions in the regulation of negative affect (anger, hostility) and in the fluent production of designs rather than verbal fluency. In the present research, participants identified with high and with low levels of hostility were evaluated on a design fluency test twice in one experimental session. Before the second administration of the fluency test, each participant underwent physiological (cold pressor) stress. It was hypothesized that diminished right frontal capacity in high-hostile men would be evident through lowered performance on this cognitive stressor. Convergent validity of the capacity model was supported wherein high-hostile men evidenced reduced delta magnitude over the right frontal region after exposure to the physiological stressor but failed to maintain consistent levels of right cerebral activation across conditions. The results suggest an inability for high-hostile men to maintain stable levels of cerebral activation after exposure to physiological and cognitive stress. Moreover, low-hostiles showed enhanced cognitive performance on the design task with lower levels of arousal (heightened delta magnitude). In contrast, reduced arousal yielded increased executive deficits in high-hostiles as evidenced through increased perseverative errors on the design fluency task.
Persons with elevated blood pressure (BP) show dampened emotional responses to affect-laden stimuli. We sought to further examine cardiovascular-emotional dampening by examination of the relationship between resting hemodynamic measures and recognition of emotion in an African American community-based sample.
Participants were 106 African American men and women (55 women; mean age = 52.8 years), mainly low in socioeconomic status, and part of the Healthy Aging in Nationally Diverse Longitudinal Samples pilot study. Participants evaluated emotional expressions in faces and sentences using the Perception of Affect Test (PAT). Resting BP, total peripheral resistance (TPR), cardiac output, and heart rate were obtained continuously using a Portapres BP monitor.
Total PAT scores were inversely related to systolic (r = -0.30) and diastolic (r = -0.24) BPs, TPR (r = -0.36), and age (r = -0.31; p values < .01) and were positively related to cardiac output (r = 0.27) and education (r = 0.38; p values < .01), as well as with mental state (r = 0.25) and body mass index (r = -0.20; p values < .05). Accuracy of emotion recognition on the PAT tasks remained inversely related to TPR and BP after adjustment for demographic variables, medication, mental state, and body mass index.
Elevated BP and TPR were associated with reduced perception of affect. TPR was the most consistent independent hemodynamic correlate of emotional dampening for the PAT scores. These results suggest potentially important links among central nervous system regulation of emotions, hemodynamic processes, and hypertension development.
Behavioral and physiological correlates of hostility, such as cardiovascular lability and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, are vital when considering the possible health risks associated with high levels of hostility (Henry & Meehan, 1981; Matthew & Haynes, 1986; Johnson, 1990; Heller, 1993; Heilman, Bowers, & Valenstein, 1993; Demaree & Harrison, 1997; Demaree Harrison, & Rhodes, 2000; and Shenal & Harrison, 2001). By examining this issue through a functional cerebral systems approach, one is better able to conceptualize changes that occur when men with extreme hostility levels (e.g. high and low) carry out emotional regulation tasks. High and low hostile groups have been shown to differ in their auditory, visual, somatosensory, and motor processes. Moreover, they differ in lateralized cerebral functions within these modalities where high hostiles have shown a right cerebral/ negative affective bias while low hostiles have shown a left cerebral/ positive affective bias in perception and in motor functions to stress. Right cerebral activation in high hostiles has occurred with heightened reactivity and persistence in sympathetic tone and with cardiovascular changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and Galvanic skin response. System requirements: PC, World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. Available electronically via Internet. Title from electronic submission form. Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2004. Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.
This study was designed to replicate and extend past research examining the impact of the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5HTTLPR) on neural activation during emotional processing. Six women with at least one short allele were compared to six age-matched women with long/long alleles of the 5HTTLPR. Participants were shown 36 positive and 36 negative slides from the International Affective Picture Set, while functional images were acquired using a 4-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Although we were unable to replicate past research demonstrating relatively increased amygdala activation among individuals with an "s" allele to negative stimuli, women with an s allele evidenced decreased left fusiform gyrus activation to positive emotional stimuli (as expected). We suggest that women with a short allele may be either less attentive or less "expert" with regard to positive emotional stimuli, and ideas for future research are presented.
The hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere declines more quickly than the left cerebral hemisphere in the normal aging process was tested using accuracy and intensity measures in a facial recognition test and using response time and response bias measures in a tachistoscopic paradigm. Elderly and younger men and women (N = 60) participated in both experiments. Experiment 1 required facial affect identification and intensity ratings of 50 standardized photographs of 5 affective categories: Happy, Neutral, Sad, Angry, and Fearful. The elderly were significantly less accurate in identifying facial affective valence. This effect was found using negative and neutral expressions. Results for happy expressions, however, were consistent with the younger group. In Experiment 2, age differences in hemispheric asymmetry were evaluated using presentation of affective faces in each visual field. Following prolonged experience with the affective stimuli during Experiment 1, the elderly showed heightened cerebral asymmetry for facial affect processing compared to the younger group. Both groups showed a positive affective bias to neutral stimuli presented to the left hemisphere. Elderly and younger subjects scored significantly higher on Vocabulary and Block Design subtests of the WAIS-R, respectively. Overall, the findings suggest that the elderly have more difficulty processing negative affect, while their ability to process positive affect remains intact. The results lend only partial support to the right hemi-aging hypothesis.
40 right-handed women, half of whom had been classified with depressed mood and the other half as nondepressed, participated in a tachistoscopic study of the influence of depressed mood on the cerebral hemispheric processing of Ekman and Friesen's 1976 happy, sad, and neutral emotional faces using a forced-choice reaction-time paradigm with only happy and sad alternatives as response manipulanda. The women with depressed mood were also characterized by elevated scores on both state and trait anxiety, suggestive of an anxious-depressive state with heightened arousal. Primary findings for the tachistoscopic data indicated that women with depressed mood as compared to nondepressed women displayed significantly faster reaction times to sad faces presented in the right visual field and happy faces presented in the left visual field. These results are suggestive of differential arousal of both the left and right cerebral hemispheres in this sample of anxious-depressed women and are discussed in light of arousal theory.
Thirty-five prepubertal children, 17 boys and 18 girls, between the ages of 8 and 11 years, were studied to examine electrophysiological and cognitive sex differences during a face-recognition-memory (FRM) task and a facial-affect-identification task (FAIT). All participants were prepubertal, as determined by J. M. Tanner's (1962) staging and endocrine evaluation. Sex-dependent event-related potential (ERP) amplitude asymmetries were found during FRM. Boys displayed greater right versus left ERP amplitude to auditory tone probes during the task, whereas girls displayed the opposite pattern. In addition, positive correlations were obtained between ERP amplitude during FRM and FAIT accuracy scores for boys, but not for girls. Results suggest that girls and boys may use different neuronal systems in the processing of faces and facial affect. Findings are consistent with developmental theories regarding sex differences in visuospatial processing.
The effects of hostility and a cold pressor stressor on the accuracy of facial affect perception were examined in the present experiment. A mechanism whereby physiological arousal level is mediated by systems which also mediate accuracy of an individual's interpretation of affective cues is described. Right-handed participants were classified as high hostile (N = 28) or low hostile (N = 28) using the Cook Medley Hostility Scale. The high-hostile group met joint selection criteria. Only high-hostile participants who showed cardiovascular reactivity to the cold pressor, with systolic BP change exceeding the group mean were included. Groups were further subdivided into cold pressor and non-cold pressor test conditions. It was predicted that high-hostile men, relative to low-hostile men, would show decreased perceptual accuracy when presented with happy, angry, and neutral facial configurations within the left visual field (LVF). Results indicated that high-hostile men were less accurate than low-hostile men in the LVF. Further, pre-stress accuracy scores in the high-hostile men were similar to the post-stress accuracy scores of the low-hostile men. The lateralization of affective function and the role of physiological arousal in affective facial perception are discussed.
A self-report battery for the assessment of hand, eye, foot and ear preference, which has been validated against behavioral tasks designed to measure the same four types of laterality, is presented. Data showing the concordance between the inventory and the behavioral tests for a sample of 171 individuals is given. The mean degree of concordance between the behavioral and the questionnaire items was 90%. Additional analyses revealed that both forms of measurement provide similar descriptions of both individual and population lateral preference patterns. This report offers the questionnaire battery as a convenient and useful tool for the measurement of the four most common indices of laterality.
The influence of cerebral asymmetry in the perception of affect on Type A behaviour was examined. Twenty-five men and 25 women classified as Type A or Type B, using the Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS) and the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (CMHO), participated. Subjects were required to identify the facial affect depicted in Ekman and Friesen's (1978) angry, happy, and neutral stimuli using a forced-choice reaction-time paradigm with only angry or happy alternatives signified by the respective response manipulanda. Stimuli were presented within the left or right visual fields tachistoscopically. The results showed faster affect perception by right hemisphere (LVF), hemispheric differences related to affective valence, and sex differences in affect asymmetry. Type A and Type B groups differed in the forced identification of neutral stimuli revealing affective bias but not processing speed differences on this perceptual task.
Twenty-six right-hand-dominant women and 26 right-hand-dominant men were required to identify the facial affective expression of Ekman and Friesen's (1978) angry, happy, and neutral stimuli using a forced-choice reaction-time paradigm with only angry or happy alternatives signified by the respective response manipulanda. Stimuli were presented within the left or right visual fields to provide additional data on sex differences in the lateralized processing of facial affective stimuli. The results supported the hypothesis of greater laterality among men with equivalent response times for women and men to stimuli within the right but not the left visual fields. Men were significantly faster in processing affective facial information within the left visual field. The results also indicated that differential rates of learning occur in affective tachistoscope tasks for happy and angry stimuli. Thus, opposite conclusions may be derived from procedural differences among studies in the number of identification trials employed.
• Evidence from psychiatric patients has suggested that depressive affect may coincide with a decrement in the functioning of the right cerebral hemisphere. We have observed that college students who reported greater depression also reported less vivid imagery. Students undergoing experimental induction of depressive and euphoric moods in the laboratory showed an auditory attentional bias and impaired imagery during the depression condition, while their arithmetic task performance was unchanged. A second mood-induction experiment indicated a depressed mood to be characterized by asymmetrical EEG activation over the frontal lobes, with relatively greater activity in the right frontal region. These observations suggest that anterior regions of the brain may modulate the differential effects of emotional arousal on the information-processing capacities of the cerebral hemispheres.
A systematic study was made of emotional reactions in 150 cases of unilateral cerebral lesions, 80 left-sided and 70 right-sided. The incidence of catastrophic reactions was found to be significantly higher in the group with left-sided lesions (Chi2=13.8 p greater than 0.01) while indifference reactions were significantly more frequent in the group with right-sided lesions (Chi2=9.6 p greater than 0.01). Anatomical and clinical data support the hypothesis that catastrophic reactions are closely related both to defects in verbal communication and to lesions producing severe grades of disability. Indifference reactions on the other hand are highly correlated with neglect phenomena for the opposite side of the body and of extra-personal space. Some implications of these results are discussed.
Dual functional brain asymmetry refers to the notion that in most individuals the left cerebral hemisphere is specialized for language functions, whereas the right cerebral hemisphere is more important than the left for the perception, construction, and recall of stimuli that are difficult to verbalize. In the last twenty years there have been scattered reports of sex differences in degree of hemispheric specialization. This review provides a critical framework within which two related topics are discussed: Do meaningful sex differences in verbal or spatial cerebral lateralization exist? and, if so, Is the brain of one sex more symmetrically organized than the other? Data gathered on right-handed adults are examined from clinical studies of patients with unilateral brain lesions; from dichotic listening, tachistoscopic, and sensorimotor studies of functional asymmetries in non-brain-damaged subjects; from anatomical and electrophysiological investigations, as well as from the developmental literature. Retrospective and descriptive findings predominate over prospective and experimental methodologies. Nevertheless, there is an impressive accummulation of evidence suggesting that the male brain may be more asymmetrically organized than the female brain, both for verbal and nonverbal functions. These trends are rarely found in childhood but are often significant in the mature organism.
On gross examination the two cerebral hemispheres in man appear to be symmetrical. Under more detailed examination, using the various interdisciplinary tools available to the neuroscientist, left-right asymmetries are very apparent. In this article, the functional differences between the two hemispheres are discussed with particular reference to the processing of visual or auditory information coming into the brain, and to the control of language and speech going out.
Nine depressed patients received ECT to the dominant (left) side along with nine matched depressed patients who received ECT to the non-dominant (right) side. Neuropsychological tests showed that the right hemispheric functions were more frequently abnormal as compared to left hemispheric (dominant) functions in the pre-ECT tests. ECTs delivered to either the right or left side improved right hemispheric functions when the depression was ameliorated. This study indicates that in depression right hemispheric functions are initially disturbed and ECT, instead of being deleterious to these functions, tends to improve them.
This report investigated differential cerebral impairment on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery in schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and depressive disorders (N = 106). Results indicated impaired tactile-stereognostic processing in schizoaffective and depressive disorder patients and verbal memory deficits in the schizophrenic and schizoaffective disorder patients. These findings question the specificity of functional neuropsychological deficit areas in schizophrenia and depression.
This study was designed to investigate hemispheric asymmetries in the perception of both positive and negative emotion, while minimizing extraneous factors known to favour right hemisphere processes. Pairs of faces (happy-neutral or sad-neutral) were presented, one to each visual field, and subjects responded to the face that made them feel either better or worse. Performance was superior when the emotional faces were presented to the left visual field-right hemisphere. This occurred in both the better and the worse conditions, and for both sexes. Indeed, the data indicate that all emotional stimuli were being processed by the right hemisphere, and that the effect for emotional faces is due to the expressions and not merely the faces themselves.
Several lines of inquiry provide converging evidence for a critical role for the right cerebral hemisphere in negative affective experiences. This research includes the assessment of affective consequences of both focal cerebral lesions and pharmacological inactivation of one or the other hemisphere, as well as experimental and physiological techniques assessing differential hemispheric activation. The specific nature of right hemispheric involvement is conceptualized as a tendency to become activated by aversive experiences, and once activated, to process stimuli in a manner consistent with the right hemisphere's more negative affective tone. A theory of right hemisphere involvement in depressive affect is presented in detail and its relevance to clinical phenomena, e.g., the co-occurrence of depression and pain, and sex differences in depression, is examined, as is congruence with cognitive theories of depression.
Two groups of left (N = 80) and right (N = 80) brain-damaged patients were given a battery of neuropsychological tests, with the aim of carrying out a detailed analysis of their emotional reactions in front of failures. Behaviors denoting a catastrophic reaction , or indicating an anxious-depressive orientation of mood (anxiety reactions, bursts of tears, vocative utterances, depressed renouncements or sharp refusals to go on with the examination) were found to be statistically more frequent among left brain-damaged patients. On the contrary, symptoms denoting an opposite emotional reaction (anosognosia, minimization, indifference reactions and tendency to joke) and expressions of hate toward the paralyzed limbs were found to be significantly more frequent among patients suffering from a lesion of the minor hemisphere. The depressivecatastrophic reactions of the left brain-damaged patients were found chiefly in subjects with severe aphasia, and appeared generally after repeated failures in verbal communication. They seemed due, as Goldstein argued, to the desperate reaction of the organism, confronted with a task that it cannot face.
Two experiments are described in which simple reaction times (RTs) to lateralized visual stimuli were measured in normal subjects during negative affect and during recollection of everyday life scenes. In both experiments the mental activity produced a remarkable increase of RTs with respect to a control situation without interfering activity. During production of the negative affect there was a selective lengthening of RTs mediated by the right hemisphere. The role of the right hemisphere in producing emotions is discussed.
High vs. low scorers on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were compared on measures of resting EEG activation asymmetry from frontal and parietal brain regions. Depressed subjects showed greater relative right frontal activation compared with nondepressed subjects. Parietal asymmetry did not distinguish between the groups. These data support the hypothesis of right hemisphere hyperactivation in the frontal region of depressed individuals and are consistent with the growing body of literature which suggests that the left and right frontal regions may be differentially specialized for particular positive and negative affects.
Right-handers and inverted and non-inverted left-handers viewed emotional expressions in one hemifield and, simultaneously, a neutral expression of the same poser in the other hemifield. Subjects were required to identify the side containing the affective face. Happy faces with open (i.e. salient) and closed mouth smiles and sad faces were used as stimuli. For right-handers and inverters reaction time was faster to right hemifield presentations for happy faces and to left hemifield presentations for sad faces. Non-inverters showed the reverse pattern. The saliency of the happy expressions had no effect on the magnitude and direction of asymmetry for any group. The data support the hypothesis of differential hemispheric specialization for positive and negative emotion and demonstrate opposite patterns of asymmetry in affect perception for inverted and non-inverted left-handers.
Evidence from psychiatric patients has suggested that depressive affect may coincide with a decrement in the functioning of the right cerebral hemisphere. We have observed that college students who reported greater depression also reported less vivid imagery. Students undergoing experimental induction of depressive and euphoric moods in the laboratory showed an auditory attentional bias and impaired imagery during the depression condition, while their arithmetic task performance was unchanged. A second mood-induction experiment indicated a depressed mood to be characterized by asymmetrical EEG activation over the frontal lobes, with relatively greater activity in the right frontal region. These observations suggest that anterior regions of the brain may modulate the differential effects of emotional arousal on the information-processing capacities of the cerebral hemispheres.
Sixty-four subjects, divided into four groups according to sex and type of memorization instruction, were given a manual RT task requiring discrimination of two memorized from two nonmemorized faces. Two types of memorization were employed, one emphasizing highly negative affective imagery about the faces being memorized (extreme sadness), the other relatively neutral imagery (feeling composed). Females in the affective imagery group were predicted to show left-visual-field superiority (LVFS), while females employing neutral imagery were not. Males were predicted to show LVFS regardless of imagery type because of their presumed strong right-hemispheric dominance for visual-spatial functions. Predictions were accurate for females; neither group of males showed significant LVFS. Post-experimental semantic differential ratings of the emotionality of the memorized faces showed that LVFS existed for faces rated as emotional, but not for faces rated as nonemotional. This effect was common to the sexes. Results indicate that right-hemispheric memory storage of faces can be induced in females through affective imagery and in both sexes via idiosyncratically perceived emotionality in the face stimuli. This effect of affectivity cannot be attributed to visual-spatial dominannce of the right hemisphere.
Emotional and neutral facial expressions of the same individual were presented simultaneously, one to each visual field, and subjects were required to identify the side containing the affective face. Reaction time was faster to right vs left visual field presentations when the expression was happy and vice versa when it was sad. The data support the hypothesis of differential hemispheric specialization for positive and negative emotion.RésuméOn a présenté simultanément à des sujets des expressions émotionnelles et neutres sur des représentations du même individu en leur demandant d'identifier le côté de la face avec modification affective. Les temps de réaction étaient plus courts pour les présentations dans l'hémichamp droit lorsque l'expression traduisait la joie et vice-versa lorsqu'elle traduisait la tristesse. Ces données sont en faveur de l'hypothése selon laquelle il existe une spécialisation hémisphérique préférentielle pour les émotions positives et négatives.ZusammenfassungGefühlsbetonter und neutraler Gesichtsausdruck der verschiedenen Art eines Individuums wurden gleichzeitig dargeboten, und die Versuchspersonen sollten die Seite identifizieren, welche den gefühlsbeladenen Gesichtsausdruck trug. Die Reaktionszeit war schneller von Darbietungen im rechten zum linken Gesichtsfeld, wenn der Gesichtsausdruck glücklich war und umgekehrt, wenn er traurig war. Diese Ergebnisse unterstützen die Hypothese einer differentiellen hemisphärischen Spezialisierung für positive und negative Emotionen.
Cerebral asymmetry and emotion: Developmental and individual differences
- R J Davidson
- N A Fox
DAVIDSON, R. J., & Fox, N. A. (1988). Cerebral asymmetry and emotion: Developmental and individual differences. In D. L. Molfese &
S. J. Segalowitz (Eds.), Brain loteralization in children: Developmental
considerations. New York: Guilford.