[Hemispheric functional specialization and anxiety. Focus on an evaluation procedure]

Observations of brain-lesioned patients and experimental psychology studies have shown that the influence of the specific functioning of the two hemispheres of the brain on the regulation of emotional behaviour appears to be unequal and suggests a functional specialization of the right hemisphere for the expression and comprehension of the affective components of behaviour. However, the extension of this hypothesis to include all emotional experiences remains controversial. The observed superiority of the left hemisphere in the perception of positive emotions and the predominance of the right hemisphere in the treatment of negative emotions would appear to favour a joint and complementary participation of both cerebral hemispheres in emotional experiences. In the case of affective disorders, and particularly in anxiety symptoms, the hypothesis of a dysfunctioning of the right hemisphere is similarly questioned: while all metabolic studies corroborate this hypothesis, experimental psychological studies suggest the existence of a preferential involvement of one or the other hemisphere in relation to individual differences such as the "trait" anxiety score. Moreover, the few studies which have been undertaken with healthy volunteers raise the problem of their extrapolation to pathological situations. In view of the potential interest in the neuropsychological evaluations of subjects with different forms of pathological anxiety, we have developed an experimented with two tests aimed at evaluating the differential activity of the two hemispheres of the brain. These two tests, constructed on a "mirror-image" model from the specifications of a functional hemispheric specialization, are supposed to involve cognitive strategies pinpointing preferentially one hemisphere or the other.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)