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Right-hemisphere motor facilitation by self-descriptive personality-trait words
Istvan Molnar-Szakacs1, Lucina Q Uddin, Marco Iacoboni
1UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. imolnar@ucla.edu
The European Journal of Neuroscience
|May 5, 2005
Summary
The right hemisphere shows greater brain activity when processing self-descriptive words, suggesting a dominant role in self-related information processing. This finding supports the idea of modality-independent neural representations of the self.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
- Psychology
Background:
- Neural mechanisms for self-related information processing are complex.
- Evidence suggests modality-independent self-representations may favor the right hemisphere.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate hemispheric differences in processing self-descriptive personality-trait words.
- To assess cortical excitability using transcranial magnetic stimulation during reading tasks.
Main Methods:
- Focal, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to human subjects.
- Cortical excitability was measured during covert reading of self-descriptive words.
- Participants rated words on how self-characteristic they were ('never' to 'always').
Main Results:
- Personality-trait words induced significantly greater motor facilitation in the right hemisphere compared to the left.
- Words rated 'never' self-characteristic showed significant right hemisphere facilitation.
- Words rated 'always' self-characteristic exhibited a similar trend of right hemisphere facilitation.
Conclusions:
- The right hemisphere plays a dominant role in processing self-relevant information.
- Findings support the existence of modality-independent neural representations of the self.
- The right hemisphere may also be dominant in processing affective stimuli.