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Published on: November 16, 2017
Laterality effect on emotional faces processing: ALE meta-analysis of evidence
P Fusar-Poli1, A Placentino, F Carletti
1Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom. p.fusar@libero.it
Neuroscience Letters
|April 8, 2009
Summary
This study found no evidence for overall right-hemisphere dominance in processing facial emotions. However, negative emotions showed specific brain lateralization in the left amygdala, challenging existing theories.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Brain Imaging
Background:
- Facial emotion recognition involves complex psychological processes and numerous neural structures.
- Two prominent theories, the Right-Hemisphere Hypothesis (RHH) and Valence-Specific Hypothesis (VSH), propose different models for the cerebral lateralization of emotional perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the validity of the RHH and VSH by conducting a large-scale meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies.
- To investigate the neural underpinnings of emotional perception and its lateralization in the human brain.
Main Methods:
- A comprehensive literature search of PubMed (1990-May 2008) identified 105 relevant fMRI studies on emotional faces paradigms in healthy volunteers.
- A voxel-based meta-analysis was performed on data from 1600 participants, yielding 1785 brain coordinates.
Main Results:
- No overall right-lateralization of emotional processing was observed.
- Bilateral activation was found in multiple brain regions, including the amygdala, fusiform gyrus, and prefrontal cortex, across all emotional conditions.
- Negative emotion processing demonstrated valence-specific lateralization, with activation in the left amygdala.
- Significant interactions between approach/avoidance dimensions and prefrontal cortex responses were identified.
Conclusions:
- The findings do not support a general right-hemisphere hypothesis for emotional perception.
- Evidence suggests a more nuanced model where emotional processing is largely bilateral, with specific lateralization observed for negative emotions in the amygdala.
- The study highlights the complex neural network involved in emotion recognition and provides insights into the lateralization of emotional processing based on valence and behavioral dimensions.
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