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Men appear more lateralized when noticing emotion in male faces
1Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, Queen Mary University of London, UK. q.rahman@qmul.ac.uk
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|June 29, 2011
Summary
Men show greater brain lateralization for processing threat-related emotions in male faces compared to female faces. This sex difference in emotion processing is specific to the emotion and the sex of the face presented.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Sex differences in brain lateralization can confound emotion processing theories.
- Men may have an adaptive bias to detect threat cues in other male faces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how the sex of the poser and the emotion displayed affect cerebral lateralization in men and women.
- To analyze laterality quotient scores in response to chimeric faces displaying neutral and emotional expressions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a chimeric face test with vertically split halves (neutral vs. emotional expression).
- Analyzed laterality quotient (LQ) scores in 50 men and 44 women.
- Compared lateralization patterns based on the sex of the face poser and the emotion displayed.
Main Results:
- Men exhibited significantly higher lateralization for vigilance and threat emotions (happy, sad, angry, surprised) in male faces compared to female faces.
- Men's lateralization patterns differed from women's, particularly for male faces displaying threat-related emotions.
- Lateralization for facial emotion processing varied based on the sex of the poser and the specific emotion.
Conclusions:
- Sex differences in functional cerebral lateralization for facial emotion processing are not uniform.
- These differences appear specific to the emotion presented and the sex of the face presenting it.
- Findings challenge simple models of emotion lateralization and highlight the role of sex and threat detection.
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