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Hemispheric asymmetry for affective stimulus processing in healthy subjects--a fMRI study
Esther Beraha1, Jonathan Eggers, Catherine Hindi Attar
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
Plos One
|October 12, 2012
Summary
Emotion processing shows region-specific brain lateralization. Positive stimuli engage the left medial prefrontal cortex, while negative stimuli involve right prefrontal areas and left amygdala, suggesting valence asymmetry.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Brain Imaging
Background:
- Hemispheric specialization for language is established, but emotion processing lateralization remains debated.
- Conflicting hypotheses (e.g., right hemisphere, valence asymmetry) exist, lacking conclusive experimental evidence.
- Scarcity of direct hemispheric comparisons hinders understanding of emotion lateralization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically investigate functional lateralization during affective stimulus processing using fMRI.
- To directly compare brain responses between hemispheres to resolve conflicting hypotheses.
- To identify region-specific patterns of emotion processing lateralization.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 36 healthy participants.
- Normalization to a symmetrical template to mitigate anatomical asymmetry effects.
- Region of interest (ROI) analysis and exploratory whole-brain analysis comparing non-flipped and flipped data.
Main Results:
- Positive stimuli: Leftward lateralization in medial prefrontal cortex (BA 10).
- Negative stimuli: Rightward lateralization in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9 & 46), leftward in amygdala and uncus.
- Whole-brain analysis confirmed ROI findings and revealed additional lateralizations in premotor cortex, temporo-occipital junction, temporo-parietal junction, and middle temporal gyrus.
Conclusions:
- Emotion processing exhibits region-specific functional lateralization.
- Valence asymmetry observed in prefrontal cortical areas.
- Negative stimulus processing is left-lateralized in subcortical regions, notably the amygdala and uncus.
