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Updated: Apr 14, 2026

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
Published on: November 16, 2017
Hemispheric specialization in affective responses, cerebral dominance for language, and handedness: Lateralization of
Elsa Yolanda Costanzo1, Mirta Villarreal2, Lucas Javier Drucaroff3
1FLENI Psychiatry and Neuroimaging, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Mental Health (FLENI Teaching Unit), University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Neurophysiology, University of Buenos Aires School of Psychology, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract:
Hemispheric specialization in affective responses has received little attention in the literature. This is a fundamental variable to understand circuit dynamics of networks subserving emotion. In this study we put to test a modified "valence" hypothesis of emotion processing, considering that sadness and happiness are processed by each hemisphere in relation to dominance for language and handedness. Mood induction and language activation during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used in 20 right-handed and 20 nonright-handed subjects, focusing on interconnected regions known to play critical roles in affective responses: subgenual cingulate cortex, amygdala, and anterior insular cortex. We observed a consistent relationship between lateralization of affective processing, motor dexterity, and language in individuals with clear right-handedness. Sadness induces a greater activation of right-hemisphere cortical structures in right-handed, left-dominant individuals, which is not evident in nonright-handed subjects who show no consistent hemispheric dominance for language. In anterior insula, right-handed individuals displayed reciprocal activation of either hemisphere depending upon mood valence, whereas amygdala activation was predominantly left-sided regardless of mood valence. Nonright-handed individuals exhibited less consistent brain lateralization of affective processing regardless of language and motor dexterity lateralization. In contrast with traditional views on emotion processing lateralization, hemispheric specialization in affective responses is not a unitary process but is specific to the brain structure being activated.
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