Considering Hemispheric Specialization in Emotional Face Processing: An Eye Tracking Study in Left- and Right-Lateralised Semantic Dementia

Face processing relies on a network of occipito-temporal and frontal brain regions. Temporal regions are heavily involved in looking at and processing emotional faces; however, the contribution of each hemisphere to this process remains under debate. Semantic dementia (SD) is a rare neurodegenerative brain condition characterized by anterior temporal lobe atrophy, which is either predominantly left- (left-SD) or right-lateralised (right-SD). This syndrome therefore provides a unique lesion model to understand the role of laterality in emotional face processing. Here, we investigated facial scanning patterns in 10 left-SD and 6 right-SD patients, compared to 22 healthy controls. Eye tracking was recorded via a remote EyeLink 1000 system, while participants passively viewed fearful, happy, and neutral faces over 72 trials. Analyses revealed that right-SD patients had more fixations to the eyes than controls in the Fear (p = 0.04) condition only. Right-SD patients also showed more fixations to the eyes than left-SD patients in all conditions: Fear (p = 0.01), Happy (p = 0.008), and Neutral (p = 0.04). In contrast, no differences between controls and left-SD patients were observed for any emotion. No group differences were observed for fixations to the mouth, or the whole face. This study is the first to examine patterns of facial scanning in left- versus right- SD, demonstrating more of a focus on the eyes in right-SD. Neuroimaging analyses showed that degradation of the right superior temporal sulcus was associated with increased fixations to the eyes. Together these results suggest that right lateralised brain regions of the face processing network are involved in the ability to efficiently utilise changeable cues from the face.