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Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task

Major theories of hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing predict right hemisphere dominance for negative facial expressions of disgust, fear, and sadness, however, some studies observe left hemisphere dominance for one or more of these expressions. Research suggests that tasks requir...

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Autor principal: Burgund, E. Darcy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8484516/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34602999
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.742018
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author Burgund, E. Darcy
author_facet Burgund, E. Darcy
author_sort Burgund, E. Darcy
collection PubMed
description Major theories of hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing predict right hemisphere dominance for negative facial expressions of disgust, fear, and sadness, however, some studies observe left hemisphere dominance for one or more of these expressions. Research suggests that tasks requiring the identification of six basic emotional facial expressions (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, and surprised) are more likely to produce left hemisphere involvement than tasks that do not require expression identification. The present research investigated this possibility in two experiments that presented six basic emotional facial expressions to the right or left hemisphere using a divided-visual field paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants identified emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to one of six labels. In Experiment 2, participants detected emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to whether an expression was emotional or not. In line with predictions, fearful facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the identification task but not during the detection task. In contrast to predictions, sad expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during both identification and detection tasks. In addition, happy facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the detection task but not during the identification task. Only angry facial expressions exhibited a right hemisphere advantage, and this was only observed when data from both experiments were combined. Together, results highlight the influence of task demands on hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing and suggest a greater role for the left hemisphere in negative expressions than predicted by previous theories.
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spelling pubmed-84845162021-10-02 Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task Burgund, E. Darcy Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Major theories of hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing predict right hemisphere dominance for negative facial expressions of disgust, fear, and sadness, however, some studies observe left hemisphere dominance for one or more of these expressions. Research suggests that tasks requiring the identification of six basic emotional facial expressions (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, and surprised) are more likely to produce left hemisphere involvement than tasks that do not require expression identification. The present research investigated this possibility in two experiments that presented six basic emotional facial expressions to the right or left hemisphere using a divided-visual field paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants identified emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to one of six labels. In Experiment 2, participants detected emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to whether an expression was emotional or not. In line with predictions, fearful facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the identification task but not during the detection task. In contrast to predictions, sad expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during both identification and detection tasks. In addition, happy facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the detection task but not during the identification task. Only angry facial expressions exhibited a right hemisphere advantage, and this was only observed when data from both experiments were combined. Together, results highlight the influence of task demands on hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing and suggest a greater role for the left hemisphere in negative expressions than predicted by previous theories. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8484516/ /pubmed/34602999 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.742018 Text en Copyright © 2021 Burgund. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Burgund, E. Darcy
Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title_full Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title_fullStr Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title_full_unstemmed Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title_short Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task
title_sort left hemisphere dominance for negative facial expressions: the influence of task
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8484516/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34602999
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.742018
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