Emotion and space: lateralized emotional word detection depends on line bisection bias

Abstract

Emotion and space: lateralized emotional word detection depends on line bisection bias Tamagni, C; Mantei, T; Brugger, P There is converging evidence, from various independent areas of neuroscience, for a functional specialization of the left and right cerebral hemispheres for positive and negative emotions, respectively ("valence theory" of emotional processing). One subfield, however, has produced mixed results, i.e. work on the detection of parafoveally presented positively or negatively emotional words by healthy subjects. Right or left visual field advantages were described and interpreted as reflecting the superiority of either the left hemisphere (LH) for linguistic material, or of the right hemisphere (RH) for highly emotional stimuli. Here we show that 48 healthy, right-handed participants' performance on a lateralized lexical decision task depends on their individual inclination to bisect a line to the left or right of the objective center. Only those with a bisection bias to the right showed the LH advantage for word detection known from the neuropsychological literature. Negative emotional words were processed with comparable accuracy in the two visual fields. However, a recognition advantage for negative over positive emotional words was found exclusively for those participants with a leftward line bisection bias. These results suggest that in work on functional hemispheric differences state variables like stimulus lateralization and word emotionality may be less decisive than the trait variable of lateral hemispatial attention. We propose a cautious reconsideration of the concept of "hemisphericity," which once emphasized individual differences in baseline hemispheric arousal, but was later dismissed in a reaction to oversimplifications in popular science accounts. AbstractThere is converging evidence, from various independent areas of neuroscience, for a

Representational pseudoneglect and reference points both influence geographic location estimates

“…Evidence for such affect-triggered implicit knowledge has been reported in the clinical literature (Marshall & Halligan, 1988), and emotional cues can also shift the perceived midpoints of lines for healthy individuals (Mohr & Leonards, 2007). The quantitative method introduced here may encourage a more in-depth exploration of the interactions between emotions and space more generally (Tamagni, Mantei, & Brugger, 2009). In addition, recognition of reference point biases may enrich knowledge about both the behavioral neurology of the neglect syndrome and the processes underlying spatial location estimates.…”

The relationship between line bisection performance and emotion processing: Where do you draw the line?

“…Because line bisection and emotion processing both involve the right temporoparietal region, some have suggested that these activities may be related (e.g., Drago et al, 2008;Foster et al, 2008). Support for this idea has been found when line bisection performance was treated as a trait-like indicator of general spatial-attentional ability Tamagni, Mantei, & Brugger, 2009). Relevant to the present study, Drago et al grouped participants based on line bisection accuracy in order to examine how visuospatial attention related to emotion processing.…”

A Systematic Review on the Interaction between Emotion and Pseudoneglect

“…Four studies investigated whether the presentation of emotional words with positive and negative valence modulated the performance on the perceptual line bisection and landmark task. Of these, one study reported that emotional words enhance the rightward bias [31], one reported that negative words attenuate the rightward bias [32], one study reported that emotional words enhance the leftward bias [29], and one reported a positive relationship between the detection of negative words and leftward bias [33].…”