Emotion-Attention Interaction in the Right Hemisphere

Abstract

Hemispheric asymmetries in affective and cognitive functions have been extensively studied. While both cerebral hemispheres contribute to most affective and cognitive processes, neuroscientific literature and neuropsychological evidence support an overall right hemispheric dominance for emotion, attention and arousal. Emotional stimuli, especially those with survival value such as threat, tend to be prioritized in attentional resource competition. Arousing unpleasant emotional stimuli have prioritized access, especially to right-lateralized attention networks. Interference of task performance may be observed when limited resources are exhausted by task- and emotion-related processing. Tasks that rely on right hemisphere-dependent processing, like attending to the left visual hemifield or global-level visual features, are especially vulnerable to interference due to attention capture by unpleasant emotional stimuli. The aim of this review is to present literature regarding the special role of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional brain processes and their interaction. Furthermore, clinical and technological implications of this interaction will be presented. Initially, the effects of focal right hemisphere lesion or atrophy on emotional functions will be introduced. Neurological right hemisphere syndromes including aprosodia, anosognosia and neglect, which further point to the predominance of the intact right hemisphere in emotion, attention and arousal will be presented. Then there will be a brief review of electrophysiological evidence, as well as evidence from patients with neglect that support attention capture by emotional stimuli in the right hemisphere. Subsequently, experimental work on the interaction of emotion, attention and cognition in the right hemispheres of healthy subjects will be presented. Finally, clinical implications for better understanding and assessment of alterations in emotion–attention interaction due to brain disorder or treatment, such as neuromodulation, that impact affective brain functions will be discussed. It will be suggested that measuring right hemispheric emotion–attention interactions may provide basis for novel biomarkers of brain health. Such biomarkers allow for improved diagnostics in brain damage and disorders and optimized treatments. To conclude, future technological applications will be outlined regarding brain physiology-based measures that reflect engagement of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional processes.

Emotions and the Right Hemisphere: Editorial

“…Very similar positions are defended by Hartikainen [ 10 ], who reviews data showing that arousing emotional stimuli have prioritized access to right lateralized attention networks and that the right hemisphere ventral attention system is involved in shifting attention to salient stimuli. For this reason, in the right hemisphere, unattended emotional stimuli tend to be favored in attentional resource competition at the expense of task-relevant stimuli leading to interference in task performance.…”

“…It must also be noted that data reviewed by Ladavas and Bertini [ 9 ] and by Hartikainen [ 10 ], which stress the associations within the right hemisphere between emotional and attention-orienting mechanisms, are consistent with models (e.g., [ 12 ]) which assume that intrinsic links must exist between orienting and emotional mechanisms, because the capture of attention by possible sources of threat is usually the first step of the sequence of events that leads to the generation of the corresponding emotion.…”

Self-Conscious Emotions and the Right Fronto-Temporal and Right Temporal Parietal Junction

“…Given that the right hemisphere is involved in numerous evolved emotional functions including negative affective stimuli processing [ 75 , 76 , 77 ], it is tempting to think that negative self-related cognitive activity has little to do with the self and much to do with negativity [ 78 ]. However, negative emotions that are self-related appear to ‘act’ similar to positive self-emotions (i.e., pride) in that we see almost identical regions of activation [ 79 ].…”

Aberrant Structural Connectivity of the Triple Network System in Borderline Personality Disorder Is Associated with Behavioral Dysregulation

“…As concerns the ECN, SC impairments emerged in BPD non-attempters and in BPD with self-harm and aggressive behaviors. Emotional stimuli processing, irrespectively of the valence, generally engage the right hemisphere, where the emotional and attentional cognitive systems interact to select the correct response to the context [ 64 ]. In our sample, the right lateralization of SC impairment probably accounts for a general impairment of emotion processing in BPD non-attempters [ 14 , 15 ].…”