Hemispheric interaction, task complexity, and emotional valence: Evidence from naturalistic images

Hughes, Andrew J.; Rutherford, Barbara J.

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2012.11.004

Cited by 8 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…While neuroscientific contributions have been and will continue to be enormous, additional behavioral studies that utilize methodologies more complex than identification of laterally presented faces will enable a clearer understanding of the different competencies of the hemispheres during the normal course of emotion processing and generation of affective experience. For example, Hughes and Rutherford (2013) presented images from the International Affective Picture System (IAP, Lang et al, 2008) to the left or right visual fields as distractors while a central image was responded to by the non-distracted hemisphere. This technique could be applied to commonly used emotional stimuli, such as facial expressions.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent and Collaborative Contributions of the Cerebral Hemispheres to Emotional Processing

Shobe

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Presented is a model suggesting that the right hemisphere (RH) directly mediates the identification and comprehension of positive and negative emotional stimuli, whereas the left hemisphere (LH) contributes to higher level processing of emotional information that has been shared via the corpus callosum. RH subcortical connections provide initial processing of emotional stimuli, and their innervation to cortical structures provides a secondary pathway by which the hemispheres process emotional information more fully. It is suggested that the LH contribution to emotion processing is in emotional regulation, social well-being, and adaptation, and transforming the RH emotional experience into propositional and verbal codes. Lastly, it is proposed that the LH has little ability at the level of emotion identification, having a default positive bias and no ability to identify a stimulus as negative. Instead, the LH must rely on the transfer of emotional information from the RH to engage higher-order emotional processing. As such, either hemisphere can identify positive emotions, but they must collaborate for complete processing of negative emotions. Evidence presented draws from behavioral, neurological, and clinical research, including discussions of subcortical and cortical pathways, callosal agenesis, commissurotomy, emotion regulation, mood disorders, interpersonal interaction, language, and handedness. Directions for future research are offered.

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Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent and Collaborative Contributions of the Cerebral Hemispheres to Emotional Processing

Shobe

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…In the present study, we employed the paradigm developed by Hughes and Rutherford (2013) to study relationships between alexithymia and the processing of static emotional scenes that do or do not depict IM. We expected that positive images would be easier to classify than negative images, overall, replicating findings of positivity biases in emotion perception (Zhao et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and the Evaluation of Emotionally Valenced Scenes

et al. 2020

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Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings (DIF and DDF) and an externally oriented thinking (EOT) style. The primary aim of the present study was to investigate links between alexithymia and the evaluation of emotional scenes. We also investigated whether viewers' evaluations of emotional scenes were better predicted by specific alexithymic traits or by individual differences in sensory processing sensitivity (SPS). Participants (N = 106) completed measures of alexithymia and SPS along with a task requiring speeded judgments of the pleasantness of 120 moderately arousing scenes. We did not replicate laterality effects previously described with the scene perception task. Compared to those with weak alexithymic traits, individuals with moderate-to-strong alexithymic traits were less likely to classify positively valenced scenes as pleasant and were less likely to classify scenes with (vs. without) implied motion (IM) in a way that was consistent with normative scene valence ratings. In addition, regression analyses confirmed that reporting strong EOT and a tendency to be easily overwhelmed by busy sensory environments negatively predicted classification accuracy for positive scenes, and that both DDF and EOT negatively predicted classification accuracy for scenes depicting IM. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for stimulus characteristics and individual differences in specific traits associated with alexithymia and SPS when investigating the processing of emotional stimuli. Learning more about the links between these individual difference variables may have significant clinical implications, given that alexithymia is an important, transdiagnostic risk factor for a wide range of psychopathologies.

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“…Second, there was no laterality in the response time or accuracy data, suggesting that both hemispheres were similarly competent at performing the task. Third, there was a cost to accuracy in the no distractor condition compared to the RVF distractor condition (RH processing of the target), converging with evidence suggesting that the cost of integrating information outweighs the gain from hemispheric interaction when a task is easy (Banich and Belger, 1990;Banich, 1992, 1998;Compton, 2002;Hughes and Rutherford, 2013;Koivisto, 2000), and with evidence showing greater facilitation in the RH than the LH in orthographic priming paradigms (Chiarello, 1985;Lavidor and Ellis, 2003;Marsolek et al, 1992Marsolek et al, , 1994. Fourth, the pattern of findings contrasts starkly with the pattern from Experiment 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…A question that follows is whether the competition reduces the contribution of the contralateral hemisphere to target processing or primes it. Reduced contribution is supported by the convergence of evidence from the procedure (Hughes and Rutherford, 2013;Rutherford and Lutz, 2004;Rutherford, 2006;Rutherford and Mathesius, 2012) with that from lateralized displays (Beeman, 1993;Beeman et al, 1994;Bloch and Zaidel, 1996;Burgess and Simpson, 1988;Chiarello, 1985;Koivisto, 1997;Lavidor and Ellis, 2003), and by evidence from seminal (Posner, 1980) and recent (Theeuwes et al, 2013) exogenous cuing paradigms. Exogenous cuing paradigms reveal that while facilitation to target processing can occur when a target follows an exogenous cue within a time window of approximately 50-200 ms, the target must appear in the same retinotopic coordinates of the cue (Posner, 1980) or be within the object that was cued, even if the object has moved (Theeuwes et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Hemispheric interaction, task complexity, and emotional valence: Evidence from naturalistic images

Cited by 8 publications

References 74 publications

Independent and Collaborative Contributions of the Cerebral Hemispheres to Emotional Processing

Independent and Collaborative Contributions of the Cerebral Hemispheres to Emotional Processing

Alexithymia and the Evaluation of Emotionally Valenced Scenes

List constituency and orthographic and phonological processing: A shift to high familiarity words from low familiarity words

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