Laterality effect on emotional faces processing: ALE meta-analysis of evidence

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2009.01.065

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 452, Issue 3, 20 March 2009, Pages 262-267

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2009.01.065 Get rights and content

Abstract

Recognizing emotion from facial expressions draws on diverse psychological processes implemented in a large array of neural structures. Two major theories of cerebral lateralization of emotional perception have been proposed: (i) the Right-Hemisphere Hypothesis (RHH) and (ii) the Valence-Specific Hypothesis (VSH). To test these lateralization models we conducted a large voxel-based meta-analysis of current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies employing emotional faces paradigms in healthy volunteers. Two independent researchers conducted separate comprehensive PUBMED (1990–May 2008) searches to find all functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using a variant of the emotional faces paradigm in healthy subjects. Out of the 551 originally identified studies, 105 studies met inclusion criteria. The overall database consisted of 1785 brain coordinates which yield an overall sample of 1600 healthy subjects. We found no support for the hypothesis of overall right-lateralization of emotional processing. Conversely, across all emotional conditions the parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala, fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, precuneus, inferior and middle occipital gyrus, posterior cingulated, middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal and superior frontal gyri were activated bilaterally (p = 0.001). There was a valence-specific lateralization of brain response during negative emotions processing in the left amygdala (p = 0.001). Significant interactions between the approach and avoidance dimensions and prefrontal response were observed (p = 0.001).

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Laterality effect on emotional faces processing: ALE meta-analysis of evidence

Abstract

Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Res. Brain Res. Rev.

Neuropsychologia

Physiol. Behav.

Brain Cogn.

Trends Cogn. Sci.

J. Neurosci. Methods

Brain Cogn.

Prog. Brain Res.

Cortex

Brain Res.

Neuroimage

Brain Cogn.

Neuroimage

Neuropsychologia

Neuroimage

Hemispheric perception of emotional valence from facial expressions

Neuropsychology

Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events

Nature

Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger

Brain

Right hemisphere emotional perception: evidence across multiple channels

Neuropsychology

Using the Talairach atlas with the MNI space

Neuroimage

Activation of right inferior frontal gyrus during response inhibition across response modalities

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Brain lateralization of emotional processing: historical roots and a future incorporating “dominance”

Behav. Cogn. Neurosci. Rev.