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Hemispheric Asymmetry for Affective Stimulus Processing in Healthy Subjects–A fMRI Study

Author

Listed:
  • Esther Beraha
  • Jonathan Eggers
  • Catherine Hindi Attar
  • Stefan Gutwinski
  • Florian Schlagenhauf
  • Meline Stoy
  • Philipp Sterzer
  • Thorsten Kienast
  • Andreas Heinz
  • Felix Bermpohl

Abstract

Background: While hemispheric specialization of language processing is well established, lateralization of emotion processing is still under debate. Several conflicting hypotheses have been proposed, including right hemisphere hypothesis, valence asymmetry hypothesis and region-specific lateralization hypothesis. However, experimental evidence for these hypotheses remains inconclusive, partly because direct comparisons between hemispheres are scarce. Methods: The present fMRI study systematically investigated functional lateralization during affective stimulus processing in 36 healthy participants. We normalized our functional data on a symmetrical template to avoid confounding effects of anatomical asymmetries. Direct comparison of BOLD responses between hemispheres was accomplished taking two approaches: a hypothesis-driven region of interest analysis focusing on brain areas most frequently reported in earlier neuroimaging studies of emotion; and an exploratory whole volume analysis contrasting non-flipped with flipped functional data using paired t-test. Results: The region of interest analysis revealed lateralization towards the left in the medial prefrontal cortex (BA 10) during positive stimulus processing; while negative stimulus processing was lateralized towards the right in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9 & 46) and towards the left in the amygdala and uncus. The whole brain analysis yielded similar results and, in addition, revealed lateralization towards the right in the premotor cortex (BA 6) and the temporo-occipital junction (BA 19 & 37) during positive stimulus processing; while negative stimulus processing showed lateralization towards the right in the temporo-parietal junction (BA 37,39,42) and towards the left in the middle temporal gyrus (BA 21). Conclusion: Our data suggests region-specific functional lateralization of emotion processing. Findings show valence asymmetry for prefrontal cortical areas and left-lateralized negative stimulus processing in subcortical areas, in particular, amygdala and uncus.

Suggested Citation

  • Esther Beraha & Jonathan Eggers & Catherine Hindi Attar & Stefan Gutwinski & Florian Schlagenhauf & Meline Stoy & Philipp Sterzer & Thorsten Kienast & Andreas Heinz & Felix Bermpohl, 2012. "Hemispheric Asymmetry for Affective Stimulus Processing in Healthy Subjects–A fMRI Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(10), pages 1-9, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0046931
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046931
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    Cited by:

    1. Juliana Iranpour & Gil Morrot & Béatrice Claise & Betty Jean & Jean-Marie Bonny, 2015. "Using High Spatial Resolution to Improve BOLD fMRI Detection at 3T," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.

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