Burgund E Darcy, Cushing Solana R, Saad Moura
Department of Psychology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN.
Neuroscience Program, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN.
PLoS One. 2025 May 23;20(5):e0322504. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322504. eCollection 2025.
A growing amount of evidence highlights a role for the left hemisphere in negative facial expression processing. The present study investigated the extent to which language contributes to this left hemisphere involvement by comparing performance during an emotion detection task presented to the left and right hemispheres using divided visual field under conditions of verbal interference (covertly rehearsing a 6-digit string for a subsequent memory) and no interference. Participants were college undergraduates with no known neurological or psychiatric conditions. Half used their right hand to respond and half used their left. In line with the hypothesis that language contributes to left hemisphere involvement in negative expression processing, participants who used their right hand to respond were more accurate with sad facial expressions when they were presented to the left hemisphere than the right during the no interference condition, but this left-hemisphere advantage disappeared during the verbal interference condition. Contrary to the hypothesis, participants who used their left hand to respond were more accurate with sad facial expressions when they were presented to the right hemisphere than when they were presented to the left, and this right-hemisphere advantage did not differ significantly between interference groups. Results highlight the influence of language as well as response hand on hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing and point towards areas for future research.
越来越多的证据表明左半球在负面面部表情处理中发挥作用。本研究通过比较在言语干扰（暗中排练一个6位数字字符串以备后续记忆）和无干扰条件下，使用视野分割技术分别向左半球和右半球呈现情绪检测任务时的表现，来探究语言对左半球参与这一过程的影响程度。参与者为无已知神经或精神疾病的大学生。一半参与者用右手做出反应，另一半用左手。与语言有助于左半球参与负面表情处理的假设一致，在无干扰条件下，用右手做出反应的参与者在左半球呈现悲伤面部表情时比右半球呈现时更准确，但在言语干扰条件下，这种左半球优势消失了。与假设相反，用左手做出反应的参与者在右半球呈现悲伤面部表情时比左半球呈现时更准确，且这种右半球优势在干扰组之间没有显著差异。研究结果突出了语言以及反应手对面部表情处理中半球不对称性的影响，并指出了未来研究的方向。
