Right hemisphere damage impairs the ability to process emotional expressions of unusual faces.

Patients with focal brain damage, right and left hemisphere damage, and nonpatient controls were asked to match photographs of emotion expressions that were depicted in unusual (line drawings, strange, and schematic) and normal (usual) representations of faces with the target emotion expressions of normal face. Nonpatient controls were significantly superior to right hemisphere damaged patients in matching photographs of emotion expressions that were depicted in line drawings of normal face and schematic face.