Perception and expression of emotional words and sentences in patients with unilateral brain damage.
Item
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Title
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Perception and expression of emotional words and sentences in patients with unilateral brain damage.
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Identifier
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AAI9108077
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identifier
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9108077
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Creator
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Andelman, Fani.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joan C. Borod
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental
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Abstract
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In studies of the mechanisms underlying emotional processing, a special role has been attributed to the right hemisphere (e.g., Silberman and Weingartner, 1986). However, there is some experimental evidence to suggest a differential hemispheric specialization as a function of emotional valence, that is, negative emotions being associated with the right hemisphere and positive emotions being associated with the left hemisphere (e.g., Davidson, 1985). Both hypotheses of hemispheric specialization for emotion have received some support.;Whereas the majority of the work in this area has examined facial and prosodic channels of emotional communication, the lexical (verbal) channel has received very little direct study (e.g., Wechsler, 1973). Understanding the variables involved in the lexical emotional channel could explain how emotional speech is sometimes spared in very severely aphasic patients. If the right hemisphere subserves mediation of emotion, this spared function may somehow be able to improve the compromised linguistic functions of the left hemisphere.;This study examined the contribution of the lexical channel to emotional processing in right brain-damaged, left brain-damaged, and normal control right-handed adults. Lexical tasks were developed for perception and expression of a range of emotional feelings, including positive and negative valence items. Word identification, sentence identification, and word discrimination comprised the three perceptual tasks. Expressive tasks involved posed (requiring a special cortical effort) and spontaneous verbal expression of emotions. Parallel perceptual and expressive tasks using nonemotional lexical stimuli were created to control for cognitive and linguistic factors. Sixteen subjects with left cerebrovascular pathology, 16 subjects with right cerebrovascular pathology, and 16 neurologically intact normal controls participated in the study. Subjects were matched for sex, age, education and socio-economic status.;The results of this experiment are different for perception and production of emotion. Results of the perceptual portion of the test offer support to the right hemisphere hypothesis for hemispheric specialization of emotion. Results of the expressive portion of the test did not support either of the hypotheses. Trends based on lesion data that were available, suggest the importance of the right temporal lobe in lexical production of emotion.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
