Brain mediation of emotional perception: R hemis/ facial exp Flashcards
1
Q
R hemis damage and facial expression
A
- could make judgments about emotional aspects of hypothetical situations
- had difficulty judging emotions conveyed in facial expressions and gestures
- could judge what emotions would likely occur when read “Your house seems empty without her”
- were impaired judging what emotions would be associated with “He scowled”
- had difficulty describing the image of a facial expression when asked to imagine the face of someone who was experiencing a certain emotion, but was able to accurately describe non-emotional images e.g. “What number 1 to 10 does a peanut look like?”
2
Q
PET studies with normals
A
- comprehension of emotion from word meaning activated B frontal lobes L > R
- comprehension of emotion from voice tone increased R prefrontal only
3
Q
R damage and voice tone
A
less accurately judged emotional tone of voice reading neutral statements
- case study of patient who could not understand words but could recognize the emotion expressed in the tone of voice
- these findings indicate comprehension of words and recognition of voice tone are dissociable (independent) functions mediated by different areas of the brain
4
Q
Amygdala
A
- damage impairs ability to recognize facial expressions of emotions, especially fear
- PET studies show large increases on amygdala activation when people view facial expressions of fear but only small increases, or decreases, when viewing happy faces
- damage does not impair ability to identify emotional content from tone of voice
- FFA receives input primarily from the parvocellular system
a. High spatial frequency – detail detection - amygdala receives cortical an subcortical visual input
- Pt with bilateral amygdala damage
5
Q
Disgust
A
- Damage to basal ganglia and insular cortex impair recognition of facial expression of disgust
- Insular activated in fMRI of normals when viewing facial expressions of disgust or smelling bad odor
