TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotion‐attention interaction in the right hemisphere
AU - Hartikainen, Kaisa M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This review was funded by the Academy of Finland (310268), the Competitive Research Fund of Pirkanmaa Hospital District and the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from European Social Fund (ESF)/ European Union Structural Fund (Sustainable Brain Health, S21966).
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Hemispheric asymmetries in affective and cognitive functions have been extensively stud-ied. While both cerebral hemispheres contribute to most affective and cognitive processes, neuro-scientific literature and neuropsychological evidence support an overall right hemispheric dominance for emotion, attention and arousal. Emotional stimuli, especially those with survival value such as threat, tend to be prioritized in attentional resource competition. Arousing unpleasant emotional stimuli have prioritized access, especially to right‐lateralized attention networks. Interference of task performance may be observed when limited resources are exhausted by task‐ and emotion-related processing. Tasks that rely on right hemisphere‐dependent processing, like attending to the left visual hemifield or global‐level visual features, are especially vulnerable to interference due to attention capture by unpleasant emotional stimuli. The aim of this review is to present literature regarding the special role of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional brain processes and their interaction. Furthermore, clinical and technological implications of this interaction will be pre-sented. Initially, the effects of focal right hemisphere lesion or atrophy on emotional functions will be introduced. Neurological right hemisphere syndromes including aprosodia, anosognosia and neglect, which further point to the predominance of the intact right hemisphere in emotion, attention and arousal will be presented. Then there will be a brief review of electrophysiological evi-dence, as well as evidence from patients with neglect that support attention capture by emotional stimuli in the right hemisphere. Subsequently, experimental work on the interaction of emotion, attention and cognition in the right hemispheres of healthy subjects will be presented. Finally, clinical implications for better understanding and assessment of alterations in emotion–attention interaction due to brain disorder or treatment, such as neuromodulation, that impact affective brain functions will be discussed. It will be suggested that measuring right hemispheric emotion–atten-tion interactions may provide basis for novel biomarkers of brain health. Such biomarkers allow for improved diagnostics in brain damage and disorders and optimized treatments. To conclude, future technological applications will be outlined regarding brain physiology‐based measures that reflect engagement of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional processes.
AB - Hemispheric asymmetries in affective and cognitive functions have been extensively stud-ied. While both cerebral hemispheres contribute to most affective and cognitive processes, neuro-scientific literature and neuropsychological evidence support an overall right hemispheric dominance for emotion, attention and arousal. Emotional stimuli, especially those with survival value such as threat, tend to be prioritized in attentional resource competition. Arousing unpleasant emotional stimuli have prioritized access, especially to right‐lateralized attention networks. Interference of task performance may be observed when limited resources are exhausted by task‐ and emotion-related processing. Tasks that rely on right hemisphere‐dependent processing, like attending to the left visual hemifield or global‐level visual features, are especially vulnerable to interference due to attention capture by unpleasant emotional stimuli. The aim of this review is to present literature regarding the special role of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional brain processes and their interaction. Furthermore, clinical and technological implications of this interaction will be pre-sented. Initially, the effects of focal right hemisphere lesion or atrophy on emotional functions will be introduced. Neurological right hemisphere syndromes including aprosodia, anosognosia and neglect, which further point to the predominance of the intact right hemisphere in emotion, attention and arousal will be presented. Then there will be a brief review of electrophysiological evi-dence, as well as evidence from patients with neglect that support attention capture by emotional stimuli in the right hemisphere. Subsequently, experimental work on the interaction of emotion, attention and cognition in the right hemispheres of healthy subjects will be presented. Finally, clinical implications for better understanding and assessment of alterations in emotion–attention interaction due to brain disorder or treatment, such as neuromodulation, that impact affective brain functions will be discussed. It will be suggested that measuring right hemispheric emotion–atten-tion interactions may provide basis for novel biomarkers of brain health. Such biomarkers allow for improved diagnostics in brain damage and disorders and optimized treatments. To conclude, future technological applications will be outlined regarding brain physiology‐based measures that reflect engagement of the right hemisphere in affective and attentional processes.
KW - Attention
KW - Biomarker
KW - Emotion
KW - ERP
KW - FAA
KW - Frontal alpha asymmetry
KW - Global processing
KW - Inhibitory control
KW - Right hemisphere
KW - Threat
U2 - 10.3390/brainsci11081006
DO - 10.3390/brainsci11081006
M3 - Review Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112646110
SN - 2076-3425
VL - 11
JO - Brain Sciences
JF - Brain Sciences
IS - 8
M1 - 1006
ER -