Identification of emotion in a dichotic listening task: Event-related brain potential and behavioral findings

Author(s): Borod, J. C., Tenke, C. E., Bruder, G. E.

Journal/Book: Brain Cognition. 1998; 37: 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495. Academic Press Inc Jnl-Comp Subscriptions. 286-307.

Abstract: The lateralization of emotion perception has been examined using stimuli in both auditory and visual modalities. Studies using dichotic stimuli have generally supported the hypothesis of right-hemisphere dominance for emotion perception, whereas studies of facial and verbal emotion perception have provided evidence for the right-hemisphere and valence hypotheses. A dichotic target detection task was developed to enable acquisition of event-related potentials (ERP) from subjects engaged in emotion detection. Nonsense syllables (e.g., ba, pa) stated in seven different emotional intonations were dichotically presented to 24 young adults, in a target detection task during four separate blocks (target emotions: happiness, interest, anger, or sadness). Accuracy and reaction time and ERP measures were also collected. ERPs were recorded from 14 scalp electrodes with a nose reference and quantified for N100, sustained negativity, late positivity, and slow wave. Significantly greater left- than right-ear accuracy was obtained for the identification of target prosodic emotion. Hemispheric asymmetries of N100 and sustained negativity were found, with left-hemisphere amplitudes greater than right-hemisphere amplitudes. These ERP asymmetries were not significantly correlated with the left-ear dichotic advantage and may be related more to early phonetic processing than to emotion perception. Since the behavioral evidence supports the right-hemisphere hypothesis for emotion perception, behavioral and ERP asymmetries evident in this task reflect separable patterns of brain lateralization.

Note: Article Erhan H, Beth Israel Med Ctr, Neurobehav & Alzheimers Dis Ctr, 317 E 17TH St, New York,NY 10003 USA

Keyword(s): hemispheric specialization; emotion; perception; prosody; dichotic listening; valence; event-related potentials; P300; slow wave; LEFT-EAR SUPERIORITY; COMPLEX TONE TEST; HEMISPHERIC-ASYMMETRY; SLOW WAVES; STIMULI; LATERALIZATION; PERCEPTION; CHILDREN; ERP; PERFORMANCE

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