The Neuropsychology of Emotion and Emotion Regulation: The Role of Laterality and Hierarchy

Abstract

Over the last few decades, work in affective neuroscience has increasingly investigated the neural basis of emotion. A central debate in the field, when studying individuals with brain damage, has been whether emotional processes are lateralized or not. This review aims to expand this debate, by considering the need to include a hierarchical dimension to the problem. The historical journey of the diverse literature is presented, particularly focusing on the need to develop a research program that explores the neural basis of a wide range of emotional processes (perception, expression, experience, regulation, decision making, etc.), and also its relation to lateralized cortical and deep-subcortical brain structures. Of especial interest is the study of the interaction between emotional components; for example, between emotion generation and emotion regulation. Finally, emerging evidence from lesion studies is presented regarding the neural basis of emotion-regulation strategies, for which the issue of laterality seems most relevant. It is proposed that, because emotion-regulation strategies are complex higher-order cognitive processes, the question appears to be not the lateralization of the entire emotional process, but the lateralization of the specific cognitive tools we use to manage our feelings, in a range of different ways.

Walk the Plank! Using mobile EEG to investigate emotional lateralization of immersive fear in virtual reality

“…Similar findings were obtained by Berretz, Packheiser, Wolf, and Ocklenburg [73] who recorded EEG signals during the Trier Social Stress Test. If participants in the present study suppressed their emotions, applied cognitive reappraisal, or distracted themselves from standing on the plank, the EEG signal could be biased towards regulatory brain activation rather than reflecting a pure correlate of fear [74]. Thus, participants reporting higher self-reported fear could have applied emotion regulation strategies requiring greater left-hemispheric frontal involvement.…”

Emotions and the Right Hemisphere: Editorial

“…Data relevant to the issue of the interactions between emotion generation and emotion regulation strategies have been carefully reviewed by Turnbull and Salas [ 13 ]. These authors make reference to the Gross’ [ 14 ] Process Model of Emotion Regulation, which proposes that human beings manage feelings (in a range of ways, from voluntarily to automatic) by using a wide range of regulatory strategies, which depend on diverse neuropsychological functions.…”

“…These authors make reference to the Gross’ [ 14 ] Process Model of Emotion Regulation, which proposes that human beings manage feelings (in a range of ways, from voluntarily to automatic) by using a wide range of regulatory strategies, which depend on diverse neuropsychological functions. After having systematically explored hemispheric asymmetries in the regulation of effect, Turnbull and Salas [ 13 ] maintain that, since emotion regulation strategies are based on complex cognitive processes, the question cannot concern the lateralization of the whole regulation process, but the lateralization of the specific cognitive tools we use to manage our feelings, in a range of different ways.…”

Neural correlates of emotion acceptance and suppression in borderline personality disorder

“…These regions included the amygdala, insula, hippocampus, ACC, caudate, putamen as well as DLPFC (BA9/46) und VLPFC (BA 44/45) ( 16 , 19 , 20 ). To account for possible laterality effects on emotion regulation processes ( 32 ), ROIs were analyzed for each hemisphere separately. The corresponding ROI masks were taken from the automated anatomic labelling atlas (AAL), which is implemented in the Wake Forest University (WFU) PickAtlas, an automated software toolbox for generating ROI masks based on the Talairach Daemon database.…”