Attentional Modulation of Emotional Lateralization Biases with Verbal and Nonverbal Stimuli

Within hemispheric asymmetry literature, emotional processing appears to be predominately right lateralized; however, this degree of lateralization seems more complex when the stimuli engage with multiple functions lateralized across hemispheres, such as language, face perception, and spatial attention. Using the divided visual field paradigm, our online experiment employs a 2x2 design to examine the scope of emotion laterality by comparing lateralization biases when processing neutral and valence-laden stimuli in both verbal and nonverbal modalities. The study also employs a modified “Posner’s task” to investigate attentional modulation of hemispheric biases. Our preliminary findings pertaining to neutral face and neutral word perception did not show hemispheric bias although both revealed strong cueing effects. Subsequent experiments will investigate how attention cueing impacts hemispheric performances and how these patterns interact with emotion. This research aids to quantify hemispheric interactions when processing emotional stimuli and informs the treatment of mood disorders using non-invasive brain stimulation.M.A