Cerebral Laterality in Affect and Affective Illness: A Review

Abstract

It is generally claimed that affect processing is a right hemisphere function. It is also claimed that right hemisphere dysfunction is characteristic of depressive illness. These claims are not accepted without controversy, and it has been found that the relationship between affect processing and affective illness in terms of intra- and interhemispheric role is not straightforward. Two types of studies are reviewed in this context: behavioral and electrophysiological. Potential confounding effects are discussed.