The face is the thing: Faces, not emotions, are responsible for chimeric perceptual asymmetry

ABSTRACT

We used factor analysis to examine relationships among tasks that have previously shown right hemispheric processing asymmetries. We were interested in whether processing emotion displayed by a face constitutes a distinct perceptual process from processing other facial characteristics. Interest in this topic arose after Boles [1991. Factor analysis and the cerebral hemispheres: Pilot study and parietal functions. Neuropsychologia, 29(1), 59–91] found evidence of a common process underlying face processing and then Boles [1992. Factor analysis and the cerebral hemispheres: Temporal, occipital and frontal functions. Neuropsychologia, 30(11), 963–988] found evidence of a distinct process for the processing of the facial emotion. We used seven tasks that measured both face and non-face perception. Analysis of the asymmetries revealed measures from the five face tasks resulted in a single factor, thus failing to support the hypothesis that emotional face perception would involve a separate process from non-emotional face perception. A second factor revealed a separate process underlying enumeration, and a third factor revealed yet another process underlying line bisection. The results indicate that perceiving facial emotion results in right hemisphere processing, and faces as a whole are responsible for such processing.

KEYWORDS:

• Lateralization
• face perception
• emotion
• chimeric images
• asymmetry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.