The Role of the Right Hemisphere for Processing of Social Interactions in Normal Adults Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate whole-brain and hemispheric activation in normal adult volunteers to videos depicting positive and negative social encounters. There are few studies that have utilized dynamic social stimuli to evaluate brain activation. Method: Twenty young adults viewed videotaped vignettes during an functional magnetic resonance imaging procedure. The vignettes included positive and negative interaction scenes of social encounters. Results: Significant right greater than left activation for positive and negative conditions was found for the social interaction videos in the amygdaloid complex, the inferior frontal gyrus, the fusiform gyrus, and the temporal gyri (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: These findings support the hypothesis that the regions of the right hemisphere are more active in the interpretation of social information processing than those regions in the left hemisphere. This study is a first step in understanding processing of dynamic stimuli using ecologically appropriate stimuli that approximate the real-time social processing that is appropriate for use with populations who experience significant social problems.

[1]  John C. Gore,et al.  Functional MRI changes before and after onset of reported emotions , 2004, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

[2]  N. Kalin,et al.  Emotion, plasticity, context, and regulation: perspectives from affective neuroscience. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[3]  Kevin A. Pelphrey,et al.  Grasping the Intentions of Others: The Perceived Intentionality of an Action Influences Activity in the Superior Temporal Sulcus during Social Perception , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[4]  E. Bullmore,et al.  Differential activation of the amygdala and the ‘social brain’ during fearful face-processing in Asperger Syndrome , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[5]  Kosha Ruparel,et al.  Neural substrates for functionally discriminating self‐face from personally familiar faces , 2006, Human brain mapping.

[6]  Michael J. Brammer,et al.  The role of ‘shared representations’ in social perception and empathy: An fMRI study , 2006, NeuroImage.

[7]  C. Frith,et al.  Movement and Mind: A Functional Imaging Study of Perception and Interpretation of Complex Intentional Movement Patterns , 2000, NeuroImage.

[8]  G. Glover,et al.  Contributions of amygdala and striatal activity in emotion regulation , 2005, Biological Psychiatry.

[9]  Robin I. M. Dunbar.  Cognitive constraints on the structure and dynamics of social networks. , 2008 .

[10]  T. Heatherton,et al.  Detecting agency from the biological motion of veridical vs animated agents. , 2007, Social cognitive and affective neuroscience.

[11]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Perception of dynamic changes in facial affect and identity in autism. , 2007, Social cognitive and affective neuroscience.

[12]  P. Skudlarski,et al.  The role of the fusiform face area in social cognition: implications for the pathobiology of autism. , 2003, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[13]  Charles D. Smith,et al.  Neural substrates of facial emotion processing using fMRI. , 2001, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[14]  T. Allison,et al.  Brain Activity Evoked by the Perception of Human Walking: Controlling for Meaningful Coherent Motion , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[15]  Steven L. Small,et al.  The Interaction of Social and Emotional Processes in the Brain , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.