Lateral asymmetry in identification and expression of facial emotions

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Abstract
Ninety normal subjects were asked to identify, in a split-plot repeated measures design, photographs displaying facial expression of four negative emotions, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust, presented tachistoscopically. Experimental manipulations involved in visual field (left-right), hemiface composition of expression (normal representation or right-left, left-left, right-right), and task (matching labelling). A left visual field (LVF) superiority was found for identifying the facial emotions; and sad facial emotion was identified with greatest accuracy followed by fear, disgust, and anger. The main effects of facial composite and task remained nonsignificant. However, a taskwise analysis of the data revealed that normal facial representations (RL) were identified with greater accuracy than left-left (LL) or right-right (RR) facial composites in matching task.