Sex differences and cerebral asymmetry in facial affect perception as a function of depressed mood

Abstract

Twenty-four right-handed subjects (12 men and 12 women), half within each sex classified as with depressed mood and the other half as nondepressed, participated in a tachistoscopic study of the influence of depressive symptomatology on the hemispheric processing of emotional faces (happy, angry, and neutral). Slower emotional processing was found in women with depressed mood than was found in nondepressed women, whereas diametrically opposite effects were seen in men. Cerebral asymmetry was also found as a function of affective valence, with a right-hemisphere advantage for the identification of angry faces. Symmetry was found in the identification of happy faces. Additionally, women with depressed mood more often identified neutral faces as angry, whereas depressive symptomatology reduced the strong negative response bias in men, with increased ambivalence or uncertainty in neutral affect perception. These results are discussed in light of hypothesized differences in cerebral asymmetry with depression and according to sex. © 1994, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.