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right temporal parietal regions are involved in
interpretation of emotional information and evidence that
implicates the frontal regions of both hemispheres in the
experience of mood. Heller (1990) stated that the right
parietal cortex mediates both cortical and autonomic
arousal, while bilateral frontal regions mediate valence.
She purported that experience of emotion is associated with
patterns of activation in frontal and parietal brain
regions.
Summary
As reviewed in the preceding sections, most evidence
supportive of the bivalent model has been derived from two
lines of research. These include: (a) findings of different
mood reactions following right versus left hemisphere
lesions, particularly those involving the anterior regions;
and (b) findings in normals of hemispheric EEG activation
asymmetries during induction of positive versus negative
mood. In contrast, data from neuropsychological studies of
affect perception are more in line with the view that the
right hemisphere is critically involved in appraising
nonverbal emotional signals, regardless of their valence.
The discrepancy between such studies corresponds to the
distinction raised by Heller (1990) between interpretation
of emotion (viewed to be right hemisphere dependent) versus
the regulation of mood (which is not viewed to be right
hemisphere specific).