CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION
In this study, emotional experience was measured in
individuals with unilateral cortical strokes and individuals
who were neurologically normal. Emotional experiences were
evoked by in vivo unpleasant and pleasant anticipatory
situations. Emotional responding was measured using verbal
report, autonomic responding, and facial muscle activity.
This study is unique for several reasons. First,
attempts were made to examine emotional experience in both
negative and positive emotional situations. In other
studies, when emotional experience has been examined in
stroke patients, only unpleasant emotionally-evoking stimuli
have been used. Using both pleasant and unpleasant
situations made it possibly to explore the differences in
predicted responding based on the global right hemisphere
model of emotions and the bivalent model of emotions.
Second, in most of the other studies of emotional
experience in stroke patients, emotions have been elicited
using stimuli that require- perceptual interpretation (i.e.,
emotional slides). In this study, an in vivo elicitation of
emotion was used so that subjects did not have to make
perceptual interpretations in order to comprehend the
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