156
emotion. According to the global theory of emotion, RHD
subjects are expected to display impairment in emotional
processing of all types, whereas according to the bivalent
view, RHD patients display a deficit in processing emotional
content with a negative or unpleasant valence. Thus, the
overall finding that RHD patients in this study have
decreased responding during the shock condition is
supportive of both theories.
However, the RHD and LHD subjects did not differ
statistically from one another during the shock condition.
This finding is inconsistent with both the global and
bivalent views of emotion. Additionally, this finding is
also contradictory with previous literature (i.e., Heilman
et al., 1978). In previous studies, emotional slides (i.e.,
Zoccolitti et al., 1982; Meadows & Kaplan, 1994) and pain
(Heilman et al., 1978) have been used in the past to elcit
emotion. The present study differs in the use of an
anticipatory paradigm.
Some of the above studies have found that LHD patients
are hyperaroused and show increased SCR in response to
unpleasant emotional experience (Heilman, et al., 1978). In
this study LHD patients had SCRs that were smaller during
the shock condition, but not significantly different from
the control subjects. This replicates previous findings
(Morrow et al., 1981; Meadwos and Kaplan, 1994).