Left visual-field advantage in children for processing visual emotional stimuli.

Investigated cerebral asymmetries in children for perception of visually presented emotional and verbal material. 91 children in Grades 1–2, 4–5, and 8 reported on emotional facial expressions and in letters shown laterally and tachistoscopically. A left visual-field superiority for reporting on the facial expressions, and a right visual-field advantage for reporting on the letters were found, with the latter effect being stronger than the former. For both the emotional and verbal tasks, the degree of asymmetry was not significantly different across age groups. Findings show the right hemisphere is dominant for mediating visual emotional information from as early as 6 yrs of age, and data replicate the right hemispheric effect found for emotional intonation in speech. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)