Neuropsychological Correlates of Arousal in Self-reported Emotion

Previous research has indicated a link between the right hemisphere and electrodermal functioning, which in turn has been associated with the arousal dimension that emerges in most factor-analytical studies of self-reported emotion. The present study was therefore undertaken to examine whether the right hemisphere might be differentially associated with self-reports of arousal on the Profile of Mood States (POMS), an adjective checklist. On a free-vision task of face processing that is sensitive to individual differences in perceptual asymmetry, larger left hemispatial (right hemisphere) biases were significantly related to higher levels of self-reported arousal, as measured by various POMS scales and principal components. The results support Heller's (1993) hypothesis that the right parietotemporal region may play an important role in emotion-related arousal.