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Affect, Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia

A Neuropsychological Investigation of Right Hemisphere Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Anthony S. David  and
John C. Cutting
Anthony S. David*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
John C. Cutting
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London SE5 8AZ
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Performance on a happy-sad chimeric face test was used to examine the role of right hemisphere activation in positive and negative affect, both normal and abnormal, as well as in schizophrenia. This test is known to elicit a left-sided perceptual bias in right-handed normal subjects. Happy and sad mood in normals did not influence the perceptual bias. Depression and mania were associated with reduced and increased biases respectively, while schizophrenics showed no bias to either side. Possible explanations are right hemisphere hyperfunction in mania, moderate relative hypofunction in depression, and severe relative hypofunction in schizophrenia. The marked difference between mania and schizophrenia supports distinct pathophysiologies underlying the two conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 4 , April 1990 , pp. 491 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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