Cerebral asymmetry in face processing and language: An fMRI study

Abstract

Cerebral asymmetry for language in the inner frontal gyrus, and face processing, involving both silent speaking faces and happy emotion faces, in the superior middle temporal gyri, was investigated in 40 participants of equal numbers of left- and right-handers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Left-inferior frontal and right superior middle temporal were intercorrelated, suggesting that a right cerebral bias for face processing may be complementary to a left-hemisphere dominance for language. All experimental tasks correlated more highly with each other than handedness, suggesting handedness shows a weak indication of cerebral asymmetries in language and face processing. Left-handers showed a more atypical pattern than right-handers on all three measures of cerebral asymmetry, as would be expected by genetic theories.