Introduction

Abstract

The first papers on laterality of emotions that had a clear impact on subsequent research on this field were published about 50 years ago. The early hypothesis of a right hemisphere dominance for emotions was soon accompanied by an alternative model, assuming a different specialization of the right hemisphere for negative and of the left hemisphere for positive emotions. In more recent years, these models, assuming that a general difference in emotional processing may be found at the hemispheric level, were replaced by investigations that looked for laterality effects in structures subsuming specific components of emotions. Results of these investigations have led to the formulation of two general neurobiological theories that repropose in a more systematic and documented manner the previous models assuming respectively a right hemisphere dominance for emotions and a different lateralization of positive and negative emotions.