Abstract
Emotional words are processed rapidly and automatically in the left hemisphere (LH) and slowly, with the involvement of attention, in the right hemisphere (RH). This review aims to find the reason for this difference and suggests that emotional words can be processed superficially or deeply due to the involvement of the linguistic and imagery systems, respectively. During superficial processing, emotional words likely make connections only with semantically associated words in the LH. This part of the process is automatic and may be sufficient for the purpose of language processing. Deep processing, in contrast, seems to involve conceptual information and imagery of a word’s perceptual and emotional properties using autobiographical memory contents. Imagery and the involvement of autobiographical memory likely differentiate between emotional and neutral word processing and explain the salient role of the RH in emotional word processing. It is concluded that the level of emotional word processing in the RH should be deeper than in the LH and, thus, it is conceivable that the slow mode of processing adds certain qualities to the output.
Highlights
This paper concerns emotional words and how these words are processed in the cerebral hemispheres
This paper investigates emotional words and the reason for fast vs. slow processing of these words, which occurs mainly in the left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH), respectively
We can use emotional words to convey emotional feelings, experiencing emotions may not be the primary outcome of using emotional words
Summary
This paper concerns emotional words and how these words are processed in the cerebral hemispheres. Our previous review (Abbassi et al, 2011), based on behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging research results, indicates that both hemispheres are involved in the processing of emotional words, albeit in different and probably complementary ways. Emotional words are processed rapidly early in processing, and slowly with the involvement of attention later on; the left hemisphere (LH) and the right hemisphere (RH) are likely responsible for this early vs later stage of processing, respectively. This paper aims to pinpoint the nature of emotional word processing and find the reason for the rapid vs slow modes of processing. It shows that emotional word processing does not necessarily produce
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