EMOTIONAL AROUSAL IN TEMPORAL LOBECTOMY - AUTONOMIC AND PERFORMANCE EFFECTS OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE FEEDBACK

Both theory and evidence suggest that right temporal lobectomy (RTL) p atients show hypoarousal and left temporal lobectomy (LTL) patients sh ow relative hyperarousal (Davidson, Fedio, Smith, Aurielle, & Martin, 1992). However, we hypothesized that these differences occur only unde r passive, nonevaluative stimulus conditions. The present study employ ed, instead, conditions of performance evaluation. We recorded the ski n conductance responses (SCRs) and reaction times (RTs) of RTLs, LTLs, and normal controls (NCs) during easy and difficult trial blocks on a target-detection task, with auditory success/failure feedback. We fou nd that LTLs exhibited relative hypoarousal and retarded RTs and that RTLs were normally aroused following success feedback. These results d emonstrated that the arousal level of LTLs is contingent on stimulus c onditions, thus calling into question the theory that this group is ge nerally subject to hyperarousal. The two-dimensional theory of the neu ral processing of emotional experience partially explains our data.