Facial affect perception in anxious and nonanxious men without depression

In two experiments a tachistoscopic paradigm was used to examine hemispheri c differences in facial affect perception among anxious and nonanxious men without depression. In Experiment 1, hemispheric processing of Ekman and Fr iesen's (1978) happy, angry, and neutral emotional faces was tachistoscopic ally examined, with reaction time as the dependent variable. The following results were obtained: (1) a right-hemisphere (LVF) advantage for the perce ption of facial affect, consistent with previous reports of the right hemis phere's relative specialization for facial affect perception and (2) slower reaction time to facial affect stimuli for anxious men, regardless of vale nce and visual field. Similar procedures were used in Experiment 2, but wit h accuracy rather than reaction time as the dependent measure. Analyses yie lded a three-way interaction, with anxious men identifying angry affects in the left versus right visual field more accurately, whereas nonanxious men demonstrated symmetry for the processing of angry affects. Implications fo r hemispheric asymmetry (i.e., relative right posterior activation) among a nxious individuals without depression are discussed.