Left brain may also be emotional
New Australian research is challenging the widely-held view that emotions and feelings are the domain of the right side of the brain only. Image: chrysh/iStockphoto Ever been stuck in traffic when a feel-good song comes on the radio and suddenly your mood lightens?Our emotions and feelings are typically associated with the right side of the brain. For example, processing the emotion in human facial expressions is done in the right hemisphere.However, new Australian research is challenging the widely-held view that emotions and feelings are the domain of the right hemisphere only.Dr Sharpley Hsieh and colleagues from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) found that people with semantic dementia, a disease where parts of the left hemisphere are severely affected, have difficulty recognising emotion in music.These findings have exciting implications for our understanding of how music, language and emotions are handled by the brain.“It’s known that processing whether a face is happy or sad is...