The right frontal lobe has a depressive stance, where as the left shows undue cheerfulness
The issue of the relationship between depression and the right hemisphere is complex. Here more than anywhere one has to take into account the influence of the anterior–posterior (‘front–back’) axis of the brain, as well as the right–left axis. It seems that the polarity of emotional timbre between the two hemispheres is specifically tied to the most highly and lately evolved, most ‘human’ parts of the brain, the frontal lobes.
Left anterior lesions are associated with depression, and right anterior lesions associated with ‘undue cheerfulness’. The closer the left hemisphere lesion lies to the frontal pole, the greater the depressive symptomatology. For those with right hemisphere lesions the converse is true: the the further back the lesion, the greater the chance of depression. This confluence of evidence suggests that the right frontal lobe has a depressive stance compared with either the left frontal lobe or its own parieto-occipital cortex. Depression per se is probably associated with reduced right posterior activity in addition to increased right frontal activity in most cases, although as one might predict threat monitoring is a right-posterior activity. There is evidence of left hemisphere over-activity in mania, the polar opposite of depression.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (p. 127). London, UK: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️