Hemispheric asymmetries ofaffective processing as determined bytheMinnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

SUM MARY Patients withleft hemisphere disease havebeennoted tobedepressed while those withright hemisphere disease appearindifferent. Whilepatients withleft hemisphere disease frequently havea greatercognitive deficit, patients withright hemisphere disease havedifficulty inexpressing affectively intoned speech. TheMinnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)can demonstrate underlying affective experience andisnotdependent on affectively intoned speech. Thepurposeofthis study was todetermine whether a difference inaffective moods, as assessed bytheMMPI,was related tolaterality oflesion inpatients matched for severity ofcognitive andmotordysfunction. Sevenofthe16subjects withlefthemisphere dysfunction andnone oftheeightsubjects withright hemisphere dysfunction showedan elevation on thedepression scale. Thisobservation notonlyconfirms previous clinical observations butalsodemonstrates that these asymmetries cannotbeascribed completely tohemisphererelated differences incognitive deficits orexpressive abilities.