Cited by 94Hemispheric Asymmetry in NeuroscienceNeuroscience and Music PerceptionNeurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Left Auditory Cortex and Amygdala, but Right Insula Dominance for Human Laughing and Crying

Sander, Kerstin, Scheich, Henning·2005·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Evidence suggests that in animals their own species-specific communication sounds are processed predominantly in the left hemisphere. In contrast, processing linguistic aspects of human speech involves the left hemisphere, whereas processing some prosodic aspects of speech as well as other not yet well-defined attributes of human voices predominantly involves the right hemisphere. This leaves open the question of hemispheric processing of universal (species-specific) human vocalizations that are more directly comparable to animal vocalizations. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study addresses this question. Twenty subjects listened to human laughing and crying presented either in an original or time-reversed version while performing a pitch-shift detection task to control attention. Time-reversed presentation of these sounds is a suitable auditory control because it does not change the overall spectral content. The auditory cortex, amygdala, and insula in the left hemisphere were more strongly activated by original than by time-reversed laughing and crying. Thus, similar to speech, these nonspeech vocalizations involve predominantly left-hemisphere auditory processing. Functional data suggest that this lateralization effect is more likely based on acoustical similarities between speech and laughing or crying than on similarities with respect to communicative functions. Both the original and time-reversed laughing and crying activated more strongly the right insula, which may be compatible with its assumed function in emotional self-awareness.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1162/089892905774597227

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Infant stimuli trigger simultaneous responses in different brain areas of mothers.

    “Infant stimuli trigger simultaneous responses in different brain areas of mothers (Febo et al., 2008; Lorberbaum et al., 2002; Sander and Scheich, 2005), but it remains to be explored if oxytocin acts simultaneously in different cortical areas to gate these responses; or, alternatively, if oxytocin signaling is restricted to specific regions.”

    From Neuromodulation of maternal circuits by oxytocin (2019) · cites this paper as Sander and Scheich, 2005

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 55 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sander, K., & Scheich, H.
Affiliations
Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (DE)
Venue
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Published
2005-10-01
Volume
17
Issue
10
Pages
1519-1531
ISSN
  • 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
  • 1530-8898
OpenAlex
W2006694500
Cited by
93
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 9
FWCI
2.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Keywords
hemispheric lateralization, amygdala, right insula, emotional vocalizations, species-specific vocalizations, emotional self-awareness, speech processing, prosodic processing
MeSH terms
Carbamide Peroxide, Acoustic Stimulation, Adult, Amygdala, Auditory Cortex, Auditory Perception, Brain Mapping, Crying, Dominance, Cerebral, Drug Combinations, Female, Humans, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Laughter, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Peroxides, Urea

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review