Models advanced to explain hemispheric asymmetries in representation of emotions will be discussed following their historical progression. First, the clinical observations that have suggested a general dominance of the right hemisphere for all kinds of emotions will be reviewed. Then the experimental investigations that have led to proposal of a different hemispheric specialization for positive versus negative emotions (valence hypothesis) or, alternatively, for approach versus avoidance tendencies (motivational hypothesis) will be surveyed. The discussion of these general models will be followed by a review of recent studies which have documented laterality effects within specific brain structures, known to play a critical role in different components of emotions, namely the amygdata in the computation of emotionally laden stimuli, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the integration between cognition and emotion and in the control of impulsive reactions and the anterior insula in the conscious experience of emotion. Results of these recent investigations support and provide an updated integrated version of early models assuming a general right hemisphere dominance for all kinds of emotions.

继历史发展之后，将讨论先进的模型来解释情绪表示中的半球不对称性。首先，将对临床观察结果进行回顾，这些临床结果表明右半球对各种情感都有普遍的支配地位。然后，将对导致对正情绪和负情绪（效价假设），或者对进场倾向与回避倾向（动机假说）提议不同的半球专业化的实验研究进行调查。在讨论这些一般模型之后，我们将回顾最近的研究，这些研究已记录了特定大脑结构内的偏侧效应，这些大脑结构在情感的不同组成部分（即杏仁核数据在情感上的刺激计算中起着至关重要的作用）中起着至关重要的作用，腹侧前额叶皮层在认知与情感之间的整合以及在情感的有意识体验中对冲动反应和前岛的控制。这些最新调查的结果支持并提供了早期模型的更新集成版本，这些模型假定了对各种情感的一般右半球支配地位。