Neural responses during down-regulation of negative emotion in patients with recently diagnosed bipolar disorder and their unaffected relatives

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hanne Lie Kjærstad ◽  
Julian Macoveanu ◽  
Gitte Moos Knudsen ◽  
Sophia Frangou ◽  
K. Luan Phan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Aberrant emotion regulation has been posited as a putative endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BD). We therefore aimed to compare the neural responses during voluntary down-regulation of negative emotions in a large functional magnetic resonance imaging study of BD, patients' unaffected first-degree relatives (URs), and healthy controls (HCs). Methods We compared neural activity and fronto-limbic functional connectivity during emotion regulation in response to aversive v. neutral pictures in patients recently diagnosed with BD (n = 78) in full/partial remission, their URs (n = 35), and HCs (n = 56). Results Patients showed hypo-activity in the left dorsomedial, dorsolateral, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (DMPFC and DLPFC) during emotion regulation while viewing aversive pictures compared to HCs, with URs displaying intermediate neural activity in these regions. There were no significant differences between patients with BD and HCs in functional connectivity from the amygdala during emotion regulation. However, exploratory analysis indicated that URs displayed more negative amygdala–DMPFC coupling compared with HCs and more negative amygdala-cingulate DLPFC coupling compared to patients with BD. At a behavioral level, patients and their URs were less able to dampen negative emotions in response aversive pictures. Conclusions The findings point to deficient recruitment of prefrontal resources and more negative fronto-amygdala coupling as neural markers of impaired emotion regulation in recently diagnosed remitted patients with BD and their URs, respectively.

Author(s):  
Yael Millgram ◽  
Maya Tamir

Some forms of psychopathology involve deficits in emotion regulation. Whereas prior research has focused on identifying maladaptive emotion regulation strategies among people who are diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, this research focuses on identifying maladaptive emotion regulation goals. This chapter discusses preferences for sadness and happiness in clinical depression, a disorder characterized by the prevalence of negative emotions and the paucity of positive emotions. The chapter reviews empirical evidence suggesting that depressed individuals are more likely to direct emotion regulation toward increasing negative emotions rather than decreasing them. Next explored are possible maladaptive emotion regulation goals in other psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder. Finally discussed are the implications of these new ideas for research and practice in psychopathology.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Wu ◽  
Tingting Guo ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Tzu-Yi Hong ◽  
Chou-Ming Cheng ◽  
...  

Abstract Humor has been considered an effective emotion regulation strategy, and some behavioral studies have examined its superior effects on negative emotion regulation. However, its neural mechanisms remain unknown. Our functional magnetic resonance imaging study directly compared the emotion regulation effects and neural bases of humorous coping (reappraisal) and ordinary reappraisal following exposure to negative pictures. The behavioral results suggested that humorous reappraisal was more effective in downregulating negative emotions and upregulating positive emotions both in the short and long term. We also found 2 cooperative neural pathways involved in coping with negative stimuli by means of humor: the “hippocampal–thalamic–frontal pathway” and the “amygdala–cerebellar pathway.” The former is associated with the restructuring of mental representations of negative situations and accompanied by an insightful (“Aha!”) experience, while the latter is associated with humorous emotional release and accompanied by an expression of laughter (“Haha!”). Furthermore, the degree of hippocampal functional connectivity with both the thalamus and frontal cortex was positively correlated with changes in positive emotion, and this result implied that the degree of emotion regulation could be strongly directly related to the depth of cognitive reconstruction. These findings highlight that regulating negative emotions with humor involves cognitive restructuring and the release of positive emotions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1051-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh K Shukla ◽  
Joshua John Chiappelli ◽  
Hemalatha Sampath ◽  
Peter Kochunov ◽  
Stephanie M Hare ◽  
...  

AbstractNegative symptoms represent a distinct component of psychopathology in schizophrenia (SCZ) and are a stable construct over time. Although impaired frontostriatal connectivity has been frequently described in SCZ, its link with negative symptoms has not been carefully studied. We tested the hypothesis that frontostriatal connectivity at rest may be associated with the severity of negative symptoms in SCZ. Resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) data from 95 mostly medicated patients with SCZ and 139 healthy controls (HCs) were acquired. Negative symptoms were assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. The study analyzed voxel-wise rsFC between 9 frontal “seed regions” and the entire striatum, with the intention to reduce potential biases introduced by predefining any single frontal or striatal region. SCZ showed significantly reduced rsFC between the striatum and the right medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), lateral prefrontal cortex, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex compared with HCs. Further, rsFC between the striatum and the right medial OFC was significantly associated with negative symptom severity. The involved striatal regions were primarily at the ventral putamen. Our results support reduced frontostriatal functional connectivity in SCZ and implicate striatal connectivity with the right medial OFC in negative symptoms. This task-independent resting functional magnetic resonance imaging study showed that medial OFC–striatum functional connectivity is reduced in SCZ and associated with severity of negative symptoms. This finding supports a significant association between frontostriatal connectivity and negative symptoms and thus may provide a potential circuitry-level biomarker to study the neurobiological mechanisms of negative symptoms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (15-16) ◽  
pp. 2611-2629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Garofalo ◽  
Belén López-Pérez ◽  
Michaela Gummerum ◽  
Yaniv Hanoch ◽  
Maya Tamir

Sexual offenders typically experience more negative emotions and greater difficulties in regulating emotions than non-offenders. However, limited data exist on what sexual offenders want to feel (i.e., their emotion goals). Notably, emotion goals play a key role in emotion regulation and contribute to emotional experience. The present study tested whether sexual offenders ( N = 31) reported higher scores for negative emotion goals and lower scores for positive emotion goals, compared with general offenders ( N = 26) and non-offenders ( N = 26). In addition, we tested whether sexual offenders differed from the other two groups in their perceived pleasantness and perceived utility of emotions. Sexual offenders reported greater scores for the emotion goal of sadness, and lower scores for the emotion goal of excitement, compared with both general offenders and non-offenders. State and trait levels of these emotions could not fully account for these differences. Furthermore, sexual offenders reported lower perceived pleasantness for sadness than general offenders and lower perceived pleasantness for excitement compared with both other groups. Finally, sexual offenders reported greater perceived utility of sadness than non-offenders. These novel findings and their implications for research and interventions are discussed in the context of sexual offenders’ emotional dysfunction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S59-S59
Author(s):  
J. Jansen ◽  
O. van den Heuvel ◽  
Y. van der Werf ◽  
S. De Wit ◽  
D. Veltman ◽  
...  

BackgroundAlcohol dependence has long been related to impaired processing and handling of negative emotions. This is the first study to compare emotion regulation (ER) at a behavioral and neural level in alcohol dependent patients (ADPs) and healthy controls (HCs). It also examines the effects of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on ER abilities and related craving levels in ADPs.MethodThirty-six ADPs and 32 HCs matched on age, sex, and education, were included in a within-subject fixed-order study with one functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session and one rTMS plus fMRI session, with high-frequency (10 Hz) rTMS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). An fMRI emotion regulation task (ERT) was administered during both sessions and craving was measured before and after each ERT.ResultsADPs were impaired in the regulation of negative emotion and showed a higher activation of ER related brain areas compared to HCs. Furthermore, active rTMS improved ER abilities in both ADPs and HCs, but was accompanied by a decrease in anterior cingulate and left dlPFC activity only in ADPs. In addition, the ERT-induced increase in craving levels in ADPs was trend-significantly reduced by active rTMS, with a large effect size.ConclusionsADPs are impaired in the regulation of negative emotion and show enhanced neural activity in the ER brain circuit. High-frequency rTMS improves ER in ADPs and HCs and normalizes neural activity and tends to reduce craving in ADPs. Future studies are needed to test the long-term effects of (multiple session) rTMS on ER, craving, and drinking.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


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