Abstract
Background
Studies have shown a convergence of neural systems implicated in cognitive control and social emotional functions with mechanisms involved in emotion regulation, awareness, and impulsive aggression. In a sample of patients with a history of aggression, we examined the association of cognitive and social cognitive functions with emotion regulation capacity, emotional awareness, impulse control, and aggression.
Methods
Participants were 78 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder that participated in a cognitive training study. Emotion regulation capacity was indexed by obtaining participants’ heart rate variability (HRV), respiration, and skin conductance while participants viewed pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Three blocks of pictures were presented—a neutral block depicting pictures of everyday objects preceded by audio recordings of their description; an emotionally-evocative block preceded by their description, and a reappraisal block of emotionally-evocative pictures preceded by reappraisal statements. A subset of participants (N=37) completed the emotion regulation task. The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (Eyes Task), and the Emotion Recognition-40 (ER-40) were administered to assess cognitive functioning, mentalizing, and facial affect recognition respectively. Negative affectivity was captured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) whereas aggression was measured with the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) and the Overt Aggression Scale Modified (OAS-M).
In a smaller subsample of 12 individuals, we performed analyses of activation patterns during the performance of the emotion regulation task. Regions of interest (ROI) included the dACC, DLPFC, VLPFC, vmPFC, left and right amygdala, and the subcallosal cingulate. We created a regional mask of the cognitive control and emotional appraisal regions for event-related fMRI.
Results
There were inverse associations between performance on the MCCB and the Eyes Task and indices of emotion regulation capacity—in particular, significant associations were obtained with Low Frequency/High Frequency HRV ratio (r=-0.324, p<0.05) and SCL (r=-0.331, p<0.05). Both HRV and respiration measures were inversely correlated with aggression measured with the TAP suggesting an association between reduced emotion regulation capacity and a risk for aggression.
There were inverse associations between activation within the event-related regional mask and low frequency/high frequency heart rate variability ratio at rest (r=-0.504, p=0.095) and during the viewing of emotionally-evocative pictures (r = -0.264, p=0.36). Associations with HRV were especially remarkable for the dorsomedial, ventrolateral, and right amygdala regions.
Remarkably, increased activation in the regional mask when reappraisal statements were provided with emotionally-evocative pictures was inversely correlated with the life history of aggression LHA (r=-0.32, p=0.28, n=14) and OAS (r=-0.284, p=0.34, n=14) aggression scores. This pattern was present when the dACC, right and left amygdala, DLPFC, VLPFC, and the subcallosal cingulate were set as the seed region.
Discussion
The results show an association between cognitive functions and emotion regulation capacity indexed by measuring physiological arousal during the performance of the picture viewing task. Emotion regulation capacity also showed significant association with aggression. Deficits in cognitive and social cognitive abilities may contribute to and be viable targets for improving emotion regulation capacity and decreasing aggression risk.
Rumination Moderates the Association Between Resting High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability and Perceived Ethnic Discrimination
