Multivariate Patterns of Posterior Cortical Activity Differentiate Forms of Emotional Distancing

Abstract Distancing is an effective tactic for emotion regulation, which can take several forms depending on the type(s) of psychological distance being manipulated to modify affect. We recently proposed a neurocognitive model of emotional distancing, but it is unknown how its specific forms are instantiated in the brain. Here, we presented healthy young adults (N = 34) with aversive pictures during functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly compare behavioral performance and brain activity across spatial, temporal, and objective forms of distancing. We found emotion regulation performance to be largely comparable across these forms. A conjunction analysis of activity associated with these forms yielded a high degree of overlap, encompassing regions of the default mode and frontoparietal networks as predicted by our model. A multivariate pattern classification further revealed distributed patches of posterior cortical activation that discriminated each form from one another. These findings not only confirm aspects of our overarching model but also elucidate a novel role for cortical regions in and around the parietal lobe in selectively supporting spatial, temporal, and social cognitive processes to distance oneself from an emotional encounter. These regions may provide new targets for brain-based interventions for emotion dysregulation.

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Decoding Music-Evoked Emotions in the Auditory and Motor Cortex

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa373 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vesa Putkinen ◽

Sanaz Nazari-Farsani ◽

Kerttu Seppälä ◽

Tomi Karjalainen ◽

Lihua Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Auditory Processing ◽

Instrumental Music ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Subjective Experience ◽

Neural Circuits ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Film Clips ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Multivariate Pattern

Abstract Music can induce strong subjective experience of emotions, but it is debated whether these responses engage the same neural circuits as emotions elicited by biologically significant events. We examined the functional neural basis of music-induced emotions in a large sample (n = 102) of subjects who listened to emotionally engaging (happy, sad, fearful, and tender) pieces of instrumental music while their hemodynamic brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Ratings of the four categorical emotions and liking were used to predict hemodynamic responses in general linear model (GLM) analysis of the fMRI data. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to reveal discrete neural signatures of the four categories of music-induced emotions. To map neural circuits governing non-musical emotions, the subjects were scanned while viewing short emotionally evocative film clips. The GLM revealed that most emotions were associated with activity in the auditory, somatosensory, and motor cortices, cingulate gyrus, insula, and precuneus. Fear and liking also engaged the amygdala. In contrast, the film clips strongly activated limbic and cortical regions implicated in emotional processing. MVPA revealed that activity in the auditory cortex and primary motor cortices reliably discriminated the emotion categories. Our results indicate that different music-induced basic emotions have distinct representations in regions supporting auditory processing, motor control, and interoception but do not strongly rely on limbic and medial prefrontal regions critical for emotions with survival value.

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Functional specialization within the inferior parietal lobes across cognitive domains

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.63591 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Ole Numssen ◽

Danilo Bzdok ◽

Gesa Hartwigsen

Keyword(s):

Social Cognitive ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Effective Connectivity ◽

Functional Specialization ◽

Cognitive Domains ◽

Task Specificity ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Human Interactions ◽

Parietal Lobes ◽

Multivariate Pattern

The inferior parietal lobe (IPL) is a key neural substrate underlying diverse mental processes, from basic attention to language and social cognition, that define human interactions. Its putative domain-global role appears to tie into poorly understood differences between cognitive domains in both hemispheres. Across attentional, semantic, and social cognitive tasks, our study explored functional specialization within the IPL. The task specificity of IPL subregion activity was substantiated by distinct predictive signatures identified by multivariate pattern-learning algorithms. Moreover, the left and right IPL exerted domain-specific modulation of effective connectivity among their subregions. Task-evoked functional interactions of the anterior and posterior IPL subregions involved recruitment of distributed cortical partners. While anterior IPL subregions were engaged in strongly lateralized coupling links, both posterior subregions showed more symmetric coupling patterns across hemispheres. Our collective results shed light on how under-appreciated functional specialization in the IPL supports some of the most distinctive human mental capacities.

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Posttraumatic stress symptomatology and abnormal neural responding during emotion regulation under cognitive demands: mediating effects of personality

Personality Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/pen.2020.10 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Sun ◽

Craig A. Marquardt ◽

Seth G. Disner ◽

Philip C. Burton ◽

Nicholas D. Davenport ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Posttraumatic Stress ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Maladaptive Behavior ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Cognitive Demands

Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often complicated by the after-effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The mixture of brain conditions results in abnormal affective and cognitive functioning, as well as maladaptive behavior. To better understand how brain activity explains cognitive and emotional processes in these conditions, we used an emotional N-back task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural responses in US military veterans after deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, we sought to examine whether hierarchical dimensional models of maladaptive personality could account for the relationship between combat-related brain conditions and fMRI responses under cognitive and affective challenge. FMRI data, measures of PTSD symptomatology (PTSS), blast-induced mTBI (bmTBI) severity, and maladaptive personality (MMPI-2-RF) were gathered from 93 veterans. Brain regions central to emotion regulation were selected for analysis, and consisted of bilateral amygdala, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal (dlPFC), and ventromedial prefrontal/subgenual anterior cingulate (vmPFC-sgACC). Cognitive load increased activity in dlPFC and reduced activity in emotional responding brain regions. However, individuals with greater PTSS showed blunted deactivations in bilateral amygdala and vmPFC-sgACC, and weaker responses in right dlPFC. Additionally, we found that elevated emotional/internalizing dysfunction (EID), specifically low positive emotionality (RC2), accounted for PTSS-related changes in bilateral amygdala under increased cognitive load. Findings suggest that PTSS might result in amygdala and vmPFC-sgACC activity resistant to moderation by cognitive demands, reflecting emotion dysregulation despite a need to marshal cognitive resources. Anhedonia may be an important target for interventions that improve the affective and cognitive functioning of individuals with PTSD.

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Stimulus set meaningfulness and neurophysiological differentiation: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

10.1101/013078 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie Boly ◽

Shuntaro Sasai ◽

Olivia Gosseries ◽

Masafumi Oizumi ◽

Adenauer Casali ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Integration ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Cortical Activation ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Activation Patterns ◽

Stimulus Set ◽

The Subject ◽

Cortical Regions

A meaningful set of stimuli, such as a sequence of frames from a movie, triggers a set of different experiences. By contrast, a meaningless set of stimuli, such as a sequence of 'TV noise' frames, triggers always the same experience – of seeing 'TV noise' – even though the stimuli themselves are as different from each other as the movie frames. We reasoned that the differentiation of cortical responses underlying the subject's experiences, as measured by Lempel-Ziv complexity (incompressibility) of functional MRI images, should reflect the overall meaningfulness of a set of stimuli for the subject, rather than differences among the stimuli. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the differentiation of brain activity patterns in response to a movie sequence, to the same movie scrambled in time, and to 'TV noise', where the pixels from each movie frame were scrambled in space. While overall cortical activation was strong and widespread in all conditions, the differentiation (Lempel-Ziv complexity) of brain activation patterns was correlated with the meaningfulness of the stimulus set, being highest in the movie condition, intermediate in the scrambled movie condition, and minimal for 'TV noise'. Stimulus set meaningfulness was also associated with higher information integration among cortical regions. These results suggest that the differentiation of neural responses can be used to assess the meaningfulness of a given set of stimuli for a given subject, without the need to identify the features and categories that are relevant to the subject, nor the precise location of selective neural responses.

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Hemispheric specialization within the inferior parietal lobe across cognitive domains

10.1101/2020.07.01.181602 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ole Numssen ◽

Danilo Bzdok ◽

Gesa Hartwigsen

Keyword(s):

Social Cognitive ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Effective Connectivity ◽

Hemispheric Specialization ◽

Cognitive Domains ◽

Inferior Parietal Lobe ◽

Task Specificity ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Human Interactions ◽

Multivariate Pattern

AbstractThe inferior parietal lobe (IPL) is a key neural substrate underlying diverse mental processes, from basic attention to language and social cognition that define human interactions. Its putative domain-global role appears to tie into poorly understood functional differences between both hemispheres. Across attentional, semantic, and social cognitive experiments, our study explored hemispheric specialization within the IPL. The task specificity of IPL subregion activity was substantiated by distinct predictive signatures identified by multivariate pattern-learning algorithms. Moreover, the left and right IPL exerted domain-specific modulation of effective connectivity among their subregions. Task-evoked functional interactions of the anterior and posterior IPL subregions involved recruitment of distributed cortical partners. While each anterior IPL subregion was engaged in strongly lateralized coupling links, both posterior subregions showed more symmetric coupling patterns across hemispheres. Our collective results shed light on how under-appreciated lateralization effects within the IPL support some of the most distinctive human mental capacities.

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Decoding music-evoked emotions in the auditory and motor cortex

10.1101/2020.05.24.101667 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vesa Putkinen ◽

Sanaz Nazari-Farsani ◽

Kerttu Seppälä ◽

Tomi Karjalainen ◽

Lihua Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Auditory Processing ◽

Instrumental Music ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Subjective Experience ◽

Neural Circuits ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Film Clips ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Multivariate Pattern

AbstractMusic can induce strong subjective experience of emotions, but it is debated whether these responses engage the same neural circuits as emotions elicited by biologically significant events. We examined the functional neural basis of music-induced emotions in a large sample (n=102) of subjects who listened to emotionally engaging (happy, sad, fearful, and tender) pieces of instrumental music while their haemodynamic brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Ratings of the four categorical emotions and liking were used to predict haemodynamic responses in general linear model (GLM) analysis of the fMRI data. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to reveal discrete neural signatures of the four categories of music-induced emotions. To map neural circuits governing non-musical emotions, the subjects were scanned while viewing short emotionally evocative film clips. The GLM revealed that most emotions were associated with activity in the auditory, somatosensory and motor cortices, cingulate gyrus, insula, and precuneus. Fear and liking also engaged the amygdala. In contrast, the film clips strongly activated limbic and cortical regions implicated in emotional processing. MVPA revealed that activity in the auditory cortex in particular as well as in the primary motor cortices reliably discriminated the emotion categories. Our results indicate that different music-induced basic emotions have distinct representations in regions supporting auditory processing, motor control, somatosensation and interoception but do not strongly rely on limbic and medial prefrontal regions critical for emotions with survival value.

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Effectiveness of psychological interventions to improve emotion regulation in youth - a meta-analysis

10.31234/osf.io/3yxcp ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Bettina Moltrecht ◽

Jessica Deighton ◽

Praveetha Patalay ◽

Julian Childs

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Psychological Intervention ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

What Works ◽

Large Heterogeneity ◽

Larger Sample

Background: Research investigating the role of emotion regulation (ER) in the development and treatment of psychopathology has increased in recent years. Evidence suggests that an increased focus on ER in treatment can improve existing interventions. Most ER research has neglected young people, therefore the present meta-analysis summarizes the evidence for existing psychosocial intervention and their effectiveness to improve ER in youth. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-one randomized-control-trials (RCTs) assessed changes in ER following a psychological intervention in youth exhibiting various psychopathological symptoms.Results: We found moderate effect sizes for current interventions to decrease emotion dysregulation in youth (g=-.46) and small effect sizes to improve emotion regulation (g=0.36). Significant differences between studies including intervention components, ER measures and populations studied resulted in large heterogeneity. Conclusion: This is the first meta-analysis that summarizes the effectiveness for existing interventions to improve ER in youth. The results suggest that interventions can enhance ER in youth, and that these improvements correlate with improvements in psychopathology. More RCTs including larger sample sizes, different age groups and psychopathologies are needed to increase our understanding of what works for who and when.

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Individual beliefs about emotion and perceptions of belief stability are associated with emotion dysregulation, interpersonal emotional attributes and psychological flexibility

10.31234/osf.io/kaubg ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jennifer Veilleux ◽

Garrett Pollert ◽

kayla skinner ◽

Danielle Baker ◽

Kaitlyn Chamberlain ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Psychological Flexibility ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Emotional Expressivity ◽

Control Behavior ◽

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation ◽

Intelligence Beliefs

The beliefs people hold about emotion are clearly relevant for emotional processes, although the social psychological research on malleability or “lay” beliefs about emotion are rarely integrated with the clinical research on emotional schemas. In the current study, we examine a variety of beliefs about emotion (e.g., beliefs that emotions can be changed, beliefs that negative emotions are bad, beliefs that emotions should not be expressed, beliefs that emotions control behavior, beliefs that emotions last “forever”) along with other emotion belief measures and measures of psychopathology (general psychological distress, borderline personality), emotion dysregulation, interpersonal emotional attributions (emotional expressivity, interpersonal emotion regulation) and psychological flexibility (mindfulness, emotional intelligence). In a combined sample of undergraduates (n = 162) and adults from Mechanical Turk (n = 197), we found that beliefs about the longevity and uniqueness of emotions were unique predictors of psychopathology, even after controlling for age and gender. We also found that after controlling for symptoms of psychopathology, beliefs about longevity and that negative emotions are bad predicted greater emotion dysregulation and lower mindfulness. Beliefs that emotions should be kept to the self and a preference of logic over emotion predicted less emotional expressivity, interpersonal emotion regulation, and emotional intelligence. Beliefs that emotions control behavior also predicted lower mindfulness. Finally, when asked whether they think their beliefs change during strong emotions, people who said their beliefs change (about two-thirds of the sample) reported higher symptoms of psychopathology, higher emotion dysregulation, higher use of interpersonal regulation strategies and lower mindfulness.

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Binge Eating and Problem Gambling are Associated with Common and Distinct Deficits in Emotion Regulation among Community Women: Results from a Prospective Study

10.31234/osf.io/v9nbs ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Farstad ◽

Kristin M. von Ranson

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Binge Eating ◽

Problem Gambling ◽

Prospective Study ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Behavioral Addiction ◽

Negative Urgency ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Severe Problem

To elucidate similarities and differences between binge eating and a behavioral addiction, this prospective study compared facets of emotion regulation that were associated with problem gambling, the only formally recognized behavioral addiction, and binge eating. Community-based women (N = 202) who engaged in at-risk binge eating (n = 79), at-risk gambling (n = 36), or both (n = 87) completed four online assessments over six months. Baseline and six-month surveys assessed self-reported emotion dysregulation (using the DERS and UPPS-P), binge eating (using the EDE-Q), and gambling (using the PGSI); abbreviated two- and four-month surveys assessed only binge eating and gambling. Binge eating and problem gambling were both associated with emotion dysregulation, and greater positive urgency was correlated with more severe problem gambling but less frequent binge eating. Negative urgency explained no unique variance in binge eating or problem gambling changes over time, once other facets of emotion dysregulation (i.e., positive urgency and facets assessed by the DERS) were included. Thus, previous cross-sectional research may have overestimated the association of negative urgency with both binge eating and problem gambling. Overall, these findings suggest that binge eating and problem gambling are associated with common as well as distinct emotion regulation deficits.

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Emotion Dysregulation and Psychosis Spectrum Disorders

The Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190689285.013.21 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 298-312 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gemma T. Wallace ◽

Anna R. Docherty

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Psychotic Disorders ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

Cognition And Emotion ◽

Neurophysiological Assessment ◽

Psychiatric Conditions ◽

Spectrum Disorders ◽

Disorganized Speech ◽

And Behavior

Psychosis spectrum disorders (PSDs) are complex, highly heritable psychiatric conditions with high economic and societal costs. PSDs have historically been conceptualized as neurocognitive disorders in which psychotic episodes and impairments in social and emotional functioning are attributed to deficits in neurocognition. Although cognitive pathways play an important role in the etiology and presentation of PSDs, recent research suggests that interrelations between cognition and emotion are highly relevant. Moreover, aberrant emotion regulation likely plays a significant role in the presentation of PSDs. Emotion dysregulation (ED) may underlie and exacerbate both negative and positive symptoms in PSDs, such as blunted affect, avolition, disorganized speech and behavior, poor social cognition, and delusions and hallucinations. Advances in measurement of emotion dysregulation—including self-reports, behavioral paradigms, neuroimaging paradigms, and neurophysiological assessment—have informed etiological models of emotion dysregulation in PSDs. This chapter reviews research on emotion regulation and dysregulation in PSDs. Notably, more severe presentations of emotion symptoms and greater emotion regulation impairments are associated with worse outcomes in PSDs. It may therefore be the case that focusing on ED as an early risk factor and intervention target could improve outcomes and prevention approaches for psychotic disorders.

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