Autobiographical Script-Driven Imagery Has No Detectable Effect on Emotion Regulation in Healthy Individuals

Introduction: Emotion regulation (ER), the ability to actively modulate one’s own emotion reactions, likely depends on the individual’s current emotional state. Here, we investigated whether negative emotions induced by an interpersonal autobiographic script affect the neuronal processes underlying ER. Methods: Twenty healthy participants were recruited and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of distancing, a specific ER strategy, while viewing emotionally arousing pictures. Participants were instructed to either naturally experience (“permit” condition) or to actively downregulate (“regulate” condition) their emotional responses to the presented stimuli. Before each of the 4 runs in total, a neutral or negative autobiographical audio script was presented. The negative script comprised an emotionally negative event from childhood or adolescence that represented either emotional abuse or emotional neglect. The second event comprised an everyday neutral situation. We aimed at identifying the neural correlates of ER and their modulation by script-driven imagery. Results: fMRI analyses testing for greater responses in the “regulate” than the “permit” condition replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the right inferior parietal lobule. A significant ER effect was also observed in the left orbitofrontal cortex. In the amygdala, we found greater responses in the “permit” compared to the “regulate” condition. We did not observe a significant modulation of the ER effects in any of these regions by the negative emotional state induced by autobiographical scripts. Bayesian statistics confirmed the absence of such modulations by providing marginal evidence for null effects. Discussion: While we replicated previously reported neural correlates of ER, we found no evidence for an effect of mood induction with individualized autobiographical scripts on the neural processes underlying ER in healthy participants.

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Cognitive emotion regulation and personality: an analysis of individual differences in the neural and behavioral correlates of successful reappraisal

Personality Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/pen.2019.11 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Christoph Scheffel ◽

Kersten Diers ◽

Sabine Schönfeld ◽

Burkhard Brocke ◽

Alexander Strobel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Cognitive Emotion Regulation ◽

Behavioral Correlates ◽

Relaxation Period ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategy ◽

Healthy Participants

Abstract A common and mostly effective emotion regulation strategy is reappraisal. During reappraisal, activity in cognitive control brain regions increases and activity in brain regions associated with emotion responding (e.g., the amygdala) diminishes. Immediately after reappraisal, it has been observed that activity in the amygdala increases again, which might reflect a paradoxical aftereffect. While there is extensive empirical evidence for these neural correlates of emotion regulation, only few studies targeted the association with individual differences in personality traits. The aim of this study is to investigate these associations more thoroughly. Seventy-six healthy participants completed measures of broad personality traits (Big Five, Positive and Negative Affect) as well as of more narrow traits (habitual use of emotion regulation) and performed an experimental fMRI reappraisal task. Participants were instructed to either permit their emotions or to detach themselves from the presented negative and neutral pictures. After each picture, a relaxation period was included. Reappraisal success was determined by arousal ratings and activity in the amygdala. During reappraisal, we found activation in the prefrontal cortex and deactivation in the left amygdala. During the relaxation period, an immediate aftereffect was found in occipital regions and marginally in the amygdala. Neither personality traits nor habitual use of emotion regulation predicted reappraisal success or the magnitude of the aftereffect. We replicated typical activation and deactivation patterns during intentional emotion regulation and partially replicated the immediate aftereffect in the amygdala. However, there was no association between personality traits and emotion regulation success.

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Brain activation during emotion regulation in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291717003270 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (11) ◽

pp. 1795-1802 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Nicole Petersen ◽

Dara G. Ghahremani ◽

Andrea J. Rapkin ◽

Steven M. Berman ◽

Letty Liang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Menstrual Cycle ◽

Luteal Phase ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder ◽

Follicular Phase ◽

Precentral Gyrus ◽

Affective Symptoms ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

The Right

AbstractBackgroundDifficulties in regulating emotions are linked to the core symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). We therefore investigated the neural substrates of emotion-regulation problems in women with PMDD.MethodsOn the basis of self-evaluations over 2 months on the Daily Record of Severity of Problems, eligible participants were assigned to two groups: PMDD and control (18 per group). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a well-validated task were used to assess brain function during emotion regulation. Participants were tested twice, once during the follicular (asymptomatic) and once in the late luteal (symptomatic) phase of the menstrual cycle.ResultsWomen with PMDD gave higher ratings of negative affect in the luteal phase than in the follicular phase, and compared with healthy control participants during the luteal phase. A region-of-interest fMRI analysis indicated that during the late luteal phase, women with PMDD had hypoactivation in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during all conditions of the emotion-regulation task, not only in the contrast that isolated emotion regulation. An exploratory whole-brain, voxel-wise analysis showed that women with PMDD had less activation in the precentral gyrus during the luteal phase than the follicular phase, and less activation in the postcentral gyrus compared with control participants.ConclusionsDuring the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, women with PMDD experience difficulty regulating emotions. Hypoactivation in the right dlPFC may contribute to this problem, but may be related more generally to other affective symptoms of PMDD. Hypofunction in the right pre- and postcentral gyri warrants additional study.

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The Wisdom to Know the Difference

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797616669086 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (12) ◽

pp. 1651-1659 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Simon J. Haines ◽

John Gleeson ◽

Peter Kuppens ◽

Tom Hollenstein ◽

Joseph Ciarrochi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Adaptive Strategy ◽

Well Being ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Regulation Strategies ◽

The Difference ◽

The Right ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment ◽

Healthy Participants

The ability to regulate emotions is central to well-being, but healthy emotion regulation may not merely be about using the “right” strategies. According to the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis, emotion-regulation strategies are conducive to well-being only when used in appropriate contexts. This study is the first to test the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis using ecological momentary assessment of cognitive reappraisal—a putatively adaptive strategy. We expected people who used reappraisal more in uncontrollable situations and less in controllable situations to have greater well-being than people with the opposite pattern of reappraisal use. Healthy participants ( n = 74) completed measures of well-being in the lab and used a smartphone app to report their use of reappraisal and perceived controllability of their environment 10 times a day for 1 week. Results supported the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis. Participants with relatively high well-being used reappraisal more in situations they perceived as lower in controllability and less in situations they perceived as higher in controllability. In contrast, we found little evidence for an association between greater well-being and greater mean use of reappraisal across situations.

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The Neurocircuitry Underlying Additive Effects of Safety Instruction on Extinction Learning

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnbeh.2020.576247 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

Author(s):

Arash Javanbakht ◽

Lana Ruvolo Grasser ◽

Shantanu Madaboosi ◽

Asadur Chowdury ◽

Israel Liberzon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Unconditioned Stimulus ◽

Exposure Therapy ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Laboratory Model ◽

Additive Effects ◽

Extinction Learning ◽

Psychophysiological Interaction ◽

Healthy Participants

Extinction learning is the dominant laboratory model for exposure therapy, a treatment involving both experience of safety near the feared object, and safety instructions relayed by a therapist. While the experiential aspect of extinction learning is well researched, less is known about instructed extinction learning and its neurocircuitry. Here, in 14 healthy participants we examined the neural correlates of, and the network interactions evoked by instructed extinction learning. Following fear conditioning to two CS+ stimuli, participants were instructed about the absence of the aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) for one of the CS+s (instructed CS; CS+I) but not the second CS+ (uninstructed CS+; CS+U). Early during extinction learning, greater activation was observed for the CS+I > CS+U contrast in regions including the vmPFC, dmPFC, vlPFC, and right parahippocampus. Subsequently, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) was applied to investigate functional connectivity of a seed in the vmPFC. This analyses revealed significant modulation of the dmPFC, parahippocampus, amygdala, and insula. Our findings suggest that the addition of cognitive instruction yields greater activation of emotion regulation and reappraisal networks during extinction learning. This work is a step in advancing laboratory paradigms that more accurately model exposure therapy and identifies regions which may be potential targets for neuromodulation to enhance psychotherapy effects.

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Potential Neurophysiological Mechanisms of 1Hz-TMS to the Right Prefrontal Cortex for Depression: An Exploratory TMS-EEG Study in Healthy Participants

Journal of Personalized Medicine ◽

10.3390/jpm11020068 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 68

Author(s):

Yoshihiro Noda

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Resting State ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Left Dlpfc ◽

Eeg Data ◽

Therapeutic Mechanism ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Neurophysiological Mechanisms ◽

The Right ◽

Healthy Participants

Background: The present study aimed to examine the acute neurophysiological effects of 1Hz transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) administered to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in healthy participants. Methods: TMS combined with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording was conducted for 21 healthy participants. For the right DLPFC, 1Hz-TMS (100 pulses/block × 17 sessions) was applied in the resting-state, while for the left DLPFC, 1Hz-TMS (100 pulses/block × 2 sessions) was administered during the verbal fluency tasks (VFTs). For TMS-EEG data, independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to extract TMS-evoked EEG potentials to calculate TMS-related power as well as TMS-related coherence from the F4 and F3 electrode sites during the resting-state and VFTs. Results: TMS-related power was significantly increased in alpha, beta, and gamma bands by 1Hz-TMS at the stimulation site during the resting-state, while TMS-related power was significantly increased in alpha and beta bands but not in the gamma band during the VFTs. On the other hand, TMS-related coherence in alpha and beta bands significantly increased but not in gamma band by 1Hz-TMS that was administered to the right DLPFC in resting-state, whereas there were no significant changes in coherence for all frequency bands by 1Hz-TMS that applied to the left DLPFC during the VFTs. Conclusions: Collectively, 1Hz-repetitive TMS (rTMS) to the right DLPFC may rapidly neuromodulate EEG activity, which might be associated with a therapeutic mechanism for depression.

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Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and amygdala function during cognitive reappraisal predicts weight restoration and emotion regulation impairment in anorexia nervosa

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291720002457 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Trevor Steward ◽

Ignacio Martínez-Zalacaín ◽

Gemma Mestre-Bach ◽

Isabel Sánchez ◽

Nadine Riesco ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Anorexia Nervosa ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Cognitive Reappraisal ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Clinical Severity ◽

Hospital Treatment ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Abstract Background Although deficits in affective processing are a core component of anorexia nervosa (AN), we lack a detailed characterization of the neurobiological underpinnings of emotion regulation impairment in AN. Moreover, it remains unclear whether these neural correlates scale with clinical outcomes. Methods We investigated the neural correlates of negative emotion regulation in a sample of young women receiving day-hospital treatment for AN (n = 21) and healthy controls (n = 21). We aimed to determine whether aberrant brain activation patterns during emotion regulation predicted weight gain following treatment in AN patients and were linked to AN severity. To achieve this, participants completed a cognitive reappraisal paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Skin conductance response, as well as subjective distress ratings, were recorded to corroborate task engagement. Results Compared to controls, patients with AN showed reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during cognitive reappraisal [pFWE<0.05, threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) corrected]. Importantly, psycho–physiological interaction analysis revealed reduced functional connectivity between the dlPFC and the amygdala in AN patients during emotion regulation (pFWE<0.05, TFCE corrected), and dlPFC-amygdala uncoupling was associated with emotion regulation deficits (r = −0.511, p = 0.018) and eating disorder severity (r = −0.565, p = .008) in the AN group. Finally, dlPFC activity positively correlated with increases in body mass index (r = 0.471, p = 0.042) and in body fat mass percentage (r = 0.605, p = 0.008) following 12 weeks of treatment. Conclusions Taken together, our findings indicate that individuals with AN present altered fronto-amygdalar response during cognitive reappraisal and that this response may serve as a predictor of response to treatment and be linked to clinical severity.

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When Time Shapes Behavior: fMRI Evidence of Brain Correlates of Temporal Monitoring

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21098 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 1116-1126 ◽

Cited By ~ 68

Author(s):

Antonino Vallesi ◽

Anthony R. McIntosh ◽

Tim Shallice ◽

Donald T. Stuss

Keyword(s):

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Block Design ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽

Monitoring Process ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Brain Correlates ◽

The Right ◽

Variable Versus

Time processing may shape behavior in several ways, although the underlying neural correlates are still poorly understood. When preparatory intervals between stimuli vary randomly in a block, for instance, responses are faster as the interval gets longer. This effect, known as variable foreperiod (FP) effect, has been attributed to a process monitoring the conditional probability of stimulus occurrence as the interval increases. Previous evidence points to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as a possible node for this time-monitoring process. The present study addresses this hypothesis with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Block-design fMRI was used on 14 young participants while they performed a visual discrimination task with fixed and variable preparatory intervals (FPs) of 1 and 3 sec. In the variable versus fixed FP contrast, the right DLPFC and a visual area were more activated in the subgroup of participants who showed a reliable variable FP effect than in another subgroup who did not show that effect. Only the activation in the right DLPFC was supported by a significant interaction between FP condition (variable vs. fixed) and group. This finding may reflect possible differences in the strategy adopted by the two subgroups of participants while performing the task. Although results suggest that many brain areas may be involved in preparation over time, the role of the right DLPFC is critical to observe the strategically mediated behavioral effects in the variable FP paradigm.

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Role of the prefrontal cortex in prosocial and self-maximization motivations: an rTMS study

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-01588-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Oksana Zinchenko ◽

Olga Savelo ◽

Vasily Klucharev

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Prosocial Behavior ◽

Dictator Game ◽

Prosocial Motives ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

The Right ◽

Theta Burst ◽

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation ◽

Healthy Participants

AbstractMore than a decade of neuroimaging and brain stimulation studies point to a crucial role for the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model postulates that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior, whereas the reflective model assumes that the rDLPFC controls selfish impulses during prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model implies that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should increase voluntary transfers in both dictator and generosity games. In contrast, the reflective model suggests that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should decrease transfers in the dictator game, without affecting voluntary transfers in the generosity game, in which selfish motives are minimized. The aim of this paper was to compare predictions of the intuitive and reflective models using the classic dictator game and generosity game and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). In this study, two groups of healthy participants (dictators) received either cTBS over the rDLPFC or right extrastriate visual areas. As shown by the results, the transient disruption of the rDLPFC significantly promoted prosocial motives in the dictator game only, particularly in the trials with the lowest dictator’s costs. These findings partially support the notion that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior.

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Effects of Mindfulness Training on Emotion Regulation in Patients with Depression: Reduced Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Activation Indexes Early Beneficial Changes

10.31231/osf.io/u7ewa ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Thorsten Barnhofer ◽

Tim Reess ◽

Maria Fissler ◽

Emilia Winnebeck ◽

Simone Grimm ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Affective Stimuli ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽

Before And After ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

The Right

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have been found to be a promising approach for the treatment of recurrent courses of depression. However, little is known about their neural mechanisms. This fMRI study set out to investigate activation changes in fronto-limbic regions during implicit emotion regulation. Depressed patients with a recurrent lifetime history were randomized to receive a two-week MBI (N=16 completers) or psycho-education and resting (PER, N=22 completers). Before and after, patients underwent fMR imaging while labelling the affect of angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions and completed questionnaires assessing ruminative brooding, the ability to decentre from such thinking, and depressive symptoms. Activation decreased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in response to angry faces following MBI, but not following PER. This change was highly correlated with increased decentering, decreased brooding and decreased symptoms. Amygdala activation in response to happy faces decreased following PER, while the MBI group showed a small but insignificant increase. The dlPFC is involved in emotion regulation, namely reappraisal or suppression of negative emotions. Decreased right dlPFC activation might indicate that, following the MBI, patients abstained from engaging in elaboration or suppression of negative affective stimuli; a putatively important mechanism for preventing the escalation of negative mood.

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A Systematic Review on the Interaction between Emotion and Pseudoneglect

Symmetry ◽

10.3390/sym13081531 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 1531

Author(s):

Francesca Strappini ◽

Gaspare Galati ◽

Anna Pecchinenda

Keyword(s):

Left Visual Field ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Emotional State ◽

Large Body ◽

Behavioral Effects ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Right Hemisphere Hypothesis ◽

The Right ◽

Healthy Participants

Background: A large body of research has shown brain asymmetries in spatial attention. Specifically, there is an attention-processing advantage for the left visual field in healthy, right-handed subjects, known as “pseudoneglect.” Several studies have revealed that emotions modulate this basic spatial phenomenon, but the direction of the effect is still unclear. Here we systematically review empirical evidence on the behavioral effects of emotion on pseudoneglect. Methods: We searched through Pubmed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and PsychArticles. Original peer-reviewed articles published until February 2021 were included if they (1) were written in English; (2) were conducted on adults; (3) included at least one task to measure pseudoneglect, and (4) included at least one task with emotional stimuli or employed a measure of emotional state/trait, as they relate to pseudoneglect. Results: Fifteen studies were included, and 784 healthy participants took part in all studies reviewed. Discussion: The results show some evidence of emotion modulation of pseudoneglect, but evidence on the direction of the effect is mixed. We discuss the role of methodological factors that could account for the available findings and the implications for emotion asymmetry hypotheses such as the right-hemisphere hypothesis, the valence-specific hypothesis, as well as neural and arousal frameworks of attention–emotion interactions.

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