Capacity and tendency: A neuroscientific framework for the study of emotion regulation.

It is widely accepted that the ability to effectively regulate one's emotions is a cornerstone of physical and mental health. As such, it should come as no surprise that the number of neuroimaging studies focused on emotion regulation and associated processes has increased exponentially in the past decade. To date, neuroimaging research on this topic has examined two distinct but complementary features of emotion regulation - the capacity to effectively utilize a strategy to regulate emotion and to a lesser extent, the tendency to choose to regulate. However, theoretical accounts of emotion regulation have only recently begun to distinguish capacity from tendency. In the present review, we provide a novel framework for conceptualizing these two intertwined, yet distinct, facets of emotion regulation. First we characterize brain regions that support emotion generation and are thus targeted by emotion regulation. Next, we synthesize findings from the dozens of neuroimaging studies that have examined emotion regulation capacity, focusing in particular on the most commonly studied emotion regulation strategy - reappraisal. Finally, we discuss emerging neuroimaging research examining state and trait regulatory tendencies. We conclude by integrating findings from neuroimaging research on emotion regulation capacity and tendency and suggest ways that this integrated model can inform basic and translational neuroscientific research on emotion regulation

Increased neuromodulation ability through EEG connectivity neurofeedback with simultaneous fMRI for emotion regulation

Emotion regulation plays a key role in human behavior and life. Neurofeedback (NF) is a non-invasive self-brain training technique used for emotion regulation to enhance brain function and treatment of mental disorders leading to behavioral changes. Most neurofeedback studies were limited to using the activity of a single brain region of fMRI data or the power of a single or two EEG electrodes. In a novel study, we use the connectivity-based EEG neurofeedback through retrieving positive autobiographical memories and simultaneous fMRI to upregulate positive emotion. The feedback was calculated based on the coherence of EEG electrodes rather than the power of single/two electrodes. We demonstrated the efficiency of the connectivity-based neurofeedback to traditional activity-based neurofeedback through several experiments. The results confirmed the effectiveness of connectivity-based neurofeedback to enhance brain activity/connectivity of deep brain regions with key roles in emotion regulation e.g., amygdala, thalamus, and insula, and increase EEG frontal asymmetry as a biomarker for emotion regulation or treatment of mental disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression. The results of psychometric assessments before and after neurofeedback experiments demonstrated that participants were able to increase positive and decrease negative emotion using connectivity-based neurofeedback more than traditional activity-based neurofeedback. The results suggest using the connectivity-based neurofeedback for emotion regulation and alternative therapeutic approaches for mental disorders with more effectiveness and higher volitional ability to control brain and mental function.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Decreased Triple Network Connectivity in Patients with Recent Onset Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after a Single Prolonged Trauma Exposure

The triple network model provides a common framework for understanding affective and neurocognitive dysfunctions across multiple disorders, including central executive network (CEN), default mode network (DMN), and salience network (SN). Considering the effect of traumatic experience on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study aims to explore the alteration of triple network connectivity in a specific PTSD induced by a single prolonged trauma exposure. With an arterial spin labeling sequence, three networks were first identified using independent component analysis among 10 PTSD patients and 10 healthy survivors, who experienced the same coal mining flood disaster. Then, the triple network connectivity was analyzed and compared between PTSD and non-PTSD groups. In PTSD patients, decreased connectivity was identified in left middle frontal gyrus of CEN, left precuneus and bilateral superior frontal gyrus of DMN, and right anterior insula of SN. The decreased connectivity in left middle frontal gyrus of CEN was associated with clinical severity. Furthermore, no significant connection of SN with CEN and DMN was found in PTSD patients. The decreased triple network connectivity was found in this study, which not only supports the triple network model, but also suggests a possible neurobiological mechanism for cognitive dysfunction of this type of PTSD

Working memory function in patients with affective disorders

Pamięć operacyjna stanowi podstawę dobrze działającego systemu mózgowego i zapewnia właściwy przebieg złożonych procesów poznawczych. Zdaniem wielu badaczy na jakość funkcjonowania pamięci operacyjnej wpływają emocje, w szczególności te negatywne. Pacjenci z zaburzeniami depresyjnymi charakteryzują się nieprawidłowym działaniem pamięci operacyjnej: występują u nich trudności w wygaszaniu negatywnych emocji i utrzymywaniu pozytywnych informacji. Zmiany w zakresie sprawności pamięci operacyjnej obecne u osób zmagających się z zaburzeniami afektywnymi mają swoje korelaty neurobiologiczne. W piśmiennictwie dotyczącym badań, w których zastosowano metody neuroobrazowe, nie ma zgodności co do wspólnego wzorca dysfunkcji czynnościowej mózgu u  pacjentów z  zaburzeniami afektywnymi. Z zaburzeniami nastroju najczęściej wiązane są nieprawidłowości w aktywności zarówno obszarów korowych, jak i obszarów podkorowych mózgu w trakcie wykonywania zadań angażujących pamięć operacyjną. Dysfunkcje tej pamięci odgrywają ważną rolę w generowaniu i utrzymywaniu symptomów zaburzeń afektywnych. Co więcej, deficyty neuropsychologiczne występujące u osób ze zdiagnozowaną chorobą afektywną dwubiegunową uważane bywają za charakterystyczną cechę funkcjonowania tych pacjentów. W niniejszej pracy przedstawione zostaną najważniejsze aktualne doniesienia związane ze wskazaną tematyką. Należy prowadzić dalsze badania tego zagadnienia, z dodatkowym uwzględnieniem wpływu przebiegu i obrazu klinicznego choroby na działanie pamięci operacyjnej. Poszukiwania te mogłyby się przyczynić do poprawy jakości procesu diagnostyczno-terapeutycznego

Childhood abuse and reduced cortical thickness in brain regions involved in emotional processing

Alterations in gray matter development represent a potential pathway through which childhood abuse is associated with psychopathology. Several prior studies find reduced volume and thickness of prefrontal (PFC) and temporal cortex regions in abused compared to non-abused adolescents, although most prior research is based on adults and volume-based measures. The current study tests the hypothesis that child abuse, independent of parental education, predicts reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal and temporal cortices as well as reduced gray mater volume (GMV) in subcortical regions during adolescence

Disorder-specific characteristics of borderline personality disorder with co-occurring depression and its comparison with major depression: An fMRI study with emotional interference task

AbstractBorderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are both associated with abnormalities in the regulation of emotion, with BPD being highly comorbid with MDD. Disorder-specific dysfunctions in BPD, however, have hardly been addressed, hence the lack of knowledge pertaining to the specificity of emotion processing deficits and their commonality with MDD.24 healthy comparison subjects, 21 patients with MDD, and 13 patients with comorbid BPD and MDD (BPD+MDD group) were studied using functional MRI. The subjects were required to perform an emotional interference task that entailed categorizing facial affect while ignoring words that labeled the emotional contents of the external stimuli.Collapsing across emotional face types, we observed that participants with BPD+MDD uniquely displayed a greater involvement of the visual areas and the cerebellum. During emotional conflict processing, on the other hand, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) appeared to be affected in both patient groups. In comparison to the HC, the MDD group showed differences also in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL).Thus, our data indicate dysfunctionality in the neural circuitry responsible for emotional conflict control in both disorders. The enhanced visual cortex activation in BPD+MDD suggests the visual system's hyperresponsiveness to faces at an early perceptual level. Not being associated with co-occurring depression, this effect in BPD+MDD appears to represent specific personality traits such as disturbed reactivity toward emotionally expressive facial stimuli

Amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during emotion regulation: A meta-analysis of psychophysiological interactions

Given the importance of emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the development of psychopathology, a myriad of neuroimaging studies has investigated its neural underpinnings. However, single studies usually provide limited insight into the function of specific brain regions. Hence, to better understand the interaction between key regions involved in emotion generation and regulation, we performed a coordinate-based meta-analysis on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that examined emotion regulation-modulated connectivity of the amygdala using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis. We analyzed fifteen PPI studies using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm. Investigating emotion regulation-modulated connectivity independent of regulation strategy and goal revealed convergent connectivity between the amygdala and the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), which was primarily driven by PPI studies implementing reappraisal as a regulation strategy. A more focused analysis testing for effective coupling during the downregulation of emotions by using reappraisal specifically revealed convergent connectivity between the amygdala and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). These prefrontal regions have been implicated in emotion regulatory processes such as working memory (dlPFC), language processes (vlPFC), and the attribution of mental states (dmPFC). Our findings suggest not only a dynamic modulation of connectivity between emotion generative and regulatory systems during the cognitive control of emotions, but also highlight the robustness of task-modulated prefrontal-amygdala coupling, thereby informing neurally-derived models of emotion regulation

Atypical dorsolateral prefrontal activity in females with conduct disorder during effortful emotion regulation

BACKGROUND: Conduct disorder (CD), which is characterized by severe aggressive and antisocial behavior, is linked to emotion processing and regulation deficits. However, the neural correlates of emotion regulation are yet to be investigated in adolescents with CD. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether CD is associated with deficits in emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, or both. METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study effortful emotion regulation by cognitive reappraisal in 59 female adolescents 15 to 18 years of age (30 with a CD diagnosis and 29 typically developing (TD) control adolescents). RESULTS: Behaviorally, in-scanner self-report ratings confirmed successful emotion regulation within each group individually but significant group differences in emotional reactivity and reappraisal success when comparing the groups (CD < TD). Functional magnetic resonance imaging results revealed significantly lower activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and angular gyrus in CD compared with TD adolescents during emotion regulation, but no group differences for emotional reactivity. Furthermore, connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the bilateral putamen, right prefrontal cortex, and amygdala was reduced in CD compared with TD adolescents during reappraisal. Callous-unemotional traits were unrelated to neural activation, but these traits correlated negatively with behavioral reports of emotional reactivity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate reduced prefrontal brain activity and functional connectivity during effortful emotion regulation in female adolescents with CD. This sheds light on the neural basis of the behavioral deficits that have been reported previously. Future studies should investigate whether cognitive interventions are effective in enhancing emotion-regulation abilities and/or normalizing prefrontal and temporoparietal activity in female adolescents with CD

The Dissociative Subtype of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Unique Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes.

Previous studies point towards differential connectivity patterns among basolateral (BLA) and centromedial (CMA) amygdala regions in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as compared to controls. Here, we describe the first study to compare directly connectivity patterns of the BLA and CMA complexes between PTSD patients with and without the dissociative subtype (PTSD+DS and PTSD-DS, respectively). Amygdala connectivity to regulatory prefrontal regions and parietal regions involved in consciousness and proprioception were expected to differ between these two groups based on differential limbic regulation and behavioural symptoms. PTSD patients (n=49), with (n=13) and without (n=36) the dissociative subtype, and age-matched healthy controls (n=40) underwent resting-state fMRI. Bilateral BLA and CMA connectivity patterns were compared using a seed-based approach via SPM Anatomy Toolbox. Among patients with PTSD, the PTSD+DS group exhibited greater amygdala functional connectivity to prefrontal regions involved in emotion regulation (bilateral BLA and left CMA to the middle frontal gyrus and bilateral CMA to the medial frontal gyrus) as compared to the PTSD-DS group. In addition, the PTSD+DS group showed greater amygdala connectivity to regions involved in consciousness, awareness, and proprioception -implicated in depersonalization and derealization (left BLA to superior parietal lobe and cerebellar culmen; left CMA to dorsal posterior cingulate and precuneus). Differences in amygdala complex connectivity to specific brain regions parallel the unique symptom profiles of the PTSD subgroups and point towards unique biological markers of the dissociative subtype of PTSD.Neuropsychopharmacology accepted article preview online, 19 March 2015. doi:10.1038/npp.2015.79

Association between schizophrenia polygenic risk and neural correlates of emotion perception.

The neural correlates of emotion perception have been shown to be significantly altered in schizophrenia (SCZ) patients as well as their healthy relatives, possibly reflecting genetic susceptibility to the disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between SCZ polygenic risk and brain activity whilst testing perception of multisensory, dynamic emotional stimuli. We created SCZ polygenic risk scores (PRS) for a sample of twenty-eight healthy individuals. The PRS was based on data from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and was used as a regressor score in the neuroimaging analysis. The results of a multivariate brain-behaviour analysis show that higher SCZ PRS are related to increased activity in brain regions critical for emotion during the perception of threatening (angry) emotions. These results suggest that individuals with higher SCZ PRS over-activate the neural correlates underlying emotion during perception of threat, perhaps due to an increased experience of fear or neural inefficiency in emotion-regulation areas. Moreover, over-recruitment of emotion regulation regions might function as a compensation to maintain normal emotion regulation during threat perception. If replicated in larger studies, these findings may have important implications for understanding the neurophysiological biomarkers relevant in SCZ