Estradiol modulates changes in effective connectivity in emotion regulation networks.

Hormonal changes in ovarian hormones like estradiol (E2) during the menstrual cycle affect emotional processes, including emotion recognition, memory, and regulation. So far, the neural underpinnings of the effect of E2 on emotional experience have been investigated using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional connectivity. In the present study, we examined whether the intrinsic network dynamics at rest (i.e., directed effective connectivity) related to emotion regulation are (1) modulated by E2 levels and (2) linked to behavioral emotion regulation ability. Hence, 29 naturally cycling women participated in two resting-state fMRI scans in their early follicular phase after being administered a placebo or an E2 valerate, respectively. Emotion regulation ability was assessed using a standard emotion regulation task in which participants were asked to down-regulate their emotions in response to negative images. The regions of two functionally predefined neural networks related to emotional down-regulation and reactivity were used to investigate effective connectivity at rest using spectral dynamic causal modelling. We found that E2, compared to placebo, resulted in changes in effective connectivity in both networks. In the regulation network, prefrontal regions showed distinct connectivity in the E2 compared to the placebo condition, while mixed results evolved in the emotional reactivity network. Stepwise regressions revealed that in the E2 condition a connection from the parietal to the prefrontal cortex predicted regulation ability. Our results demonstrate that E2 levels influence effective connectivity in networks underlying emotion regulation and emotional reactivity. Thus, E2 and its potential modification via hormonal administration may play a supporting role in the treatment of mental disorders that show a dysregulation of emotions.

Neural underpinnings of individual differences in emotion regulation: A systematic review.

This review synthesises individual differences in neural processes related to emotion regulation (ER). It comprises individual differences in self-reported and physiological regulation success, self-reported ER-related traits, and demographic variables, to assess their correlation with brain activation during ER tasks. Considering region-of-interest (ROI) and whole-brain analyses, the review incorporated data from 52 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Results can be summarized as follows: (1) Self-reported regulation success (assessed by emotional state ratings after regulation) and self-reported ER-related traits (assessed by questionnaires) correlated with brain activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex. (2) Amygdala activation correlated with ER-related traits only in ROI analyses, while it was associated with regulation success in whole-brain analyses. (3) For demographic and physiological measures, there was no systematic overlap in effects reported across studies. In showing that individual differences in regulation success and ER-related traits can be traced back to differences in the neural activity of brain regions associated with emotional reactivity (amygdala) and cognitive control (lateral prefrontal cortex), our findings can inform prospective personalised intervention models.

Resting-state effective connectivity is systematically linked to reappraisal success of high- and low-intensity negative emotions.

Emotion regulation is a process by which individuals modulate their emotional responses to cope with different environmental demands, for example, by reappraising the emotional situation. Here, we tested whether effective connectivity of a reappraisal-related neural network at rest is predictive of successfully regulating high- and low-intensity negative emotions in an emotion-regulation task. Task-based and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data of 28 participants were collected using ultra-high magnetic field strength at 7 Tesla during three scanning sessions. We used spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) on the rs-fMRI data within brain regions modulated by emotion intensity. We found common connectivity patterns for both high- and low-intensity stimuli. Distinctive effective connectivity patterns in relation to low-intensity stimuli were found from frontal regions connecting to temporal regions. Reappraisal success for high-intensity stimuli was predicted by additional connections within the vlPFC and from temporal to frontal regions. Connectivity patterns at rest predicting reappraisal success were generally more pronounced for low-intensity stimuli, suggesting a greater role of stereotyped patterns, potentially reflecting preparedness, when reappraisal was relatively easy to implement. The opposite was true for high-intensity stimuli, which might require a more flexible recruitment of resources beyond what is reflected in resting state connectivity patterns. Resting-state effective connectivity emerged as a robust predictor for successful reappraisal, revealing both shared and distinct network dynamics for high- and low-intensity stimuli. These patterns signify specific preparatory states associated with heightened vigilance, attention, self-awareness, and goal-directed cognitive processing, particularly during reappraisal for mitigating the emotional impact of external stimuli. Our findings hold potential implications for understanding psychopathological alterations in brain connectivity related to affective disorders.

Cognitive reappraisal of food craving and emotions: a coordinate-based meta-analysis of fMRI studies.

Growing evidence supports the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in down-regulating food desire. Still, the neural bases of food craving down-regulation via reappraisal, as well as their degree of overlap vs specificity compared with emotion down-regulation, remain unclear. We addressed this gap through activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies on the neural bases of (i) food craving down-regulation and (ii) emotion down-regulation, alongside conjunction and subtraction analyses among the resulting maps. Exploratory meta-analyses on activations related to food viewing compared with active regulation and up-regulation of food craving have also been performed. Food and emotion down-regulation via reappraisal consistently engaged overlapping activations in dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal, posterior parietal, pre-supplementary motor and lateral posterior temporal cortices, mainly in the left hemisphere. Its distinctive association with the right anterior/posterior insula and left inferior frontal gyrus suggests that food craving down-regulation entails a more extensive integration of interoceptive information about bodily states and greater inhibitory control over the appetitive urge towards food compared with emotion down-regulation. This evidence is suggestive of unique interoceptive and motivational components elicited by food craving reappraisal, associated with distinctive patterns of fronto-insular activity. These results might inform theoretical models of food craving regulation and prompt novel therapeutic interventions for obesity and eating disorders.

Intrinsic neural network dynamics underlying the ability to down-regulate emotions in male perpetrators of intimate partner violence against women.

Research has pointed to difficulties in emotion regulation as a risk factor for perpetrating intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW). While efforts have been made to understand the brain mechanisms underlying emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal, little is known about the intrinsic neural dynamics supporting this strategy in male perpetrators. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to characterise the network dynamics underlying reappraisal. Spectral dynamic causal modelling was performed to examine the effective connectivity (EC) within a predefined reappraisal-related brain network. 26 men convicted for an IPVAW crime [male perpetrators] were compared to 29 men convicted of other crimes [other offenders] and 29 men with no criminal records [non-offenders]. The ability to down-regulate emotions in response to IPVAW stimuli was used as a covariate to explore its association with male perpetrators' EC. The analysis revealed that (1) compared to non-offenders, both convicted groups exhibited increased EC within prefrontal areas, enhanced EC from prefrontal to temporoparietal regions and decreased EC in the opposite direction; (2) male perpetrators compared to other offenders showed increased EC from temporoparietal to prefrontal regions and, increased EC from the supplementary motor area to frontal areas; (3) connections involving dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were found to be potential predictors of the ability to down-regulate emotions. The study provides a deeper characterisation of the brain architecture of the processes that underlie IPVAW. This knowledge could inform the work of adaptive emotion regulation strategies in intervention programmes for male perpetrators in order to reduce the high recidivism rates.

Individual differences in emotion regulation: Personal tendency in strategy selection is related to implementation capacity and well-being.

Individual differences in emotion regulation (ER) are assumed to play an important role in resilience and mental health. In a standardized laboratory setting, we investigated how the individual tendency to select specific ER strategies (reappraisal vs. distraction) and the capacity to implement these strategies are related (a) to each other and (b) to trait markers of mental health in a nonclinical sample. For 159 participants, individual regulatory tendency and capacity were assessed with established experimental tasks focusing on ER selection and implementation, respectively. Trait markers of mental health were assessed with questionnaires on ER habits, trait resilience, and well-being. We observed that ER tendency and capacity were positively correlated specifically for the condition in which participants were facing negative stimuli of high intensity. Furthermore, while ER capacity was not consistently associated with trait markers of mental health, a higher tendency to choose reappraisal (as opposed to distraction) was associated with higher trait resilience and better well-being. This study is the first to provide experimental evidence that a person's tendency to select a particular ER strategy is associated with the person's capacity to implement it successfully. Moreover, based on experimental data, we confirm an association between reappraisal tendency and mental health that has previously been suggested by questionnaire studies. This points to regulatory selection as a potential target for interventions fostering resilience and mental health. In the next step, intervention studies should clarify whether the association reflects a causal influence of regulation tendency on resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Mood Variability, Craving, and Substance Use Disorders: From Intrinsic Brain Network Connectivity to Daily Life Experience.

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are major contributors to morbidity and mortality rates worldwide, and this global burden is attributable in large part to the chronic nature of these conditions. Increased mood variability might represent a form of emotional dysregulation that may have particular significance for the risk of relapse in SUD, independent of mood severity or diagnostic status. However, the neural biomarkers that underlie mood variability remain poorly understood. METHODS: Ecological momentary assessment was used to assess mood variability, craving, and substance use in real time in 54 patients treated for addiction to alcohol, cannabis, or nicotine and 30 healthy control subjects. Such data were jointly examined relative to spectral dynamic causal modeling of effective brain connectivity within 4 networks involved in emotion generation and regulation. RESULTS: Differences in effective connectivity were related to daily life variability of emotional states experienced by persons with SUD, and mood variability was associated with craving intensity. Relative to the control participants, effective connectivity was decreased for patients in the prefrontal control networks and increased in the emotion generation networks. Findings revealed that effective connectivity within the patient group was modulated by mood variability. CONCLUSIONS: The intrinsic causal dynamics in large-scale neural networks underlying emotion regulation play a predictive role in a patient's susceptibility to experiencing mood variability (and, subsequently, craving) in daily life. The findings represent an important step toward informing interventional research through biomarkers of factors that increase the risk of relapse in persons with SUD.

Reappraisal and empathic perspective-taking - More alike than meets the eyes.

Emotion regulation and empathy represent highly intertwined psychological processes sharing common conceptual ground. Despite the wealth of research in these fields, the joint and distinct functional nature and topological features of these constructs have not yet been investigated using the same experimental approach. This study investigated the common and distinct neural correlates of emotion regulation and empathy using a meta-analytic approach. The regions that were jointly activated were then characterized using meta-analytic connectivity modeling and functional decoding of metadata terms. The results revealed convergent activity within the ventrolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex as well as temporal regions. The functional decoding analysis demonstrated that emotion regulation and empathy were related to highly similar executive and internally oriented processes. This synthesis underlining strong functional and neuronal correspondence between emotion regulation and empathy could (i) facilitate greater integration of these two separate lines of literature, (ii) accelerate progress toward elucidating the neural mechanisms that support social cognition, and (iii) push forward the development of a common theoretical framework for these psychological processes essential to human social interactions.

Brain activation during cognitive reappraisal depending on regulation goals and stimulus valence.

Neural bases of cognitive reappraisal may depend on the direction of regulation (up- or downregulation) and stimulus valence (positive or negative). This study aimed to examine this using a cognitive reappraisal task and conjunction analysis on a relatively large sample of 83 individuals. We identified regions in which activations were common for all these types of emotion regulation. We also investigated differences in brain activation between the 'decrease' and 'increase' emotional response conditions, and between the regulation of negative and positive emotions. The common activation across conditions involved mainly the prefrontal and temporal regions. Decreasing emotions was associated with stronger involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, while increasing with activation of the amygdala and hippocampus. Regulation of negative emotions involved stronger activation of the lateral occipital cortex, while regulation of positive emotions involved stronger activation of the anterior cingulate cortex extending to the medial prefrontal cortex. This study adds to previous findings, not only by doing a conjunction analysis on both emotional valences and regulation goals, but also doing this in a bigger sample size. Results suggest that reappraisal is not a uniform process and may have different neural bases depending on regulation goals and stimulus valence.

Estradiol administration modulates neural emotion regulation.

Variations of sex hormones during the menstrual cycle can lead to changes in emotion processing. The ability to successfully regulate one's emotions is associated with better social abilities and mental health. While women show better performance in fear extinction learning under high estradiol (E2) compared to women under low E2 levels, little is known about the effect of E2 on emotion regulation. We explored whether E2 modulates emotion regulation in a functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm and administered E2 valerate to 32 young naturally cycling women during their early follicular phase in a double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design. This standardized experimental control allowed us to explore the specific effect of E2 on emotion regulation while controlling for other hormones varying throughout the menstrual cycle. Behaviorally, no difference between conditions appeared. However, on the neural level, E2 administration was associated with lower activation in the right lingual- and left calcarine gyrus, right orbitofrontal cortex and left hippocampus relative to placebo. With respect to the main effect of down-regulation higher activation of the right superior frontal gyrus and left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was seen; which is in accordance to previous literature. An interaction between drug condition and emotion regulation appeared for the left inferior frontal gyrus extending into the middle frontal gyrus indicating lower activation during down-regulation in the E2 condition than the placebo condition. On the behavioral level, women reported less negative affect in the E2 condition. The results fit well to a previously described psychoneuroendocrinological model in which E2 plays an important modulatory role on emotional processes and risk factors of mental health in women.

Test-retest reliability of emotion regulation networks using fMRI at ultra-high magnetic field.

Given the importance of emotion regulation in affective disorders, emotion regulation is at the focus of attempts to identify brain biomarkers of disease risk, treatment response, and brain development. However, to be useful as an indicator for individual characteristics of brain functions - particularly as a biomarker in a clinical context - ensuring reliability is a key challenge. Here, we systematically evaluated test-retest reliability of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity within neural networks associated with emotion generation and regulation across three sessions. Acquiring fMRI data at ultra-high field (7T), we examined region- and voxel-wise test-retest reliability of brain activity in response to a well-established emotion regulation task for predefined region-of-interests (ROIs) implicated in four neural networks. Test-retest reliability varied considerably across the emotion regulation networks and respective ROIs. However, core emotion regulation regions, including the ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC and dlPFC) as well as the middle temporal gyrus (MTG) showed high reliability. Our findings thus support the role of these prefrontal and temporal regions as promising candidates for the study of individual differences in emotion regulation as well as for neurobiological biomarkers in clinical neuroscience research.

With a little help from my friends: The effect of social proximity on emotion regulation-related brain activity.

When experiencing negative emotions, individuals often reach out for social support to help regulate their emotions. In times of an acute crisis, however, close friends might not be available, and physical closeness might be impossible. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the effect of social proximity on the effectiveness of social support for regulating emotions and the underlying neural mechanisms. Participants regulated their emotions in response to negative images either alone (intrapersonal regulation), or with help of a picture and supporting sentence provided by the best friend, or by a stranger (interpersonal regulation). Regulation success was enhanced for the support of friends compared to regulating alone or with the support of strangers. This effect was accompanied by the interplay of large-scale brain networks involved in processing emotions, social cognition, and cognitive control. Interpersonal regulation appeared to be implemented by lateral prefrontal regions. The amygdala showed increased activation for strangers. The activation profile of the social cognition network suggests a role in supporting empathic and mentalizing processes. The results highlight the power of social connectedness for boosting emotion regulation ability and the different neural networks that contribute to this effect.

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 down-regulation 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.

Neural patterns during anticipation predict emotion regulation success for reappraisal.

The ability to exert control over emotions, termed emotion regulation (ER), is vital for everyday functioning. ER success may be influenced by processes relating to the anticipation (prior to active regulation) and implementation (during active regulation) of ER strategy use. We investigated whether brain activity patterns recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) during the first second of anticipation and implementation of two ER strategies-distraction and reappraisal-were related to regulation success. Participants viewed negative images that evoked disgust and sadness. Before each image was presented, participants were cued to either passively view the image or decrease their emotional responses. ER success scores were calculated from subsequent self-reported disgust and sadness ratings. Using multivariate support vector regression, ER success scores were predicted from spatiotemporal patterns of event-related potentials during the first second of anticipation and implementation phases of each ER strategy. For both sadness and disgust, reappraisal success could be predicted during anticipation, while distraction success could be predicted during implementation. These findings suggest that early anticipatory cognitive processes are a key determinant of reappraisal success, but may not be similarly important for distraction. This may be because reappraisal is more cognitively demanding than distraction, requiring enhanced preparation of mental resources.

Multiple large-scale neural networks underlying emotion regulation.

Recent models suggest emotion generation, perception, and regulation rely on multiple, interacting large-scale brain networks. Despite the wealth of research in this field, the exact functional nature and different topological features of these neural networks remain elusive. Here, we addressed both using a well-established data-driven meta-analytic grouping approach. We applied k-means clustering to a large set of previously published experiments investigating emotion regulation (independent of strategy, goal and stimulus type) to segregate the results of these experiments into large-scale networks. To elucidate the functional nature of these distinct networks, we used functional decoding of metadata terms (i.e. task-level descriptions and behavioral domains). We identified four large-scale brain networks. The first two were related to regulation and functionally characterized by a stronger focus on response inhibition or executive control versus appraisal or language processing. In contrast, the second two networks were primarily related to emotion generation, appraisal, and physiological processes. We discuss how our findings corroborate and inform contemporary models of emotion regulation and thereby significantly add to the literature.

Emotion Regulation Modulates Dietary Decision-Making via Activity in the Prefrontal-Striatal Valuation System.

The consumption of indulgent, carbohydrate- and fat-rich foods is often used as a strategy to cope with negative affect because they provide immediate self-reward. Such dietary choices, however, can severely affect people's health. One countermeasure could be to improve one's emotion regulation ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural activity underlying the downregulation of incidental emotions and its effect on subsequent food choices. We investigated whether emotion regulation leads to healthier food choices and how emotion regulation interacts with the brain's valuation and decision-making circuitry. We found that 1) the downregulation of incidental negative emotions was associated with a subsequent selective increase in decisions for tasty but also for healthy foods, 2) food preferences were predicted by palatability but also by the current emotional state, and 3) emotion regulation modulated decision-related activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. These results indicate that emotional states are indeed important for food choice and that the process of emotion regulation might boost the subsequent processing of health attributes, possibly via neural reward circuits. In consequence, our findings suggest that increasing emotion regulation ability could effectively modulate food choices by stimulating an incidental upvaluation of health attributes.

The effect of emotion regulation on risk-taking and decision-related activity in prefrontal cortex.

Emotion regulation impacts the expected emotional responses to the outcomes of risky decisions via activation of cognitive control strategies. However, whether the regulation of emotional responses to preceding, incidental stimuli also impacts risk-taking in subsequent decisions is still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the interplay between the regulation of incidentally induced emotional responses and subsequent choice behavior using a risky decision-making task in two independent samples (behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment). We found that overall, emotion regulation was followed by less risky decisions, which was further reflected in an increase in activation in brain regions in dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex. These findings suggest that altering incidental emotions using reappraisal strategies impacts on subsequent risk-taking in decision-making.

Same Same But Different: Processing Words in the Aging Brain.

Reading is not only one of the most appreciated leisure activities of the elderly but it clearly helps older people to maintain functional independence, which has a significant impact on life quality. Yet, very little is known about how aging affects the neural circuits of the processes that underlie skilled reading. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to systematically investigate the neural correlates of sublexical, orthographic, phonological and lexico-semantic processing in the aging brain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we recorded brain activity of younger (N = 20; 22-35 years) and older (N = 38; 65-76 years) adults during letter identification, lexical decision, phonological decision and semantic categorization. Older and younger adults recruited an identical set of reading-related brain regions suggesting that the general architecture of the reading network is preserved across the lifespan. However, we also observed age-related differences in brain activity in the subcomponents of the reading network. Age-related differences were most prominent during phonological and orthographic processing possibly due to a failure of older adults to inhibit non-optimal reading strategies. Neural effects of aging were also observed outside reading-related circuits, especially in frontal midline regions. These regions might be involved because of their important role in memory, attention and executive control functions and their potential role in resting-state networks.

Neurofunctionally dissecting the reading system in children.

The reading system can be broken down into four basic subcomponents in charge of prelexical, orthographic, phonological, and lexico-semantic processes. These processes need to jointly work together to become a fluent and efficient reader. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we systematically analyzed differences in neural activation patterns of these four basic subcomponents in children (N=41, 9-13 years) using tasks specifically tapping each component (letter identification, orthographic decision, phonological decision, and semantic categorization). Regions of interest (ROI) were selected based on a meta-analysis of child reading and included the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOT), left posterior parietal cortex (PPC), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA). Compared to a visual baseline task, enhanced activation in vOT and IFG was observed for all tasks with very little differences between tasks. Activity in the dorsal PPC system was confined to prelexical and phonological processing. Activity in the SMA was found in orthographic, phonological, and lexico-semantic tasks. Our results are consistent with the idea of an early engagement of the vOT accompanied by executive control functions in the frontal system, including the bilateral SMA.