Changing Fear: The Neurocircuitry of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

The ability to alter emotional responses as circumstances change is a critical component of normal adaptive behavior and is often impaired in psychological disorders. In this review, we discuss four emotional regulation techniques that have been investigated as means to control fear: extinction, cognitive regulation, active coping, and reconsolidation. For each technique, we review what is known about the underlying neural systems, combining findings from animal models and human neuroscience. The current evidence suggests that these different means of regulating fear depend on both overlapping and distinct components of a fear circuitry.

Distinct neural signatures of threat learning in adolescents and adults

“…Subregions of the PFC also participate during fear learning (11,12). Whereas consistent data link greater ventromedial PFC (VMPFC) activity to reduction in fear during extinction learning (13)(14)(15), more variable findings characterize lateral regions of the PFC.…”

The Body Can Change the Score: Empirical Support for Somatic Regulation in the Treatment of Traumatized Adolescents

“…Brain imaging studies lend additional support, showing neural effects of cognitive strategies. For example, interventions utilizing reappraisal result in decreased activation of the amygdala, the site of negative emotional valuation, as well as increased activation in prefrontal cortex, the site of executive control processes (Hartley and Phelps 2010). While these studies provide evidence supporting the efficacy of cognitive approaches, there is also empirical evidence that during times of stress or dysregulation, individuals are less likely to benefit from cognitive approaches to regulation (Raio et al 2013; Van der Kolk and Fisler 1994).…”

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

“…Because of the limited empirical knowledge of resting-state functional connectivity in PTSD, we hypothesized altered functional connectivity based on systems for associative fear learning such as contextual fear conditioning and extinction retention (Milad et al, 2007), which are wellrecognized models of PTSD (Jovanovic and Ressler, 2010). The prefrontal and sensory-association cortical regions in these systems project primarily to the BLA (Hartley and Phelps, 2010), although recent research has also implicated the CMA in fear learning (LeDoux, 2012). Thus, our first hypothesis was that PTSD would be linked to altered BLA connectivity with key cortical regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Myers and Davis, 2007), ACC (Gilboa et al, 2004), insula (Simmons et al, 2009), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (Morey et al, 2009), and PTSD would be linked to altered CMA connectivity with regions underlying fear expression such as striatum, midbrain, and thalamus (LeDoux, 1998).…”