Emotion regulation changes the duration of the BOLD response to emotional stimuli

Abstract

Emotion regulation theories posit that strategies like reappraisal should impact both the intensity and duration of emotional responses. However, research on reappraisal to date has examined almost exclusively its effect on the intensity of responses while failing to examine its effect on the duration of responses. To address this, we used inverse logit functions to estimate the height and duration of hemodynamic responses to negative pictures when individuals with recent life stress were instructed to use reappraisal either to decrease their negative emotion or to increase their positive emotion (relative to unregulated viewing of negative pictures). Several emotion-generative regions such as the amygdala, thalamus and midbrain exhibited decreases in duration of activation, even when controlling for differences in height of activation. In addition, whereas the amygdala exhibited both decreased activation height and duration when participants reappraised to decrease their negative emotion, it only exhibited decreased duration when participants reappraised to increase their positive emotion. These results indicate that emotion regulation alters the temporal dynamics of emotional responding and that models of reappraisal should accommodate whether reappraisal influences the height of activation, duration of activation or both, which may change based on the goal of the reappraisal strategy being used.

How the Lagged and Accumulated Effects of Stress, Coping, and Tasks Affect Mood and Fatigue during Nurses’ Shifts

“…These relationships are not lineal and their effect only persists to the point where no more negative mood is produced despite increasing effort. This result fits with the nonlinear dynamics of effect that is well known in experimental studies in the field of neuroscience [ 60 ] and that is explained by emotional regulation mechanisms; it will be necessary to obtain more evidence in realistic studies to confirm this effect. The effect of stress on fatigue was predicted with precision by the Siegrist model.…”

Blunted neural response to implicit negative facial affect in anorexia nervosa

“…A recent meta-analysis found increased activation of the posterior insula in people with AN relative to HC participants when processing stimuli depicting bodies using a variety of paradigms, including comparing own body to images of slim bodies (Zhu et al, 2012). Among healthy individuals, such increased activation of the bilateral posterior insula has previously been associated with perception and experience of emotions, particularly negative emotions (Duerden, Arsalidou, Lee, & Taylor, 2013;Grecucci, Giorgetta, van't Wout, Bonini, & Sanfey, 2013;Waugh et al, 2016). Furthermore, healthy individuals show increased activation of the posterior insula in response to a task involving up-regulation of others' negative intentions (Grecucci et al, 2013).…”

The relation between rumination and temporal features of emotion intensity

“…This implies that, by definition, emotion regulation should be involved in the temporal pattern of emotion intensity (Kuppens & Verduyn, 2015). Previous research has consistently found that emotion regulation strategies can impact the intensity of emotional experience (Erisman & Roemer, 2010;Gross, 2015;Hemenover, 2003;McRae, Jacobs, Ray, John, & Gross, 2012;Monfort, Stroup, & Waugh, 2015;Pe et al, 2015;Quoidbach, Mikolajczak, & Gross, 2015;Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004;Waugh, Fredrickson, & Taylor, 2008) and even the duration of an emotional response (Brans & Verduyn, 2014;Brans, Van Mechelen, Rimé, & Verduyn, 2013;Verduyn, Van Mechelen, & Tuerlinckx, 2011;Verduyn, Van Mechelen, Kross, Chezzi, & Van Bever, 2012;Waugh et al, 2016). However, these studies have yet to examine how regulation strategies influenced the pattern of emotion unfolding as reflected in emotion explosiveness, accumulation, and reactivation.…”