Functional connectivity predicts the dispositional use of expressive suppression but not cognitive reappraisal

Abstract

Previous research has identified specific brain regions associated with regulating emotion using common strategies such as expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. However, most research focuses on a priori regions and directs participants how to regulate, which may not reflect how people naturally regulate outside the laboratory. Here, we used a data-driven approach to investigate how individual differences in distributed intrinsic functional brain connectivity predict emotion regulation tendency. Specifically, we used connectome-based predictive modeling to extract functional connections in the brain significantly related to the dispositional use of suppression and reappraisal. These edges were then used in a predictive model and cross-validated in novel participants to identify a neural signature that reflects individual differences in the tendency to suppress and reappraise emotion. We found a significant neural signature for the dispositional use of suppression, but not reappraisal. Within this whole-brain signature, the intrinsic connectivity of the default mode network was most informative of suppression tendency. In addition, the predictive performance of this model was significant in males, but not females. These findings help inform how whole-brain networks of functional connectivity characterize how people tend to regulate emotion outside the laboratory.

Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression relate differentially to longitudinal structural brain development across adolescence

“…A positive relation between expressive suppression and cortical thinning use was shown before, albeit only in males (Vijayakumar et al, 2014). Contrary to our findings, sex differences have been demonstrated in relations between indices of brain function and structure and expressive suppression in several studies (Burr et al, 2019;Li et al, 2017;Vijayakumar et al, 2014;Welborn et al, 2009). Still, there is a considerable overlap in regions implicated in expressive suppression in this study and other structural imaging studies of expressive suppression (Li et al, 2017;Welborn et al, 2009).…”

“…Given gender differences in emotional display rules (Safdar et al, 2009), the degree to which these observed differences are biologically or socially driven is unknown. Moreover, fMRI studies (Burr et al, 2019;Whittle, Yü cel, Yap, & Allen, 2011) and structural MRI studies of emotion regulation have indicated group-level sex differences; e.g., greater cortical thinning in predominantly prefrontal cortices in adolescent females related to higher cognitive reappraisal and lower expressive suppression (Vijayakumar et al, 2014). Expressive suppression was also linked to thinner cortices of the superior frontal gyrus and less gray matter volume of the right dorsolateral PFC in males, and more gray matter volume in mPFC in females (Li et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…These regions (particularly the ones in frontal and parietal cortices) also correspond to key structures of the default mode and fronto-parietal networks. Functional connectivity in these networks, which are involved in reflecting over emotions and controlling them, has previously been positively related to expressive suppression (Burr et al, 2019;Pan et al, 2018).…”

Resting State Cortico-Limbic Functional Connectivity and Dispositional Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies: A Replication and Extension Study

“…Our findings not only contrast with the two studies on which we based our a priori hypotheses (Uchida et al, 2015 ; Picó-Pérez et al, 2018 ), they also contradict several other studies that have identified patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity that differ between the dispositional use of ER strategies or are associated with experiential and neuronal reappraisal success (Morawetz et al, 2016 ; Pan et al, 2018 ; Burr et al, 2020 ). Common to these studies is that regions in the default mode network have been identified.…”

“…Common to these studies is that regions in the default mode network have been identified. Particularly, the latest study by Burr et al ( 2020 ) used the largest sample up to date ( N = 1,316) in a data-driven, theory-free approach and found that intrinsic connectivity of the default mode network was associated with dispositional use of suppression (but not reappraisal). Critically, the authors used general functional connectivity (GFC, Elliott et al, 2019 ) to leverage shared features of task and resting-state fMRI and circumvent reported reliability issues of resting-state measures (e.g., Noble et al, 2019 ).…”