Reappraising social emotions: the role of inferior frontal gyrus, temporo-parietal junction and insula in interpersonal emotion regulation

Abstract

Previous studies have reported the effect of emotion regulation (ER) strategies on both individual and social decision-making, however, the effect of regulation on socially driven emotions independent of decisions is still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the neural effects of using reappraisal to both up- and down-regulate socially driven emotions. Participants played the Dictator Game (DG) in the role of recipient while undergoing fMRI, and concurrently applied the strategies of either up-regulation (reappraising the proposer's intentions as more negative), down-regulation (reappraising the proposer's intentions as less negative), as well as a baseline “look” condition. Results showed that regions responding to the implementation of reappraisal (effect of strategy, that is, “regulating regions”) were the inferior and middle frontal gyrus, temporo parietal junction and insula bilaterally. Importantly, the middle frontal gyrus activation correlated with the frequency of regulatory strategies in daily life, with the insula activation correlating with the perceived ability to reappraise the emotions elicited by the social situation. Regions regulated by reappraisal (effect of regulation, that is, “regulated regions”) were the striatum, the posterior cingulate and the insula, showing increased activation for the up-regulation and reduced activation for down-regulation, both compared to the baseline condition. When analyzing the separate effects of partners' behavior, selfish behavior produced an activation of the insula, not observed when subjects were treated altruistically. Here we show for the first time that interpersonal ER strategies can strongly affect neural responses when experiencing socially driven emotions. Clinical implications of these findings are also discussed to understand how the way we interpret others' intentions may affect the way we emotionally react.

Deep fusion of multi-channel neurophysiological signal for emotion recognition and monitoring

“…Based on the obtained importance of each single channel, we further sort them as symmetrical pairs in descending order, namely F3-F4, O1-O2, CP1-CP2, C3-C4, P3-P4, T7-T8, P7-P8, AF3-AF4, CP5-CP6, PO3-PO4, FC1-FC2, FP1-FP2, FC5-FC6, F7-F8. The top 50% critical pairs are annotated in Figure 15(c), as we can see they mainly distribute in brain's parietal-temporal-occipital (PTO) region, which is in line with the findings in some neuropsychological works (such as Adolphs, 2002;Grecucci et al, 2013;Sarkheil et al, 2013). These studies provide evidence that the parietal lobe, temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) and occipital lobe are correlated in various emotional information processing.…”

Anxiety and its Regulation: Neural Mechanisms and Regulation Techniques According to the Experiential-Dynamic Approach

“…Participants were instructed to tell the person in the video how to interpret (reappraisal strategy) or suppress (suppression strategy) the emotional content of the video. Participants using interpersonal regulation showed decreased activation of the insula, the temporal-parietal junction, the temporal pole, and the medial prefrontal cortex similar to previous studies on emotion regulation of socially cued emotions [15,17]. Despite methodological limitations, this study showed that regulating others emotions interpersonally is possible.…”

Recent innovations in the field of interpersonal emotion regulation

“…Emotions are most often [1], and most potently [2], elicited in social contexts, and social contexts influence ER strategy selection [3,4]. Furthermore, the use of intrapersonal strategies has social consequences [5][6][7].…”