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

Abstract

Neuroimaging functional connectivity analyses have shown that the negative coupling between the amygdala and cortical regions is linked to better emotion regulation (ER) in experimental task settings. However, less is known about the neural correlates of ER traits or dispositions. The present study aimed to: (1) replicate the findings of differential cortico-limbic coupling during resting-state depending on the dispositional use of emotion regulation strategies. Furthermore, the study aimed to: (2) extend prior findings by examining whether differences in cortico-limbic coupling during resting-state predict experiential and neuronal ER success in a standard ER task. To this end, N = 107 healthy adults completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), underwent an 8-min resting-state fMRI acquisition, and completed a reappraisal task during fMRI. Functional connectivity maps of basolateral and centromedial amygdala nuclei were estimated with a seed-based approach regarding associations with regions of the prefrontal cortex and were then correlated with ERQ scores as well as experiential and neuronal ER success. All hypotheses and the analysis plan are preregistered at https://osf.io/8wsgu. Opposed to prior findings, we were not able to replicate a correlation of dispositional ER strategy use with functional connectivity between the amygdala and PFC regions (p > 0.05, FWE-corrected). Furthermore, there was no association of experiential and neuronal reappraisal success with functional connectivity between amygdala and insula as well as PFC (p > 0.05, FWE-corrected). The present preregistered study calls into question the reported association between individual differences in resting-state cortico-limbic connectivity and dispositional use of ER strategies. However, ongoing advances in functional brain imaging and distributed network approaches may leverage the identification of reliable functional connectivity patterns that underlie successful emotion regulation.

Should we keep some distance from distancing? Regulatory and post-regulatory effects of emotion downregulation

“…Specifically, emotion-generating regions such as the amygdala have been shown to be responsive to both up- and down-regulation; conversely, regions within the dorsal and ventral frontal cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, and the cingulate cortex are regarded as parts of a common cognitive emotion regulation network [ 12 , 14 , 15 ]. These two systems are assumed to be negatively coupled [ 16 , 17 ], although there have been conflicting findings [ 18 ]. Further research has shown that cortical regions are selectively recruited for the regulation of different kinds of stimuli, for example positive vs. negative [ 19 ], for different regulation goals such as up- vs. down-regulation [ 8 ], and for different of regulation strategies, e.g.…”

Should we keep some distance from distancing? Regulatory and post-regulatory effects of emotion downregulation.

“…This study presents data collected within a larger project on neural correlates and individual differences of ER and its aftereffects (SFB 940 Project A5). Some of the data reported in this article have been reused in three follow-up studies on associations with genetic polymorphisms [20], the relation between emotion regulation and personality [21] in accordance with the a priori specified analysis plan: http://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/223659428 and https://tudresden.de/bereichsuebergreifendes/sfb940/research/a-mechanismen/a5), and on associations with resting-state cortico-limbic connectivity [9]. Results from the present sample on the research questions of this publication have not been reported in any of these publications.…”

“…The study consisted of two sessions, one week apart [see 9,21]. During the first session (60 min), participants performed an adjustment measure (5 min), four runs of an emotion regulation task (36 min), an anatomical scan (8 min) and a re-exposure task (10 min).…”

“…Specifically, emotion-generating brain regions such as the amygdala have been shown to be responsive to both up-and down-regulation; conversely, regions within the dorsal and ventral frontal cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, and the cingulate cortex are regarded as parts of a common cognitive emotion regulation network [4][5][6]. These two systems are assumed to be negatively coupled [7,8], although there have been conflicting findings [9]. Further research has shown that cortical regions are selectively recruited for the regulation of different kinds of stimuli, e.g.…”

Effort beats effectiveness in emotion regulation choice: Differences between suppression and distancing in subjective and physiological measures

“…However, most ER research is done with colored pictures (e.g. Diers et al, 2020;Dörfel, Gärtner, & Scheffel, 2020;Scheffel et al, 2019) and valence and arousal of colored pictures are perceived as higher than for gray scaled pictures (Bekhtereva & Muller, 2017). Therefore, we conducted a second study investigating whether results on subjective arousal ratings and heart period also hold for colored pictures.…”