Rethinking Feelings: An fMRI Study of the Cognitive Regulation of Emotion

Abstract

The ability to cognitively regulate emotional responses to aversive events is important for mental and physical health. Little is known, however, about neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion. The present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural systems used to reappraise highly negative scenes in unemotional terms. Reappraisal of highly negative scenes reduced subjective experience of negative affect. Neural correlates of reappraisal were increased activation of the lateral and medial prefrontal regions and decreased activation of the amygdala and medial orbito-frontal cortex. These findings support the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex is involved in constructing reappraisal strategies that can modulate activity in multiple emotion-processing systems.

Rapid effects of brief intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy on brain glucose metabolism in obsessive-compulsive disorder

“…54 Efferent projections from the aMCC to the amygdala appear to modulate amygdala activity. 55 Activity in the aMCC is positively correlated with the magnitude of decrease in negative affect when subjects reappraise their emotional responses to negative photographs, 52,54 and is negatively correlated with left amygdala activity when subjects label threatening photographs. 56 Thus, in OCD patients, an increase in aMCC activity after intensive CBT could represent an improved ability to reappraise and suppress negative emotional responses, perhaps by inhibiting exaggerated amygdala responses to stimuli that previously provoked obsessional fears and compulsive urges.…”

“…[47][48][49] The aMCC, described as limbic motor cortex that governs response selection, 47 has been shown to be involved in conscious regulation of emotion. The aMCC is activated by several cognitive tasks that are required and emphasized in CBT for OCD: selective attention to one's own emotional responses, 50,51 mindful awareness of one's own emotional state, reappraisal of negative stimuli, 52 and suppression of arousal 53 and negative affect. 54 Efferent projections from the aMCC to the amygdala appear to modulate amygdala activity.…”

Acute Tryptophan Depletion in Healthy Volunteers Enhances Punishment Prediction but Does not Affect Reward Prediction

“…Resilience has been hypothesized to result from cortical, top-down control (from the prefrontal cortex, PFC) over subcortical brain regions that mediate aversive conditioning (eg the amygdala and the dorsal raphe nucleus) (Quirk and Gehlert, 2003;Amat et al, 2005;Pezawas et al, 2005;Urry et al, 2006;Yehuda et al, 2006). In keeping with this hypothesis, recent neuroimaging observations suggest that the PFC controls amygdala activity when subjects are presented with negatively valenced stimuli (Ochsner et al, 2002;Phelps and LeDoux, 2005). Based on previous suggestions that 5-HT conveys resilience to adversity (Deakin and Graeff, 1991;Deakin, 1991;Richell et al, 2005), we hypothesize that ATD disrupts PFC-mediated control over subcortical brain regions, such as the amygdala and/or the dorsal raphe nucleus (Amat et al, 2005;Heinz et al, 2005;Pezawas et al, 2005).…”

Attention training through gaze-contingent feedback: Effects on reappraisal and negative emotions.

“…When instructed to appraise, participants were asked to look at the picture and freely experience the elicited feelings. When instructed to reappraise, participants were asked reinterpret the picture's meaning in a less negative way by changing the emotions, actions, and outcomes of individuals depicted in the picture (Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002). After 10 s, participants' negative emotional experiences were reassessed using the same 9-point rating scale.…”