Common neural and transcriptional correlates of inhibitory control underlie emotion regulation and memory control.

Nancy Peeters,Guillén Fernández,Nils Kohn,Wei Liu

doi:10.1093/scan/nsaa073

Abstract

Inhibitory control is crucial for regulating emotions and may also enable memory control. However, evidence for their shared neurobiological correlates is limited. Here, we report meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies on emotion regulation, or memory control and link neural commonalities to transcriptional commonalities using the Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA). Based on 95 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we reveal a role of the right inferior parietal lobule embedded in a frontal–parietal–insular network during emotion regulation and memory control, which is similarly recruited during response inhibition. These co-activation patterns also overlap with the networks associated with ‘inhibition’, ‘cognitive control’ and ‘working memory’ when consulting the Neurosynth. Using the AHBA, we demonstrate that emotion regulation- and memory control-related brain activity patterns are associated with transcriptional profiles of a specific set of ‘inhibition-related’ genes. Gene ontology enrichment analysis of these ‘inhibition-related’ genes reveal associations with the neuronal transmission and risk for major psychiatric disorders as well as seizures and alcoholic dependence. In summary, this study identified a neural network and a set of genes associated with inhibitory control across emotion regulation and memory control. These findings facilitate our understanding of the neurobiological correlates of inhibitory control and may contribute to the development of brain stimulation and pharmacological interventions.

Highlights

One of the most influential cognitive theories of emotion regulation proposes that it is primarily supported by inhibitory control (Ochsner and Gross, 2005; Gross and Thompson, 2007)
Based on 95 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we reveal a role of the right inferior parietal lobule embedded in a frontal–parietal–insular network during emotion regulation and memory control, which is recruited during response inhibition
Emotion regulation task consistently led to activation in right insula/inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left IFG, left insula, middle cingulate gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and left supplementary motor area (SMA) (Table 1, Figure 2A)

Summary

Introduction

One of the most influential cognitive theories of emotion regulation proposes that it is primarily supported by inhibitory control (Ochsner and Gross, 2005; Gross and Thompson, 2007). The idea that inhibitory control, as the fundamental cognitive process, supports other higher-level processes such as emotion regulation and memory control is supported by behavioral and neural evidence. Human neuroimaging results showed overlapping recruitment of right superior medial frontal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus in both emotion regulation (Ochsner et al, 2002; Buhle et al, 2014; Kohn et al, 2014) and memory control (Anderson, 2004; Guo et al, 2018). Beyond these frontal regions, the parietal cortex is another candidate region that may play a critical role in both emotion regulation and memory control. Starting from the idea of multiple-demand system in the brain (Duncan, 2010), both the evidence from task fMRI (Fedorenko et al, 2013) and resting-state fMRI (Dosenbach et al, 2007; Power et al, 2011) suggest that a fronto-parietal network supports the initiation of top-down control and control adjustment in response to task goals and feedbacks

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion