Down-regulation Of Emotions Research Articles

Positive and Detached Reappraisal of Threatening Music in Younger and Older Adults.

Past empirical studies have suggested that older adults preferentially use gaze-based mood regulation to lessen their negative experiences while watching an emotional scene. This preference for a low cognitively demanding regulatory strategy leaves open the question of whether the effortful processing of a more cognitively demanding reappraisal task is really spared from the general age-related decline. Because it does not allow perceptual attention to be redirected away from the emotional source, music provides an ideal way to address this question. The goal of our study was to examine the affective, behavioral, physiological, and cognitive outcomes of positive and detached reappraisal in response to negative musical emotion in younger and older adults. Participants first simply listened to a series of threatening musical excerpts and were then instructed to either positively reappraise or to detach themselves from the emotion elicited by music. Findings showed that, when instructed to simply listen to threatening music, older adults reported a more positive feeling associated with a smaller SCL in comparison with their younger counterparts. When implementing positive and detached reappraisal, participants showed more positive and more aroused emotional experiences, whatever the age group. We also found that the instruction to intentionally reappraise negative emotions results in a lesser cognitive cost for older adults in comparison with younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that, compared to younger adults, older adults engage in spontaneous downregulation of negative affect and successfully implement downregulation instructions. This extends previous findings and brings compelling evidence that, even when auditory attention cannot be redirected away from the emotional source, older adults are still more effective at regulating emotions. Taking into account the age-associated decline in executive functioning, our results suggest that the working memory task could have distracted older adults from the reminiscences of the threat-evoking music, thus resulting in an emotional downregulation. Hence, even if they were instructed to implement reappraisal strategies, older adults might prefer distraction over engagement in reappraisal. This is congruent with the idea that, although getting older, people are more likely to be distracted from a negative source of emotion to maintain their well-being.

Emotion Regulation Modulates Dietary Decision-Making via Activity in the Prefrontal-Striatal Valuation System.

The consumption of indulgent, carbohydrate- and fat-rich foods is often used as a strategy to cope with negative affect because they provide immediate self-reward. Such dietary choices, however, can severely affect people’s health. One countermeasure could be to improve one’s emotion regulation ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural activity underlying the downregulation of incidental emotions and its effect on subsequent food choices. We investigated whether emotion regulation leads to healthier food choices and how emotion regulation interacts with the brain’s valuation and decision-making circuitry. We found that 1) the downregulation of incidental negative emotions was associated with a subsequent selective increase in decisions for tasty but also for healthy foods, 2) food preferences were predicted by palatability but also by the current emotional state, and 3) emotion regulation modulated decision-related activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. These results indicate that emotional states are indeed important for food choice and that the process of emotion regulation might boost the subsequent processing of health attributes, possibly via neural reward circuits. In consequence, our findings suggest that increasing emotion regulation ability could effectively modulate food choices by stimulating an incidental upvaluation of health attributes.

An exploratory component analysis of emotion regulation strategies for improving emotion regulation and emotional eating

Emotion-focused treatments are generally efficacious for improving emotion regulation and consequently, improving clinical symptoms across numerous disorders. However, emotion-focused treatment approaches often contain numerous treatment components, limiting our ability to identify which are most efficacious. As such, the current pilot study sought to isolate three components common across a range of emotion-focused treatments (i.e. emotional awareness, emotion down-regulation, and distress tolerance) and test the impact of each component on (1) emotion regulation and (2) emotional eating behavior. Adults (N = 76) who reported four or more emotional eating episodes in the past month were assigned to attend a one-time, three-hour workshop focused on either awareness, down-regulation or tolerance of emotions, and were subsequently evaluated at one-week and two-weeks follow-up. All groups experienced equivalent improvements in emotional eating at two-weeks follow-up (F [1.47, 85.38 ] = 7.60, p < .01). However, groups showed differential patterns of change across facets of emotion regulation. Improvements in access to healthy emotion regulation strategies was moderately related to improvements in emotional eating in Down-Regulation and Distress Tolerance groups (r [18] = 0.40, r [20] = 0.63, respectively). In the Distress Tolerance group, improvements in emotional eating were moderately related to improvements in acceptance of emotions (r[20] = 0.33) and ability to refrain from impulses (r[20] = 0.41). In the Emotional Awareness group, improvements in emotional acceptance (r[20] = 0.30), awareness (r[20] = 0.38) and clarity (r[20] = 0.39) were moderately related to improvements in emotional eating. While several components of emotion-focused treatments may improve outcomes, each component may demonstrate a unique mechanism of action. Further study is needed to isolate these treatment components in fully powered clinical trials to better understand the mechanisms of action for emotion-focused treatments and ultimately develop more efficient and effective treatment approaches.

Structural brain correlates of irritability and aggression in early manifest Huntington's disease.

In Huntington's disease (HD), irritability and aggressive behavior represent highly prevalent and disabling neuropsychiatric symptoms. However, their structural brain correlates have not been extensively explored. Here, we rated the severity of irritability and aggression (IAs) using the Problem Behaviors Assessment for HD (PBA-s) in 31 early HD participants. The IAs score was computed as the mean severity score for the irritability plus the mean severity aggression PBA-s items. Seventeen patients were classified as IAs (IAs score > 2) and 14 as non-IAs. All participants had available T1-MRI data. A grey matter volume voxel-based morphometry group comparison was performed, using age, motor status, severity of other PBA-s items and disease burden as covariates. Aside from irritability, aggression and obsessive-compulsive behavior, both groups were comparable in terms of other clinical and sociodemographic variables. In the IAs group, a significant reduction of grey-matter volume (GMV) was found in the bilateral caudate, putamen and globus pallidus, left pulvinar nucleus, right superior temporal pole (BA 38), left mid temporal gyrus (BA 21), right inferior temporal gyrus (BA 20) and left medial OPFC (BA 11). Lower GMV in the left pulvinar nucleus was significantly associated with higher anxiety and lower GMV in the left medial OPFC was significantly associated with higher suicidality. In sum, IAs in HD is associated with structural brain damage in a set of key nodes involved in the expression and down-regulation of negative emotions.

Concurrent amygdalar and ventromedial prefrontal cortical responses during emotion processing: a meta-analysis of the effects of valence of emotion and passive exposure versus active regulation.

Anatomically interconnected, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala interact in emotion processing. However, no meta-analyses have focused on studies that reported concurrent vmPFC and amygdala activities. With activation likelihood estimation (ALE) we examined 100 experiments that reported concurrent vmPFC and amygdala activities, and distinguished responses to positive vs. negative emotions and to passive exposure to vs. active regulation of emotions. We also investigated whole-brain experiments for other regional activities. ALE and contrast analyses identified convergent anterior and posterior vmPFC response to passive positive and negative emotions, respectively, and a subregion in between to mixed emotions. A smaller area in the posterior ventral vmPFC is specifically involved in regulation of negative emotion. Whereas bilateral amygdala was involved during emotional exposure, only the left amygdala showed convergent activities during active regulation of negative emotions. Whole-brain analysis showed convergent activity in left ventral striatum for passive exposure to positive emotions and downregulation of negative emotions, and in the posterior cingulate cortex and ventral precuneus for passive exposure to negative emotions. These findings highlight contrasting, valence-specific subregional vmPFC as well as other regional responses during passive exposure to emotions. The findings also suggest that hyperactivation of the vmPFC is associated with diminished right amygdala activities during regulation of negative emotions. Together, the findings extend the literature by specifying the roles of subregional vmPFC and amygdala activities in emotion processing.

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC.

Growing evidence has indicated that right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) is critical in down-regulating emotional responses to social exclusion, and that depression is accompanied by social emotional dysregulation associated with reduced lateral prefrontal engagement. This study used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine whether stimulating RVLPFC could improve emotional down-regulation of social exclusion in individuals with high depressive mood (DM). A total of 96 high and 94 low DM individuals received active or sham tDCS while viewing social exclusion or individual negative pictures under no-reappraisal (passive viewing) and reappraisal conditions. Participants rate their negative emotional experience following the presentation of each image. Pupil diameter and visual fixation duration were also recorded during the task. It was found that tDCS-activated RVLPFC induced a stronger regulation effect on social exclusion than individual negative emotions. The effect of tDCS on regulation of social exclusion was more pronounced in low v. high DM individuals. These findings demonstrate the specific role of RVLPFC on social emotion regulation, which has implications for refining target areas for the treatment of social emotion dysregulation in depression. However the findings do not suggest that high DM individuals benefit from a single-tDCS session on the emotion regulation of social exclusion. Thus we suggest to use multiple tDCS sessions or transcranial magnetic stimulation to further explore the therapeutic proposal in the future.

A multimodal MRI study of the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation impairment in women with obesity

Maladaptive emotion regulation contributes to overeating and impedes weight loss. Our study aimed to compare the voluntary downregulation of negative emotions by means of cognitive reappraisal in adult women with obesity (OB) and female healthy controls (HC) using a data-driven, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach. Women with OB (n = 24) and HC (n = 25) carried out an emotion regulation task during functional MRI scanning. Seed-to-voxel resting-state connectivity patterns derived from activation peaks identified by this task were compared between groups. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to examine white matter microstructure integrity between regions exhibiting group differences in resting-state functional connectivity. Participants in the OB group presented reduced activation in the ventromedial prefrontal (vmPFC) cortex in comparison to the HC group when downregulating negative emotions, along with heightened activation in the extrastriate visual cortex (p < 0.05, AlphaSim-corrected). Moreover, vmPFC peak activity levels during cognitive reappraisal were negatively correlated with self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation. OB patients exhibited decreased functional connectivity between the vmPFC and the temporal pole during rest (peak-pFWE = 0.039). Decreased fractional white-matter track volume in the uncinate fasciculus, which links these two regions, was also found in participants with OB. Taken together, our findings are indicative of emotion regulation deficits in OB being underpinned by dysfunctional hypoactivity in the vmPFC and hyperactivity in the extrastriate visual cortex. Our results provide a potential target circuit for neuromodulatory interventions to improve emotion regulation skills and weight-loss intervention outcomes.

&lt;p&gt;Disorder-specific dysfunction in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and parietal cortex during cognitive reappraisal in anxiety disorder [Letter]&lt;/p&gt;

Dear editor Following our recently published article1 in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, many readers have commented that the effects of comorbid depression cannot be ruled out as a factor in our results, since anxiety disorders and major depression are heterogeneous disorders. We would like to respond to the points made. Impaired cognitive emotion regulation is commonly seen in many psychiatric disorders.2 A recent review concluded that individuals with depressive disorders consistently show decreased activation of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during cognitive reappraisal.3 Moreover, enhanced activity of the amygdala, which is associated with hyperactive bottom-up emotion responses during downregulation of negative emotion, is a disorder-specific deficit in the recruitment of brain regions during cognitive reappraisal in depression disorder.3 Our meta-analysis was intended to provide a comprehensive description of the brain mechanisms underlying cognitive reappraisal deficits in anxiety disorder. We concluded that patients with anxiety disorder could not recruit the frontoparietal network, including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), parietal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area, to down-regulate their emotion responses. Notably, we did not find that abnormalities of vlPFC, dlPFC or amygdala activity were involved in anxiety disorder, which suggests that the cognitive-appraisal-related impairments in emotion regulation that occur in anxiety disorders and major depression have different neural correlates. There are several explanations for our negative findings. First, although we included some patients with anxiety disorder accompanied by depression, they were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis as anxiety disorder was the primary diagnosis. Second, although some studies reported that patients with anxiety disorder showed diminished vlPFC and dlPFC activity during downregulation of negative emotion,1 the results are mixed. Our comprehensive meta-analysis was performed to provide a robust description of the neurobiological underpinnings of anxiety. Third, although patients with major depression consistently show enhanced amygdala activity during cognitive reappraisal,3 none of the eight studies included in the meta-analysis reported enhanced amygdala during cognitive reappraisal in anxiety disorders.1 Using a more stringent significance criterion (p<0.001), we found that during cognitive reappraisal patients with anxiety disorder showed decreased activity relative to healthy controls in the dACC (peak MNI: 4, 12, 42; p=~0; Z =−2.838; voxels =2129) and parietal cortex (peak MNI: −48, −28, 46; p=0.000002563; Z =−2.329; voxels =544); thus, the main findings remained largely unchanged. The dACC is involved in allocating control and attentional resources during cognitive reappraisal,4 whilst parietal cortex is mainly associated with selective attention and may be involved in holding reappraisals in mind.5 Our results indicate that, in anxiety disorder, diminished dACC and parietal cortex activity may impair the allocation of attention and control during cognitive reappraisal. It should be noted that none of the nine major depressive disorder studies we reviewed reported reduced dACC and parietal cortex during cognitive reappraisal.3 Importantly, patients with anxiety disorder, unlike those with major depression, did not show enhanced amygdala activity or reduced vlPFC and dlPFC activity during cognitive reappraisal. Conversely, patient with major depression did not show decreased activation of the dACC and parietal cortex, unlike those with anxiety disorder. We believe, therefore, that the effects of comorbid depression in anxiety disorder on cognitive reappraisal in our meta-analysis are negligible or non-existent. These findings offer insight into the neurobiology of emotion dysregulation in anxiety disorder. They provide robust evidence that frontoparietal network impairments play a key role in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorder. More specifically, it appears that dysfunctions of dACC and parietal cortex, which are involved in allocation of attention and control, are relatively specific to anxiety disorder, rather than depression.

A preliminary study of association between adolescent estradiol level and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity during emotion regulation

Non-human primate models have been useful in clarifying estradiol’s role in cognitive processing. These animal studies indicate estradiol impacts cognitive processes supported by regions within dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Although human functional neuroimaging studies have begun to find similar relationships between estradiol in women for some forms of ‘cold’ cognitive control, to date no studies have examined the relationship between estradiol and DLPFC function in the context of active attempts to regulate one’s emotions. Here, we asked whether peripheral 17-beta estradiol levels in adolescent girls in different pubertal developmental stages (age = 14.9 years ± 1.74) were related to engagement of DLPFC regions during the use of a cognitive strategy for regulating emotion known as reappraisal using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Findings indicated that higher estradiol levels predicted greater DLPFC activity during the down-regulation of negative emotion using reappraisal. This is the first report of an association between estradiol level and DLPFC activity during cognitive reappraisal of negative emotion. The study suggests a possibility that estradiol might positively contribute to regulatory function of a cortical system important for emotional experiences.

"Wise reasoning benefits from emodiversity, irrespective of emotional intensity": Correction to Grossmann, Oakes, and Santos (2019).

Reports an error in "Wise reasoning benefits from emodiversity, irrespective of emotional intensity" by Igor Grossmann, Harrison Oakes and Henri C. Santos (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Advanced Online Publication, Jan 28, 2019, np). In the original article, all references to Study 6 in the text and Table 5 should be omitted. The resulting corrections are included in the erratum. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-03872-001.) The role of emotions in wise reasoning is not well understood. On the one hand, work on emotional regulation suggests that downregulating intense emotions may lead to wiser reasoning. On the other hand, emerging work suggests that recognizing and balancing emotions provides critical insights into life experiences, suggesting an alternative path to wiser reasoning. We present a series of observational, diary, and experimental studies (N = 3,678 participants) addressing these possibilities, examining how wisdom-related characteristics of reasoning-epistemic humility, recognition of a world in flux, self-transcendence, recognition of diverse perspectives on an issue, and search for integration of diverse perspectives/compromise-relate to emotional intensity and to emodiversity (i.e., emotional richness and evenness) in a given situation. Across 5 studies, testing wisdom nominees and examining individual differences and manipulated wise reasoning, wisdom-related characteristics appeared in conjunction with emodiversity, independent of downregulated emotional intensity. The positive association between emodiversity and wisdom-related characteristics occurred consistently for daily challenges, unresolved interpersonal conflicts, as well as political conflicts. The relationship between emotional intensity and wisdom-related characteristics was less systematic, with some studies showing a positive (rather than negative) association between emotional intensity and wisdom. Together, these results demonstrate that wise reasoning does not necessarily require uniform emotional downregulation. Instead, wise reasoning can also benefit from a rich and balanced emotional life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Wise reasoning benefits from emodiversity, irrespective of emotional intensity.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 148(5) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2019-25114-002). In the original article, all references to Study 6 in the text and Table 5 should be omitted. The resulting corrections are included in the erratum. All versions of this article have been corrected.] The role of emotions in wise reasoning is not well understood. On the one hand, work on emotional regulation suggests that downregulating intense emotions may lead to wiser reasoning. On the other hand, emerging work suggests that recognizing and balancing emotions provides critical insights into life experiences, suggesting an alternative path to wiser reasoning. We present a series of observational, diary, and experimental studies (N = 3,678 participants) addressing these possibilities, examining how wisdom-related characteristics of reasoning-epistemic humility, recognition of a world in flux, self-transcendence, recognition of diverse perspectives on an issue, and search for integration of diverse perspectives/compromise-relate to emotional intensity and to emodiversity (i.e., emotional richness and evenness) in a given situation. Across 5 studies, testing wisdom nominees and examining individual differences and manipulated wise reasoning, wisdom-related characteristics appeared in conjunction with emodiversity, independent of downregulated emotional intensity. The positive association between emodiversity and wisdom-related characteristics occurred consistently for daily challenges, unresolved interpersonal conflicts, as well as political conflicts. The relationship between emotional intensity and wisdom-related characteristics was less systematic, with some studies showing a positive (rather than negative) association between emotional intensity and wisdom. Together, these results demonstrate that wise reasoning does not necessarily require uniform emotional downregulation. Instead, wise reasoning can also benefit from a rich and balanced emotional life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Restoring emotional stability: Cortisol effects on the neural network of cognitive emotion regulation

Effective emotion regulation in stressful contexts is a key feature of mental health. Acute stress, however, impairs prefrontal top-down control, probably leading to a decline of emotion regulatory capacities. By contrast, the delayed cortisol increase in response to a stressor or after a pharmacological manipulation has been linked to mood-protecting effects and emotion regulation success. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, healthy men and women received either 30 mg cortisol or placebo 90 min before they were exposed to an emotion regulation paradigm involving neutral and negative pictures. As expected, behavioural and brain imaging data indicated successful induction and downregulation of negative emotions via cognitive reappraisal and distraction. Cortisol enhanced regulatory activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex when participants used distraction and reduced emotion-related activation in the amygdala when regulating emotions via cognitive reappraisal. Together, these findings provide first evidence for a delayed glucocorticoid-induced facilitation of cognitive emotion regulation processes that might be beneficial for restoring emotional stability in the aftermath of stressful events.

Sleep restriction caused impaired emotional regulation without detectable brain activation changes-a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Sleep restriction has been proposed to cause impaired emotional processing and emotional regulation by inhibiting top-down control from prefrontal cortex to amygdala. Intentional emotional regulation after sleep restriction has, however, never been studied using brain imaging. We aimed here to investigate the effect of partial sleep restriction on emotional regulation through cognitive reappraisal. Forty-seven young (age 20–30) and 33 older (age 65–75) participants (38/23 with complete data and successful sleep intervention) performed a cognitive reappraisal task during fMRI after a night of normal sleep and after restricted sleep (3 h). Emotional downregulation was associated with significantly increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (pFWE < 0.05) and lateral orbital cortex (pFWE < 0.05) in young, but not in older subjects. Sleep restriction was associated with a decrease in self-reported regulation success to negative stimuli (p < 0.01) and a trend towards perceiving all stimuli as less negative (p = 0.07) in young participants. No effects of sleep restriction on brain activity nor connectivity were found in either age group. In conclusion, our data do not support the idea of a prefrontal-amygdala disconnect after sleep restriction, and neural mechanisms underlying behavioural effects on emotional regulation after insufficient sleep require further investigation.

The intricate relationship between stress and sex - findings from the men stress 40+ study

Non-human primate models have been useful in clarifying estradiol’s role in cognitive processing. These animal studies indicate estradiol impacts cognitive processes supported by regions within dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Although human functional neuroimaging studies have begun to find similar relationships between estradiol in women for some forms of ‘cold’ cognitive control, to date no studies have examined the relationship between estradiol and DLPFC function in the context of active attempts to regulate one’s emotions. Here, we asked whether peripheral 17-beta estradiol levels in adolescent girls in different pubertal developmental stages (age = 14.9 years ± 1.74) were related to engagement of DLPFC regions during the use of a cognitive strategy for regulating emotion known as reappraisal using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Findings indicated that higher estradiol levels predicted greater DLPFC activity during the down-regulation of negative emotion using reappraisal. This is the first report of an association between estradiol level and DLPFC activity during cognitive reappraisal of negative emotion. The study suggests a possibility that estradiol might positively contribute to regulatory function of a cortical system important for emotional experiences.

Functional reorganization of neural networks involved in emotion regulation following trauma therapy for complex trauma disorders.

ObjectivesWe investigated whether patients with complex interpersonal trauma engage neural networks that are commonly activated during cognitive reappraisal and responding naturally to affect-laden images. In this naturalistic study, we examined whether trauma treatment not only reduces symptoms but also changes neural networks involved in emotional control.MethodsBefore and after eight weeks of phase-oriented inpatient trauma treatment, patients (n = 28) with complex posttraumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) and complex dissociative disorders (CDD) performed a cognitive reappraisal task while electroencephalography (EEG) was registered. Patients were measured as a prototypical dissociative part that aims to fulfill daily life goals while avoiding traumatic memories and associated dissociative parts. Matched healthy controls (n = 38) were measured twice as well. We examined task-related functional connectivity and assessed self-reports of clinical symptoms and emotion regulation skills.ResultsPrior to treatment and compared to controls, patients showed hypoconnectivity within neural networks involved in emotional downregulation while reappraising affect-eliciting pictures as well as viewing neutral and affect-eliciting pictures. Following treatment, connectivity became normalized in these networks comprising regions associated with cognitive control and memory. Additionally, patients showed a treatment-related reduction of negative but not of positive dissociative symptoms.ConclusionsThis is the first study demonstrating that trauma-focused treatment was associated with favorable changes in neural networks involved in emotional control. Emotional overregulation manifesting as negative dissociative symptoms was reduced but not emotional underregulation, manifesting as positive dissociative symptoms.

Habitual Use of Cognitive Reappraisal Is Associated With Decreased Amplitude of the Late Positive Potential (LPP) Elicited by Threatening Pictures

Abstract. In contrast to our knowledge about instructed emotion regulation, rather little is known about the effects of habitual (or “spontaneous”) emotion regulation on neural processing. We analyzed the relationship between everyday use of cognitive reappraisal (measured by the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, ERQ-R), and the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP), which is sensitive to down-regulation of negative emotions via reappraisal. Participants viewed a series of neutral and threatening images, and rated them for level of threat. We found increased LPP amplitude for threatening compared to neutral pictures between 500 and 1,500 ms. Crucially, we found smaller LPP amplitudes to threatening versus neutral pictures for participants who used reappraisal more often in everyday life. This relationship between LPP amplitude and the ERQ-R was observed in the 1,000–1,500 ms interval of the LPP, over right centro-parietal electrodes. The current findings indicate that habitual tendency to use reappraisal is associated with reduced amplitude of the LPP in response to threatening pictures, in the absence of any explicit instruction to regulate emotions.

Emotion-modulated startle reflex during reappraisal: Probe timing and behavioral correlates.

Down-regulation of negative emotions has been shown to reliably inhibit the emotion-modulated startle reflex, but it remains unclear whether the timing of the startle probe influences the quantification of emotion regulation with this measure. Moreover, it is not known whether the degree of startle inhibition corresponds to the subjective attenuation of negative emotions. Therefore, the two main goals of the study were, first, to systematically analyze the effect of probe time on startle inhibition and, second, to explore the association between subjectively perceived down-regulation of arousal and valence and the degree of startle inhibition. We presented negative and neutral pictures to N = 47 participants. Pictures were paired with the instruction to reappraise or to maintain the emotions elicited by these pictures. Probes were delivered at three different times during a 12.5-s regulation phase, and the startle response was measured with electromyography. Valence and arousal ratings were assessed after each trial. Results revealed no significant impact of probe time on startle inhibition during reappraisal. Startle inhibition and perceived down-regulation of arousal were significantly and positively correlated, whereas perceived down-regulation of valence was not. The results provide important implications for future studies in terms of startle probe timing and shed light onto the interpretation of startle inhibition as an indicator of subjective attenuation of negative emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of FAAH genetic variation on fronto-amygdala function during emotional processing.

Recent translational studies identified a common endocannabinoid polymorphism, FAAH C385A, in the gene for the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). This polymorphism alters endocannabinoid anandamide levels, which are known to be involved in the fronto-amygdala circuitry implicated in mood regulation and anxiety-like behaviors. While it has been shown that the variant that selectively enhances fronto-amygdala connectivity at rest is associated with decreased anxiety-like behaviors, no study so far has investigated whether this finding of FAAH-related differential plasticity extends to task-related differential functional expression and regulation during negative emotional processing. Using an imaging genetics approach, this study aimed to replicate and extend prior findings by examining functional activity and task-related connectivity in fronto-amygdala regions during emotion reactivity and emotional down-regulation of negative affect. Therefore, 48 healthy young adults underwent a functional MRI resting state measurement, completed an emotion regulation paradigm and provided self-reports on anxiety and use of emotion regulation strategies. In line with previous studies, preliminary evidence suggests that A-allele carriers demonstrate stronger fronto-amygdala connectivity during rest. In addition, exploratory whole-brain analyses indicate differential functional activity of A-allele carriers during emotion reactivity and emotion regulation. There were no associations with anxiety-related self-reports and use of emotional regulation strategies. Further research using larger samples and polygenic approaches is indicated to clarify the precise role and its underlying mechanisms in emotion processing.

The effects of attentional bias modification on emotion regulation

Background and objectivesIn two experiments, we investigated the effects of Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) on emotion regulation, i.e. the manner in which people influence emotional experiences. We hypothesized that decreases in attentional bias to threat would impair upregulation and improve downregulation of negative emotions, while increases in attentional bias to threat would improve upregulation and impair downregulation of negative emotions. MethodsUsing the emotion-in-motion paradigm (Experiment 1, N = 60) and the visual search task (Experiment 2, N = 58), we trained participants to attend to either threatening or positive stimuli and we assessed emotion intensity while observing, upregulating, and downregulating emotions in response to grids of mixed emotional pictures. ResultsIn Experiment 1, the attend positive group reported more positive emotions while merely watching grids of training pictures and the attend threat group showed impaired upregulation of negative affect. In Experiment 2, the attend threat group reported intensified negative emotions for all three instructions, while the attend positive group remained largely stable over time. LimitationsWe cannot unequivocally attribute these changes in emotion regulation to changes in attentional bias, as neither of the experiments yielded significant changes in attentional bias to threat. ConclusionsBy showing that attentional bias modification procedures affect the manner in which people deal with emotions, we add empirical weight to the conceptual overlap between attentional bias modification and emotion regulation.

Correction to: Think ahead before you regulate: A focus on future consequences predicts choices of and beliefs about strategies for the downregulation of negative emotions

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake in the last paragraph of result section in Study 1.