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Individual differences in some (but not all) medial prefrontal regions reflect cognitive demand while regulating unpleasant emotion.

Urry, H. L., Van Reekum, C. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1516-1101, Johnstone, T. and Davidson, R. J. (2009) Individual differences in some (but not all) medial prefrontal regions reflect cognitive demand while regulating unpleasant emotion. NeuroImage, 47 (3). pp. 852-863. ISSN 1095-9572

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.004

Abstract/Summary

The present study investigated the premise that individual differences in autonomic physiology could be used to specify the nature and consequences of information processing taking place in medial prefrontal regions during cognitive reappraisal of unpleasant pictures. Neural (blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging) and autonomic (electrodermal [EDA], pupil diameter, cardiac acceleration) signals were recorded simultaneously as twenty-six older people (ages 64–66 years) used reappraisal to increase, maintain, or decrease their responses to unpleasant pictures. EDA was higher when increasing and lower when decreasing compared to maintaining. This suggested modulation of emotional arousal by reappraisal. By contrast, pupil diameter and cardiac acceleration were higher when increasing and decreasing compared to maintaining. This suggested modulation of cognitive demand. Importantly, reappraisal-related activation (increase, decrease > maintain) in two medial prefrontal regions (dorsal medial frontal gyrus and dorsal cingulate gyrus) was correlated with greater cardiac acceleration (increase, decrease > maintain) and monotonic changes in EDA (increase > maintain > decrease). These data indicate that these two medial prefrontal regions are involved in the allocation of cognitive resources to regulate unpleasant emotion, and that they modulate emotional arousal in accordance with the regulatory goal. The emotional arousal effects were mediated by the right amygdala. Reappraisal-related activation in a third medial prefrontal region (subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) was not associated with similar patterns of change in any of the autonomic measures, thus highlighting regional specificity in the degree to which cognitive demand is reflected in medial prefrontal activation during reappraisal.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
ID Code:4590
Uncontrolled Keywords:Emotion regulation; Reappraisal; Amygdala; Medial prefrontal cortex; Negative emotion; Pupil dilation; Autonomic physiology
Publisher:Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science

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