Coping with emotions past: the neural bases of regulating affect associated with negative autobiographical memories

Pathophysiology in cortico-amygdala circuits and excessive aversion processing: the role of oligodendrocytes and myelination

Stress-related psychiatric illnesses, such as major depressive disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, present with alterations in emotional processing, including excessive processing of negative/aversive stimuli and events. The bidirectional human/primate brain circuit comprising anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala is of fundamental importance in processing emotional stimuli, and in rodents the medial prefrontal cortex-amygdala circuit is to some extent analogous in structure and function. Here, we assess the comparative evidence for: (i) Anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex<->amygdala bidirectional neural circuits as major contributors to aversive stimulus processing; (ii) Structural and functional changes in anterior cingulate cortex<->amygdala circuit associated with excessive aversion processing in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders, and in medial prefrontal cortex<->amygdala circuit in rodent models of chronic stress-induced increased aversion reactivity; and (iii) Altered status of oligodendrocytes and their oligodendrocyte lineage cells and myelination in anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex<->amygdala circuits in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders and stress models. The comparative evidence from humans and rodents is that their respective anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex<->amygdala circuits are integral to adaptive aversion processing. However, at the sub-regional level, the anterior cingulate/medial prefrontal cortex structure-function analogy is incomplete, and differences as well as similarities need to be taken into account. Structure-function imaging studies demonstrate that these neural circuits are altered in both human stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders and rodent models of stress-induced increased aversion processing. In both cases, the changes include altered white matter integrity, albeit the current evidence indicates that this is decreased in humans and increased in rodent models. At the cellular-molecular level, in both humans and rodents, the current evidence is that stress disorders do present with changes in oligodendrocyte lineage, oligodendrocytes and/or myelin in these neural circuits, but these changes are often discordant between and even within species. Nonetheless, by integrating the current comparative evidence, this review provides a timely insight into this field and should function to inform future studies-human, monkey and rodent-to ascertain whether or not the oligodendrocyte lineage and myelination are causally involved in the pathophysiology of stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders.

The impact of past temporal discounting on mental health: Opposite effects of positive and negative event aftertastes over time: Aftertaste and time

Background

Time frees people from bereavement, but also fades childhood happiness, these dynamics can be understood through the framework of past temporal discounting (PTD), which refers to the gradual decrease in affect intensity elicited by recalling positive or negative events over time. Despite its importance, measuring PTD has been challenging, and its impact on real-life outcomes, such as mental health remains unknown.

Method

Here, we employed a longitudinal tracking approach to measure PTD in healthy participants (N = 210) across eight time points. We recorded changes in affect intensity for positive and negative events and examined the impact of PTD on mental health outcomes, including general mental well-being, depression, stress sensitivity, and etc.

Results

The results of Bayesian multilevel modeling indicated that the affect intensity for positive and negative events discounted over time at a gradually decelerating rate. Furthermore, we found that maintaining good mental health heavily depended on rapid PTD of negative events and slow PTD of positive events.

Conclusions

These results provide a comprehensive characterization PTD and demonstrate its importance in maintaining mental health.

Bayesian evaluation of diverging theories of episodic and affective memory distortions in dysphoria

People suffering from dysphoria retrieve autobiographical memories distorted in content and affect, which may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of depression. However, key memory difficulties in dysphoria remain elusive because theories disagree how memories of different valence are altered. Here, we assessed the psychophysiological expression of affect and retrieved episodic detail while participants with dysphoria (but without a diagnosed mental illness) and participants without dysphoria relived positive, negative, and neutral memories. We show that participants with dysphoria retrieve positive memories with diminished episodic detail and negative memories with enhanced detail, compared to participants without dysphoria. This is in line with negativity bias but not overgeneral memory bias theories. According to confirmatory analyses, participants with dysphoria also express diminished positive affect and enhanced negative affect when retrieving happy memories, but exploratory analyses suggest that this increase in negative affect may not be robust. Further confirmatory analyses showed that affective responses to memories are not related to episodic detail and already present during the experience of new emotional events. Our results indicate that affective memory distortions may not emerge from mnemonic processes but from general distortions in positive affect, which challenges assumptions of memory theories and therapeutics. Protocol registration: The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on the 18rd of March 2021. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14605374.v1 .

A neural network underlying cognitive strategies related to eating, weight and body image concerns

Concerns about food intake, weight and body shape can trigger negatively loaded emotions, which may prompt the use of cognitive strategies to regulate these emotional states. A novel fMRI task was developed to assess the neurobehavioral correlates of cognitive strategies related to eating, weight and body image concerns, such as self-criticism, avoidance, rumination, and self-reassurance. Fourteen healthy females were presented audio sentences referring to these conditions and instructed to repeat these internally while engaging their thoughts with the content of food or body images. Participants were asked to report the elicited emotion and rate their performance. All cognitive strategies recruited a network including the inferior and superior frontal gyri, orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and dorsal striatum. These brain regions are involved in emotional, reward and inhibitory control processing. Representational similarity analysis revealed distinct patterns of neural responses for each cognitive strategy. Additionally, self-report measures showed that self-criticism was positively associated with superior frontal gyrus (SFG) activation. Self-compassion scores were negatively correlated with activations in the insula and right putamen, while self-reassurance scores were negatively associated with activity in the orbitofrontal cortex. These findings identify a neural network underlying cognitive strategies related to eating, weight and body image concerns, where neurobehavioral correlation patterns depend on the cognitive strategy.

Rumination-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Reduces Rumination and Targeted Cross-network Connectivity in Youth With a History of Depression: Replication in a Preregistered Randomized Clinical Trial

Background

Rumination-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (RF-CBT) is designed to reduce depressive rumination or the habitual tendency to dwell on experiences in a repetitive, negative, passive, and global manner. RF-CBT uses functional analysis, experiential exercises, and repeated practice to identify and change the ruminative habit. This preregistered randomized clinical trial (NCT03859297, R61) is a preregistered replication of initial work. We hypothesized a concurrent reduction of both self-reported rumination and cross-network connectivity between the left posterior cingulate cortex and right inferior frontal and inferior temporal gyri.

Methods

Seventy-six youths with a history of depression and elevated rumination were randomized to 10 to 14 sessions of RF-CBT (n = 39; 34 completers) or treatment as usual (n = 37; 28 completers). Intent-to-treat analyses assessed pre-post change in rumination response scale and in functional connectivity assessed using two 5 minute, 12 second runs of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results

We replicated previous findings: a significant reduction in rumination response scale and a reduction in left posterior cingulate cortex to right inferior frontal gyrus/inferior temporal gyrus connectivity in participants who received RF-CBT compared with those who received treatment as usual. Reductions were large (z change = 0.84; 0.73, respectively [ps < .05]).

Conclusions

This adolescent clinical trial further demonstrates that depressive rumination is a brain-based mechanism that is modifiable via RF-CBT. Here, we replicated that RF-CBT reduces cross-network connectivity, a possible mechanism by which rumination becomes less frequent, intense, and automatic. This National Institute of Mental Health-funded fast-fail study continues to the R33 phase during which treatment-specific effects of RF-CBT will be compared with relaxation therapy.

Hooked on a thought: Associations between rumination and neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls

Rumination is a significant risk factor for psychopathology in adolescent girls and is associated with heightened and prolonged physiological arousal following social rejection. However, no study has examined how rumination relates to neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls; thus, the current study aimed to address this gap. Adolescent girls (N = 116; ages 16.95-19.09) self-reported on their rumination tendency and completed a social evaluation fMRI task where they received fictitious feedback (acceptance, rejection) from peers they liked or disliked. Rejection-related neural activity and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) connectivity were regressed on rumination, controlling for rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms. Rumination was associated with distinctive neural responses following rejection from liked peers including increased neural activity in the precuneus, inferior parietal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and supplementary motor area (SMA) and reduced sgACC connectivity with multiple regions including medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Greater precuneus and SMA activity mediated the effect of rumination on slower response time to report emotional state after receiving rejection from liked peers. These findings provide clues for distinctive cognitive processes (e.g., mentalizing, conflict processing, memory encoding) following the receipt of rejection in girls with high levels of rumination.

A neural signature of social support mitigates negative emotion

Social support can mitigate the impact of distressing events. Such stress buffering elicits activity in many brain regions, but it remains unclear (1) whether this activity constitutes a stable brain signature, and (2) whether brain activity can predict buffering across people. Here, we developed a neural signature that predicted social buffering of negative emotion in response to real life stressors. During neuroimaging, participants (n = 95) responded to stressful autobiographical memories either naturally, or by imagining a conversation with a peer. Using supervised dimensionality reduction and machine learning techniques, we identified a spatio-temporal neural signature that distinguished between these two trials. Activation of this signature was associated with less negative affect across trials, and people who most activated the signature reported more supportive social connections and lower loneliness outside the lab. Together, this work provides a behaviorally relevant neurophysiological marker for social support that underlies stress buffering.

Convergent abnormality in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in insomnia disorder: A revisited neuroimaging meta-analysis of 39 studies

The neurobiological underpinnings of insomnia disorder (ID) are still poorly understood. A previous meta-analysis conducted by our research group in 2018 revealed no consistent regional alterations based on the limited number of eligible studies. Given the number of studies published during the last few years, we revisited the meta-analysis to provide an update to the field. Following the best-practice guidelines for conducting neuroimaging meta-analyses, we searched several databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and BrainMap) and identified 39 eligible structural and functional studies, reporting coordinates reflecting significant group differences between ID patients and healthy controls. A significant convergent regional alteration in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) was observed using the activation likelihood estimation algorithm. Behavioural decoding using the BrainMap database indicated that this region is involved in fear-related emotional and cognitive processing. The sgACC showed robust task-based co-activation in meta-analytic connectivity modelling and task-free functional connectivity in a resting-state functional connectivity analysis with the main hubs of the salience and default mode networks, including the posterior cingulate cortex and dorsal ACC, amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex. Collectively, the findings from this large-scale meta-analysis suggest a critical role of the sgACC in the pathophysiology of ID.

Prefrontal hypoactivation induced via social stress is more strongly associated with state rumination than depressive symptomatology

Previous studies have consistently shown a pattern of prefrontal hypoactivation in depressed patients (DP); however, it remains unclear whether this neural correlate is a consequence or concomitant feature of depression and/or whether ruminative thinking might be underlying. Using a sample comprising 65 healthy controls (HC) and 77 DP, we investigated the behavioral and neural correlates in response to stress and their association with depressive symptomatology, trait and state rumination. Fitting repeated-measurement MANOVAs including 21 fNIRS-channels covering the bilateral Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG), Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and Somatosensory Association Cortex (SAC), we investigated the predictive value of diagnostic group (HC vs. DP) and state rumination. In DP, we observed significantly lower increases in cortical oxygenation under stress in channels of the right IFG and bilateral DLPFC. Participants reporting lower state rumination and no increases in state rumination under stress showed higher increases in cortical oxygenation compared to the other groups and in more channels compared to the analysis on diagnostic group. Re-running our fNIRS-analysis while correcting for performance resulted in time-dependent changes dependent on group (DP vs. HC) no longer yielding significance, however for the differentiation of state rumination groups.

Comparing reappraisal and acceptance strategies to understand the neural architecture of emotion regulation: a meta-analytic approach

Introduction

In the emotion regulation literature, the amount of neuroimaging studies on cognitive reappraisal led the impression that the same top-down, control-related neural mechanisms characterize all emotion regulation strategies. However, top-down processes may coexist with more bottom-up and emotion-focused processes that partially bypass the recruitment of executive functions. A case in point is acceptance-based strategies.

Method

To better understand neural commonalities and differences behind different emotion regulation processes, in the present study, we applied the Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) method to perform a meta-analysis on fMRI studies investigating task-related activity of reappraisal and acceptance. Both increased and decreased brain activity was taken into account in the contrast and conjunction analysis between the two strategies.

Results

Results showed increased activity in left-inferior frontal gyrus and insula for both strategies, and decreased activity in the basal ganglia for reappraisal, and decreased activity in limbic regions for acceptance.

Discussion

These findings are discussed in the context of a model of common and specific neural mechanisms of emotion regulation that support and expand the previous dual-routes models. We suggest that emotion regulation may rely on a core inhibitory circuit, and on strategy-specific top-down and bottom-up processes distinct for different strategies.

Neural reactivity to neutral and aversive stimuli: Evidence for altered precuneus function in internalizing psychopathologies

Individuals with internalizing psychopathologies (IPs) demonstrate a negativity bias in emotion and self-related processing that contributes to negative interpretation of neutral information. However, most neuroimaging studies of emotional experience in IPs do not specifically investigate reactivity to neutral stimuli. Thus, little is known about the neural processes underlying emotional experience for neutral stimuli and how those processes may differ between groups and during neutral versus negative stimuli. To address this gap, we asked: (1) does neural reactivity to neutral and negative stimuli differ between IPs and control groups in brain regions associated with emotional and self-referential processing, and (2) does neural activity during neutral condition relate to clinical symptoms? Adults with IPs (n = 103) and healthy volunteers (HVs; n = 40) completed a well-validated fMRI task probing neural responses to neutral and negative images. A flexible factorial model revealed a significant group-by-condition interaction, such that individuals with IPs had less precuneus activation during the neutral condition relative to HVs. In IPs, precuneus activation during the neutral condition was negatively correlated with depression symptom severity. Individuals with IPs demonstrate abnormal precuneus reactivity to neutral stimuli that is associated with depression symptoms. This may reflect altered default mode network activity and/or self-referential processing in IPs.

The parcellation of cingulate cortex in neonatal period based on resting-state functional MRI

The human cingulate cortex (CC) is a complex region that is characterized by heterogeneous cytoarchitecture, connectivity, and function, and it is associated with various cognitive functions. The adult CC has been divided into various subregions, and this subdivision is highly consistent with its functional differentiation. However, only a few studies have focused on the function of neonatal CC. The aim of this study was to describe the cingulate segregation and the functional connectivity of each subdivision in full-term neonates (n = 60) based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The neonatal CC was divided into three subregions, and each subregion showed specific connectivity patterns. The anterior cingulate cortex was mainly correlated with brain regions related to the salience (affected) network and default mode network (DMN), the midcingulate cortex was related to motor areas, and the posterior cingulate cortex was coupled with DMN. Moreover, we found that the cingulate subregions showed distinct functional profiles with major brain networks, which were defined using independent component analysis, and exhibited functional lateralization. This study provided new insights into the understanding of the functional specialization of neonatal CC, and these findings may have significant clinical implications, especially in predicting neurological disorder.

The Temporal Dynamics of Emotion Regulation in Subjects With Major Depression and Healthy Control Subjects

BACKGROUND

Emotion regulation (ER) processes help support well-being, but ineffective ER is implicated in several psychiatric disorders. Engaging ER flexibly by going online and offline as needs and capacities shift may be more effective than engaging ER rigidly across time. Here, we sought to observe the neural temporal dynamics of an ER process, reappraisal, during regulation of responses to negative memories in healthy control subjects (n = 33) and subjects with major depressive disorder (n = 36).

METHODS

To track the temporal dynamics of reappraisal neural systems, we used a functional magnetic resonance imaging neural decoding approach. In task 1, subjects explicitly engaged reappraisal on instruction in response to aversive images, and we used this task to develop the decoder for detecting reappraisal. In task 2, subjects experienced negative autobiographical memories from a distant (third person, ER condition) or immersed (first person, control condition) perspective.

RESULTS

The neural decoder, trained to detect reappraisal in task 1, predicted greater reappraisal occurring during the task 2 distance versus immerse trials and was engaged more intensely during memories that were rated as being more negative. Across time, decoder output manifested a temporal dynamic of early engagement followed by disengagement. These results were replicated in an independent subject dataset (n = 59). Relative to healthy control subjects, subjects with major depressive disorder had a comparable initial increase in decoder engagement at the beginning of the trial but an attenuated decrease at the end.

CONCLUSIONS

Subjects with major depressive disorder evidenced a more rigid neural dynamic of reappraisal compared with healthy control subjects. Rigid ER may indicate diminished ability to flexibly and effectively regulate emotion.

Meditation reduces brain activity in the default mode network in children with active cancer and survivors

BACKGROUND

Mounting evidence demonstrates that meditation can lower pain and emotional distress in adults, and more recently, in children. Children may benefit from meditation given its accessibility across a variety of settings (e.g., surgical preparation). Recent neuroimaging studies in adults suggest that meditation techniques are neurobiologically distinct from other forms of emotion regulation, such as distraction, that rely on prefrontal control mechanisms, which are underdeveloped in youth. Rather, meditation techniques may not rely on "top-down" prefrontal control and may therefore be utilized across the lifespan.

PROCEDURE

We examined neural activation in children with cancer, a potentially distressing diagnosis. During neuroimaging, children viewed distress-inducing video clips while using martial arts-based meditation (focused attention, mindful acceptance) or non-meditation (distraction) emotion regulation techniques. In a third condition (control), participants passively viewed the video clip.

RESULTS

We found that meditation techniques were associated with lower activation in default mode network (DMN) regions, including the medial frontal cortex, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex, compared to the control condition. Additionally, we found evidence that meditation techniques may be more effective for modulating DMN activity than distraction. There were no differences in self-reported distress ratings between conditions.

CONCLUSION

Together, these findings suggest that martial arts-based meditation modulates negative self-referential processing associated with the DMN, and may have implications for the management of pediatric pain and negative emotion.

How shifting visual perspective during autobiographical memory retrieval influences emotion: A change in retrieval orientation

Visual perspective during autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval influences how people remember the emotional aspects of memories. Prior research in emotion regulation has also shown that shifting from an own eyes to an observer-like perspective is an efficient way of regulating the affect elicited by emotional AMs. However, the impact of shifting visual perspective is also dependent on the nature of the emotion associated with the event. The current review synthesizes behavioral and functional neuroimaging findings from the event memory and emotion regulation literature that examine how adopting particular visual perspectives and actively shifting across them during retrieval alters emotional experience, by primarily focusing on emotional intensity. We review current theories explaining why shifts in perspectives may or may not change the emotional characteristics of memories, then propose a new theory, suggesting that the own eyes and observer-like perspectives are two different retrieval orientations supported by differential neural activations that lead episodic details to be reconstructed in specific ways.

Altered functional connectivity in emotional subregions of the anterior cingulate cortex in young and middle-aged patients with major depressive disorder: A resting-state fMRI study

BACKGROUND

It has been demonstrated that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has three subregions, involved in behavior, cognition, and emotion. However, the intrinsic connectivity of the ACC subregions in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) is still unclear. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data was used to detect the functional connectivity (FC) of ACC subregions and the correlation with the disease severity in young and middle-aged patients with MDD.

METHODS

A total of 36 young and middle-aged patients with first-episode MDD and 36 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this study. FC was applied to investigate altered connectivity of the ACC subregion in MDD patients compared to HCs. Correlation analysis was then used to assess possible relationship between the neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms in the patient group.

RESULTS

Compared to HCs, young and middle-aged patients had significantly decreased FC between the emotional subregion of the ACC and the hippocampus, thalamus, insula, angular gyrus, and posterior cingulate cortex. The FC between the ACC emotional subregion and the insula, the AG, the RPHG was negatively correlated with depression index. The FC between the ACC emotional subregion and the putamen was positively correlated with depression index.

CONCLUSION

The present findings indicate that abnormal ACC subregions-seeded FC may be implicated in the MDD-related abnormalities of emotion regulation and information processing. And there is a correlation between the above FC changes and the clinical symptoms of young and middle-aged MDD patients. This study may provide preliminary evidence for the ACC-related neural mechanism in young and middle-aged MDD patients and enhance the understanding of the pathophysiology of MDD.

Approaching or Decentering? Differential Neural Networks Underlying Experiential Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Defusion

The current study investigated the bottom-up experiential emotion regulation in comparison to the cognitiveve top down-approach of cognitive defusion. Rooted in an experiential- and client-centered psychotherapeutic approach, experiential emotion regulation involves an active, non-intervening, accepting, open and welcoming approach towards the bodily felt affective experience in a welcoming, compassionate way, expressed in ‘experiential awareness’ in a first phase, and its verbalization or ‘experiential expression’ in a second phase. Defusion refers to the ability to observe one’s thoughts and feelings in a detached manner. Nineteen healthy participants completed an emotion regulation task during fMRI scanning by processing highly arousing negative events by images. Both experiential emotion regulation and cognitive defusion resulted in higher negative emotion compared to a ‘watch’ control condition. On the neurophysiological level, experiential emotion regulation recruited brain areas that regulate attention towards affective- and somatosensorial experience such as the anterior cingulate cortex, the paracingulate gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the prefrontal pole, areas underlying multisensory information integration (e.g., angular gyrus), and linking body states to emotion recognition and awareness (e.g., postcentral gyrus). Experiential emotion regulation, relative to the control condition, also resulted in a higher interaction between the anterior insular cortex and left amygdala while participants experienced less negative emotion. Cognitive defusion decreased activation in the subcortical areas such as the brainstem, the thalamus, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. In contrast to cognitive defusion, experiential emotion regulation relative to demonstrated greater activation in the left angular gyrus, indicating more multisensory information integration. These findings provide insight into different and specific neural networks underlying psychotherapy-based experiential emotion regulation and cognitive defusion.

Nature-Based Meditation, Rumination and Mental Wellbeing

Novel approaches for children and young people (CYP) in the prevention and intervention of mental illness are needed and nature-based interventions (NBI) may be clinically useful. This proof-of-principle study tested the effects of a novel brief nature-based meditation on rumination, depressive symptoms and wellbeing in young people. Sixty-eight university students were randomised to one of three conditions: active control (n = 23), indoor meditation (n = 22) or nature-based meditation (n = 23). Participants completed self-report measures on state and trait rumination post intervention and depression and wellbeing at a 2-week follow-up. Depressive rumination significantly decreased post intervention in the nature condition and depressive symptoms improved for both intervention groups. Wellbeing only significantly improved at follow-up in the nature condition. Nature condition participants demonstrated one minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for wellbeing at follow-up. Depressive symptoms for this condition were below the clinically significant threshold for depression. The number needed to treat (NNT) analysis suggested that two to five young people would need to complete the intervention. Preliminary evidence suggests NBIs, such as the one in the present study, can reduce depressive rumination and symptoms and improve wellbeing. Replication with larger clinical samples is required to substantiate findings.

Traumatic Autobiographical Memories: Preliminary fMRI Findings Among Men With Histories of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with autobiographical memory (AM) disturbances. AM is important for future thinking, sense of self, and coping with negative emotions. CSA is under-researched among men, with research examining long-term neural correlates limited even further. This study explored the neural correlates of re-experiencing traumatic/negative memories to examine the influence of CSA on AM into adulthood. Fifteen males who experienced CSA, with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; CSA+PTSD, n = 6; CSA–PTSD, n = 9) and control males without CSA histories nor PTSD (n = 11) completed a script-driven imagery paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Males with CSA histories, with and without PTSD, processed their negative autobiographical memories with less activation compared to control males. The CSA+PTSD group of males had less activation in the left superior occipital, left superior parietal and left parahippocampal gyri compared to control participants. The CSA–PTSD group had reduced activation in the same regions to a lesser extent. This study provides preliminary empirical evidence to suggest CSA impacts AM for traumatic experiences, and the impact is notable even for men who experienced CSA but do not have PTSD. This study highlights the need for more research with men who have experienced CSA, so that, we can fully understand the neural correlates of emotional memories, and better support the mental health and continued wellness of men who experienced CSA.

BMRMI Reduces Depressive Rumination Possibly through Improving Abnormal FC of Dorsal ACC

Rumination is a common symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD) and has been characterized as a vulnerability factor for the onset or recurrence of MDD. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying rumination and appropriate treatment strategies remain unclear. In the current study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of body-mind relaxation meditation induction (BMRMI) intervention in MDD with rumination. To this aim, we have recruited 25 MDD and 24 healthy controls (HCs). Changes in functional connectivity (FC) of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) subregion and the scores of clinical measurements were examined using correlation analysis. At baseline, MDD showed stronger FC between the right dorsal ACC (dACC) and right superior frontal gyrus than did the HC group. Compared to baseline, the HC group showed a significantly enhanced FC between the right dACC and right superior frontal gyrus, and the MDD group demonstrated a significantly weaker FC between the left dACC and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) after the intervention. Furthermore, the FC between the right dACC and right superior frontal gyrus was positively associated with rumination scores across all participants at baseline. The above results indicate that BMRMI may regulate self-referential processing and cognitive function through modulating FC of the dACC in MDD with rumination.

Enhancing cognitive restructuring with concurrent fMRI-guided neurostimulation for emotional dysregulation-A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Transdiagnostic clinical emotional dysregulation is a key component of many mental health disorders and offers an avenue to address multiple disorders with one transdiagnostic treatment. In the current study, we pilot an intervention that combines a one-time teaching and practice of cognitive restructuring (CR) with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), targeted based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

METHODS

Thirty-seven clinical adults who self-reported high emotional dysregulation were enrolled in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. fMRI was collected as participants were reminded of lifetime stressors and asked to downregulate their distress using CR tactics. fMRI BOLD data were analyzed to identify the cluster of voxels within the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) with the highest activation when participants attempted to downregulate, versus passively remember, distressing memories. Participants underwent active or sham rTMS (10 Hz) over the left dlPFC target while practicing CR following emotional induction using recent autobiographical stressors.

RESULTS

Receiving active versus sham rTMS led to significantly higher high frequency heart rate variability during regulation, lower regulation duration during the intervention, and higher likelihood to use CR during the week following the intervention. There were no differences between conditions when administering neurostimulation alone without the CR skill and compared to sham. Participants in the sham versus active condition experienced less distress the week after the intervention. There were no differences between conditions at the one-month follow up.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that combining active rTMS with emotion regulation training for one session significantly enhances emotion regulation and augments the impact of training for as long as a week. These findings are a promising step towards a combined intervention for transdiagnostic emotion dysregulation.

A Case for Translation From the Clinic to the Laboratory

Laboratory procedures have been used for decades as analogues for clinical processes with the goal of improving our understanding of psychological treatments for emotional disorders and identifying strategies to make treatments more effective. This research has often focused on translation from the laboratory to the clinic. Although this approach has notable successes, it has not been seamless. There are many examples of strategies that work in the laboratory that fail to lead to improved outcomes when applied clinically. One possible reason for this gap between experimental and clinical research is a failure to focus on translation from the clinic to the laboratory. Here, we discuss potential benefits of translation from the clinic to the laboratory and provide examples of how this might be implemented. We first consider two well-established laboratory analogues (extinction and cognitive reappraisal), identify critical aspects of the related clinical procedures (exposure and cognitive restructuring) that are missing from these analogues, and propose variations to better capture the clinical process. Second, we discuss two clinical procedures that have more recently been brought into the laboratory (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing and imagery rescripting). We conclude by highlighting potential implications of this proposed shift in focus for translational research.

Finding positive meaning in memories of negative events adaptively updates memory

Finding positive meaning in past negative memories is associated with enhanced mental health. Yet it remains unclear whether it leads to updates in the memory representation itself. Since memory can be labile after retrieval, this leaves the potential for modification whenever its reactivated. Across four experiments, we show that positively reinterpreting negative memories adaptively updates them, leading to the re-emergence of positivity at future retrieval. Focusing on the positive aspects after negative recall leads to enhanced positive emotion and changes in memory content during recollection one week later, remaining even after two months. Consistent with a reactivation-induced reconsolidation account, memory updating occurs only after a reminder and twenty four hours, but not a one hour delay. Multi-session fMRI showed adaptive updates are reflected in greater hippocampal and ventral striatal pattern dissimilarity across retrievals. This research highlights the mechanisms by which updating of maladaptive memories occurs through a positive emotion-focused strategy.

Childhood urbanicity interacts with polygenic risk for depression to affect stress-related medial prefrontal function

Urbanization is increasing globally, and is associated with stress and increased mental health risks, including for depression. However, it remains unclear, especially at the level of brain function, how urbanicity, social threat stressors, and psychiatric risk may be linked. Here, we aim to define the structural and functional MRI neural correlates of social stress, childhood urbanicity, and their putative mechanistic relevance to depressive illness risk, in terms of behavioral traits and genetics. We studied a sample of healthy adults with divergent urban and rural childhoods. We examined childhood urbanicity effects on brain structure as suggested by MRI, and its functional relevance to depression risk, through interactions between urbanicity and trait anxiety-depression, as well as between urbanicity and polygenic risk for depression, during stress-related medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) engagement. Subjects with divergent rural and urban childhoods were similar in adult socioeconomic status and were genetically homogeneous. Urban childhood was associated with relatively reduced mPFC gray matter volumes as suggested by MRI. MPFC engagement under social status threat correlated with the higher trait anxiety-depression in subjects with urban childhoods, but not in their rural counterparts, implicating an exaggerated physiological response to the threat context with urbanicity, in association with behavioral risk for depression. Stress-associated mPFC engagement also interacted with polygenic risk for depression, significantly predicting a differential mPFC response in individuals with urban but not rural childhoods. Developmental urbanicity, therefore, appears to interact with genetic and behavioral risk for depression on the mPFC neural response to a threat context.

Peer victimization and reactive aggression in junior high-school students: A moderated mediation model of retaliatory normative beliefs and self-perspective

Using an experimental design, we examined whether retaliatory normative beliefs mediated the relation between peer victimization and reactive aggression and whether self-perspective moderated the relations among peer victimization, retaliatory normative beliefs, and reactive aggressive behavior in a sample of 381 junior high-school students (165 girls) in Grades 7 and 8. Findings revealed that retaliatory normative beliefs fully mediated the relation between peer victimization and reactive aggression. Moreover, the mediating effect of retaliatory normative beliefs was moderated by self-perspective. Specifically, for the self-distanced group, peer victimization demonstrated a weaker impact on retaliatory normative beliefs than that of the self-immersed group and the control group. These results suggest that adolescents' beliefs about the acceptability of retaliatory aggression (rather than peer victimization) are directly associated with reactive aggression, and that self-distancing may be a protective factor against retaliatory normative beliefs and reactive aggression in provocative situations. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers

Relational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (pCASL) to investigate the neural signatures of social exclusion and its relationship with individually different extent of previous bullying experience. Twenty-four teenagers reporting bullying experience at different extent were scanned during a virtual ball-tossing (Cyberball game). Our findings showed that social exclusion (relative to social inclusion) activated frontal brain areas: sub- and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (sg/pgACC), left inferior frontal cortex (IFG), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Positive relationship between exclusion-specific signal increase and individually different extents of prior bullying experience was for the first time observed in left IFG and sgACC. This suggests that more frequent prior experience has conditioned greater mentalizing and/or rumination, in order to cope with the situation. While this interpretation remains speculative, the present data show that the experience of being bullied partly sensitizes the neural substrate relevant for the processing of social exclusion.

Neurobiological models of emotion regulation: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of acceptance as an emotion regulation strategy

Emotional acceptance is an important emotion regulation strategy promoted by most psychotherapy approaches. We adopted the Activation Likelihood Estimation technique to obtain a quantitative summary of previous fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies of acceptance and test different hypotheses on its mechanisms of action. The main meta-analysis included 13 experiments contrasting acceptance to control conditions, yielding a total of 422 subjects and 170 foci of brain activity. Additionally, subgroups of studies with different control conditions (react naturally or focus on emotions) were identified and analysed separately. Our results showed executive areas to be affected by acceptance only in the subgroup of studies in which acceptance was compared to natural reactions. In contrast, a cluster of decreased brain activity located in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus was associated with acceptance regardless of the control condition. These findings suggest that high-level executive cortical processes are not a distinctive feature of acceptance, whereas functional deactivations in the PCC/precuneus constitute its specific neural substrate. The neuroimaging of emotional acceptance calls into question a key tenet of current neurobiological models of emotion regulation consisting in the necessary involvement of high-level executive processes to actively modify emotional states, suggesting a complementary role for limbic portions of the default system.

Enhancing reappraisal of negative emotional memories with transcranial direct current stimulation

Reappraisal of negative memories and experiences is central for mental health and well-being. Deficiency of reappraisal lies at the core of many psychiatric disorders and is a key target for treatment. Here we apply transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to enhance reappraisal of negative emotional memories. In a randomised, sham-controlled, 2 × 2 between-subject and double-blinded study, we applied single sessions of anodal and sham tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) of 101 healthy participants while reappraising a personal negative memory or engaging in a control task. We hypothesised that (i) reappraisal decreases negative valence, arousal and evaluations of the memory and leads to improved decision making, and (ii) tDCS leads to additional changes in these reappraisal outcomes. In line with these hypotheses, participants’ personal memories were rated as less negative and less arousing following reappraisal. Anodal tDCS during reappraisal was associated with significant short-term reductions in negative valence compared to sham stimulation. Our results indicate that tDCS may enhance some of the effects of reappraisal. If replicated, our findings suggest potential benefits elicited by tDCS stimulation that may help optimise current treatment approaches for psychiatric disorders.

Role of Gut Microbiota in the Pathophysiology of Stress-Related Disorders: Evidence from Neuroimaging Studies

BACKGROUND

The brain and gut communicate bidirectionally via immune, neurological, and endocrine pathways, which is termed the "brain-gut interaction." Recent studies of gut microbiota as a mediator of this interaction have provided a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests that the gut microbiota influences stress and emotional responses and stress-related disorders.

SUMMARY

Major advances in analytical methods have led to an increased number of studies that combine gut microbiota and neuroimaging, mainly magnetic resonance imaging, to elucidate the mechanisms. Observational studies have been done to examine brain characteristics related to gut microbiota profiles, and intervention studies have examined brain changes related to probiotic intake. Studies of healthy subjects using negative emotional stimuli have shown that the pattern of emotional response differs depending on the gut microbiota profile and that probiotic intervention can modulate emotional response and be a buffer against the negative effects of stress. In studies on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a typical psychosomatic disorder, IBS-specific gut microbiota were reported to contribute to visceral irritability and pain by affecting the subcortical regions. Studies on psychiatric disorders revealed that a relative abundance of Bacteroides that produce γ-aminobutyric acid in feces was associated with a change in brain function specific to depression and that gut microbiota have an influence on abnormalities in the reward system of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Self-distancing and Avoidance Mediate the Links Between Trait Mindfulness and Responses to Emotional Challenges

Objectives

Mindfulness has been linked to better emotion regulation and more adaptive responses to stress across a number of studies, but the mechanisms underlying these links remain to be fully understood. The present study examines links between trait mindfulness (Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire; FFMQ) and participants' responses to common emotional challenges, focusing specifically on the roles of reduced avoidance and more self-distanced engagement as key potential mechanisms driving the adaptive benefits of trait mindfulness.

Methods

Adults (n = 305, age range: 40-72) from the Second Generation Study of the Harvard Study of Adult Development completed two laboratory-based challenges - public speaking combined with difficult math tasks (the Trier Social Stress Test) and writing about a memory of a difficult moment. State anxiety and sadness were assessed immediately before and after the two stressors. To capture different ways of engaging, measures of self-distancing, avoidance, and persistent worry were collected during the lab session.

Results

As predicted, individuals who scored higher on the FFMQ experienced less anxiety and persistent worry in response to the social stressors. The FFMQ was also linked to less anxiety and sadness when writing about a difficult moment. The links between mindfulness and negative emotions after the writing task were independently mediated by self-distanced engagement and lower avoidance.

Conclusions

Affective benefits of trait mindfulness under stress are associated with both the degree and the nature of emotional engagement. Specifically, reduced avoidance and self-distanced engagement may facilitate reflection on negative experiences that is less affectively aversive.

Emotion Naming Impedes Both Cognitive Reappraisal and Mindful Acceptance Strategies of Emotion Regulation

Friends and therapists often encourage people in distress to say how they feel (i.e., name their emotions) with the hope that identifying their emotions will help them cope. Although lay and some psychological theories posit that emotion naming should facilitate subsequent emotion regulation, there is little research directly testing this question. Here, we report on two experimental studies that test how naming the emotions evoked by aversive images impacts subsequent regulation of those emotions. In study 1 (N = 80), participants were randomly assigned into one of four between-subjects conditions in which they either (i) passively observed aversive images, (ii) named the emotions that these images made them feel, (iii) regulated their emotions by reappraising the meaning of images, or (iv) both named and regulated their emotions. Analyses of self-reported negative affect revealed that emotion naming impeded emotion regulation via reappraisal. Participants who named their emotions before reappraising reported feeling worse than those who regulated without naming. Study 2 (N = 60) replicated these findings in a within-participants design, demonstrated that emotion naming also impeded regulation via mindful acceptance, and showed that observed effects were unrelated to a measure of social desirability, thereby mitigating the concern of experimenter demand. Together, these studies show that the impact of emotion naming on emotion regulation opposes common intuitions: instead of facilitating emotion regulation via reappraisal or acceptance, constructing an instance of a specific emotion category by giving it a name may "crystalize" one's affective experience and make it more resistant to modification.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00036-y.

Decentering as a core component in the psychological treatment and prevention of youth anxiety and depression: a narrative review and insight report

Decentering is a ubiquitous therapeutic concept featuring in multiple schools of psychological intervention and science. It describes an ability to notice to day-to-day psychological stressors (negative thoughts, feelings, and memories) from an objective self-perspective and without perseverating on the themes they represent. Thus, decentering dampens the impact and distress associated with psychological stressors that can otherwise increase mental ill health in vulnerable individuals. Importantly, the strengthening of decentering-related abilities has been flagged as a core component of psychological interventions that treat and prevent anxiety and depression. We provide an in-depth review evidence of the salutary effects of decentering with a special focus on youth mental health. This is because adolescence is a critical window for the development of psychopathology but is often under-represented in this research line. A narrative synthesis is presented that integrates and summarizes findings on a range of decentering-related abilities. Section 1 reviews extant conceptualizations of decentering and data-driven approaches to characterize its characteristic. A novel definition is then offered to guide future empirical research. Section 2 overviews laboratory-based research into the development of decentering as well as its relationship with anxiety and depression. Section 3 examines the role decentering-related skills play in psychological interventions for anxiety and depression. Critically, we review evidence that treatment-related increases in decentering predict latter reductions in anxiety and depression severity. Each section highlights important areas for future research. The report concludes by addressing the vital questions of whether, how, why and when decentering alleviates youth anxiety and depression.

Compassion As an Intervention to Attune to Universal Suffering of Self and Others in Conflicts: A Translational Framework

As interpersonal, racial, social, and international conflicts intensify in the world, it is important to safeguard the mental health of individuals affected by them. According to a Buddhist notion "if you want others to be happy, practice compassion; if you want to be happy, practice compassion," compassion practice is an intervention to cultivate conflict-proof well-being. Here, compassion practice refers to a form of concentrated meditation wherein a practitioner attunes to friend, enemy, and someone in between, thinking, "I'm going to help them (equally)." The compassion meditation is based on Buddhist philosophy that mental suffering is rooted in conceptual thoughts that give rise to generic mental images of self and others and subsequent biases to preserve one's egoism, blocking the ultimate nature of mind. To contextualize compassion meditation scientifically, we adopted a Bayesian active inference framework to incorporate relevant Buddhist concepts, including mind (buddhi), compassion (karuna), aggregates (skandhas), suffering (duhkha), reification (samaropa), conceptual thoughts (vikalpa), and superimposition (prapañca). In this framework, a person is considered a Bayesian Engine that actively constructs phenomena based on the aggregates of forms, sensations, discriminations, actions, and consciousness. When the person embodies rigid beliefs about self and others' identities (identity-grasping beliefs) and the resulting ego-preserving bias, the person's Bayesian Engine malfunctions, failing to use prediction errors to update prior beliefs. To counter this problem, after recognizing the causes of sufferings, a practitioner of the compassion meditation aims to attune to all others equally, friends and enemies alike, suspend identity-based conceptual thoughts, and eventually let go of any identity-grasping belief and ego-preserving bias that obscure reality. We present a brain model for the Bayesian Engine of three components: (a) Relation-Modeling, (b) Reality-Checking, and (c) Conflict-Alarming, which are subserved by (a) the Default-Mode Network (DMN), (b) Frontoparietal Network (FPN) and Ventral Attention Network (VAN), and (c) Salience Network (SN), respectively. Upon perceiving conflicts, the strengthening or weakening of ego-preserving bias will critically depend on whether the SN up-regulates the DMN or FPN/VAN, respectively. We propose that compassion meditation can strengthen brain regions that are conducive for suspending prior beliefs and enhancing the attunements to the counterparts in conflicts.

Anxiety Regulation: From Affective Neuroscience to Clinical Practice

According to psychoanalysis, anxiety signals a threat whenever a forbidden feeling emerges. Anxiety triggers defenses and maladaptive behaviors, thus leading to clinical problems. For these reasons, anxiety regulation is a core aspect of psychodynamic-oriented treatments to help clients. In the present theoretical paper, we review and discuss anxiety generation and dysregulation, first from a neural point of view, presenting findings from neuroimaging and psychophysiological studies. The aim is to trace parallels with psychodynamic theories of anxiety. Then, we discuss the psychological mechanisms and neural bases of emotion regulation in the laboratory, and possible neurobiological mechanisms of anxiety regulation in psychotherapy. We describe two different approaches to emotion/anxiety regulation, one based on the standard cognitive model of emotion regulation, the other based on psychodynamic principles and affective neuroscience. We then illustrate in detail a dynamic experiential approach to regulation. This model claims that emotions arise before cognition and are not inherently dysregulated. Dysregulation emerges from co-occurrences of emotions and associated anxiety. Technical consequences of this model are discussed and include strategies to regulate anxiety.

Flexibility between immersion and distancing: A dynamic pattern with effect on depressive symptoms

Objective: Recent studies on immersion (first-person perspective) and distancing (third-person perspective) in psychotherapy have shown the potential of both perspectives in the treatment of depression. High levels of change were associated with transitions between immersion and distancing, suggesting that a dynamic pattern between them may result in a more adaptive view of reality. This study aimed to assess if higher flexibility between these perspectives, during clientś reflection on negative experiences in the intermediate phase, is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms at the end of treatment. Method: We analyzed the flexibility through frequency and magnitude of transitions between immersion and distancing, in representative sessions of the intermediate phase of therapy in 17 cases with depression. Results: The results showed that the higher frequency and lower magnitude in the intermediate phase predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms at the end of treatment. Conclusion: Immersion and distancing seem to work as dynamic processes, and greater flexibility between them in intermediate phase of therapy, characterized by frequent and fast transitions between the two perspectives, may be an adaptive pattern due to its effect on post treatment depressive symptoms.

Non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation decreases brain activity during trauma scripts

Background:

Traumatic stress can have lasting effects on neurobiology and result in psychiatric conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We hypothesize that non-invasive cervical vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) may alleviate trauma symptoms by reducing stress sympathetic reactivity. This study examined how nVNS alters neural responses to personalized traumatic scripts.

Methods:

Nineteen participants who had experienced trauma but did not have the diagnosis of PTSD completed this double-blind sham-controlled study. In three sequential time blocks, personalized traumatic scripts were presented to participants immediately followed by either sham stimulation (n = 8; 0–14 V, 0.2 Hz, pulse width = 5s) or active nVNS (n = 11; 0–30 V, 25 Hz, pulse width = 40 ms). Brain activity during traumatic scripts was assessed using High Resolution Positron Emission Tomography (HR-PET) with radiolabeled water to measure brain blood flow.

Results:

Traumatic scripts resulted in significant activations within the bilateral medial and orbital prefrontal cortex, premotor cortex, anterior cingulate, thalamus, insula, hippocampus, right amygdala, and right putamen. Greater activation was observed during sham stimulation compared to nVNS within the bilateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, premotor cortex, temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, and left anterior cingulate. During the first exposure to the trauma scripts, greater activations were found in the motor cortices and ventral visual stream whereas prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate activations were more predominant with later script presentations for those subjects receiving sham stimulation.

Conclusion:

nVNS decreases neural reactivity to an emotional stressor in limbic and other brain areas involved in stress, with changes over repeated exposures suggesting a shift from scene appraisal to cognitively processing the emotional event.

Can't get it off my brain: Meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on perseverative cognition

Perseverative cognition (i.e. rumination and worry) describes intrusive, uncontrollable, repetitive thoughts. These negative affective experiences are accompanied by physiological arousal, as if the individual were facing an external stressor. Perseverative cognition is a transdiagnostic symptom, yet studies of neural mechanisms are largely restricted to specific clinical populations (e.g. patients with major depression). The present study applied activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses to 43 functional neuroimaging studies of perseverative cognition to elucidate the neurobiological substrates across individuals with and without psychopathological conditions. Task-related and resting state functional connectivity studies were examined in separate meta-analyses. Across task-based studies, perseverative cognition engaged medial frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, insula, and posterior cingulate cortex. Resting state functional connectivity studies similarly implicated posterior cingulate cortex together with thalamus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), yet the involvement of ACC distinguished between perseverative cognition in healthy controls (HC) and clinical groups. Perseverative cognition is accompanied by the engagement of prefrontal, insula and cingulate regions, whose interaction may support the characteristic conjunction of self-referential and affective processing with (aberrant) cognitive control and embodied (autonomic) arousal. Within this context, ACC engagement appears critical for the pathological expression of rumination and worry.

Performance and Material-Dependent Holistic Representation of Unconscious Thought: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Psychological research has demonstrated that humans can think unconsciously. Unconscious thought (UT) refers to cognitive or affective decision-related processes that occur beyond conscious awareness. UT processes are considered more effective in complex decision-making than conscious thought (CT). In addition, holistic representation plays a key role in UT and consists of a multimodal, value-related cognitive process. While the neural correlates of UT have recently been investigated, the holistic representation hypothesis of UT has not been confirmed. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to further evaluate this hypothesis by utilizing two UT tasks (person and consumer-product evaluations) in conjunction with an improved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental protocol. Participants evaluated four alternatives with 12 attributes each. In the UT condition, once the decision information had been presented, the participants completed a 1-back task for 120 s and evaluated each alternative, as well as an independent 1-back task in the absence of any decision information. We then performed regression analysis of the UT performance in both tasks. Our results revealed a positive correlation between performance in the UT task and the use of the anterior part of the precuneus/paracentral lobule in the person evaluation task and between performance and the posterior part of the precuneus, postcentral gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and superior parietal lobule in the consumer-product evaluation task. The involvement of the precuneus area in both tasks was indicative of a multimodal, value-related process and is consistent with the features of holistic representation, supporting a central role for holistic representation in UT. Furthermore, the involvement of different precuneus subregions in the two UT tasks may reflect the task dependency of the key representation critical for advantageous UT.

Investigations into ventral prefrontal cortex using mediation models

The ventral prefrontal cortex (vPFC) is a major focus of investigation in neuroscience, particularly in the studies of emotion and emotion-cognition integration. A crucial question concerning the regulatory function of vPFC is how it is recruited, especially how the function maps onto the structure and determines appropriate behavior. In social exclusion studies, mediation model analyses suggest that vPFC regulates distress by disrupting anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activities, whereas I recently report (Hu, 2018; Neuropsychologia) that ventral medial prefrontal cortex appears to defend the organism from acute stress by activating ACC. In this review, I synthesize and highlight functional imaging research with mediation analysis that over the past decades has begun to offer new insights into the brain mechanisms underlying vPFC. Toward this end, the first section of the paper outlines a model of the processes and neural systems involved in the interaction of emotion and cognition. The second and third sections survey recent research on emotional regulation with negative and positive pathways, respectively, emanating from vPFC. The fourth section summarizes the current dynamic network findings. Functional mediation analysis helps to identify signals within vPFC and others that are common and/or specific to particular information processing. Finally, I provide a personal perspective of the adoption of mediation model analysis in the investigations into vPFC.

Functional connectivity of reflective and brooding rumination in depressed and healthy women

Ruminative thinking is related to an increased risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) and perpetuates negative mood states. Rumination, uncontrollable negative thoughts about the self, may comprise both reflective and brooding components. However, only brooding rumination is consistently associated with increased negativity bias and negative coping styles, while reflective rumination has a less clear relationship with negative outcomes in healthy and depressed participants. The current study examined seed-to-voxel (S2.V) resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in a sample of healthy (HC) and depressed (MDD) adult women (HC: n=50, MDD: n=33). The S2V FC of six key brain regions, including the left and right amygdala, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex (ACC, PCC), and medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (mPFC, dlPFC), was correlated with self-reported reflective and brooding rumination. Results indicate that HC and MDD participants had increased brooding rumination associated with decreased FC between the left amygdala and the right temporal pole. Moreover, reflective rumination was associated with distinct FC of the mPFC, PCC, and ACC with parietal, occipital, and cingulate regions. Depressed participants, compared with HC, exhibited decreased FC between the PCC and a region in the right middle frontal gyrus. The results of the current study add to the understanding of the neural underpinnings of different forms of self-related cognition-brooding and reflective rumination-in healthy and depressed women.

Human Pregenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Structural, Functional, and Connectional Heterogeneity

The human pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) encompasses 7 distinct cyto- and receptorarchitectonic areas. We lack a detailed understanding of the functions in which they are involved, and stereotaxic maps are not available. We present an integrated structural/functional map of pACC based on probabilistic cytoarchitectonic mapping and meta-analytic connectivity modeling and quantitative functional decoding. Due to the restricted spatial resolution of functional imaging data relative to the microstructural parcellation, areas p24a of the callosal sulcus and p24b on the surface of the cingulate gyrus were merged into a "gyral component" (p24ab) of area p24, and areas pv24c, pd24cv, and pd24cd, located within the cingulate sulcus were merged into a "sulcal component" (p24c) for meta-analytic analysis. Area p24ab was specifically associated with interoception, p24c with the inhibition of action, and p32, which was also activated by emotion induction tasks pertaining negatively valenced stimuli, with the ability to experience empathy. Thus, area p32 could be classified as cingulate association cortex playing a crucial role in the cognitive regulation of emotion. By this spectrum of functions, pACC is a structurally and functionally heterogeneous region, clearly differing from other parts of the anterior and middle cingulate cortex.

Resting-state functional connectivity and inflexibility of daily emotions in major depression

BACKGROUND

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is characterized by aberrant resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in anterior cingulate regions (e.g., subgenual anterior cingulate [sgACC]) and by negative emotional functioning that is inflexible or resistant to change.

METHODS

MDD (N = 33) and control (CTL; N = 31) adults completed a resting-state scan, followed by a smartphone-based Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) protocol surveying 10 positive and negative emotions 5 times per day for 21 days. We used multilevel modeling to assess moment-to-moment emotional inflexibility (i.e., strong temporal connections between emotions). We examined group differences in whole-brain FC analysis of bilateral sgACC, and then examined associations between emotional experiences and the extracted FC values within each group.

RESULTS

As predicted, MDDs had inflexibility in sadness and avoidance (p < .001, FDR-corrected p < .05), indicating that these emotional experiences persist in depression. MDDs showed weaker FC between the right sgACC and pregenual/dorsal anterior cingulate (pg/dACC) than did CTLs (FWE-corrected, voxelwise p = .01). Importantly, sgACC-pg/dACC FC predicted sadness inflexibility in both MDDs (p = .046) and CTLs (p = .033), suggesting that sgACC FC is associated with day-to-day negative emotions.

LIMITATIONS

Other maladaptive behaviors likely also affect the flexibility of negative emotions. We cannot generalize our finding of a positive relation between sgACC FC and inflexibility of sadness to individuals with more chronic depression or who have recovered from depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Our preliminary findings suggest that connections between portions of the ACC contribute to the persistence of negative emotions and are important in identifying a brain mechanism that may underlie the maintenance of sadness in daily life.

Inhibitory control of emotional processing: Theoretical and empirical considerations

Although inhibitory control appears to support successful emotion regulation (ER; Joorman and Gotlib, 2010; McCabe et al., 2010), few emotion inhibition studies position themselves in the literature on ER, and even fewer ER studies reference the role of emotion inhibition. Perhaps contributing to this, the ER literature is frequently divided into implicit or "automatic" (which subsumes emotion inhibition) and explicit or "effortful" control (Braunstein et al., 2017; Gyurak et al., 2011). The present paper evaluates relationships among constructs of inhibitory control, emotion inhibition, and ER to assess neural evidence for and against distinctions between implicit and explicit ER. We argue that, whereas the distinction between implicit and explicit ER may appear organizationally or conceptually helpful, such categorical distinctions are not supported by available research and in fact contribute to imbalances in the research literature.

Convergent Neural Correlates of Empathy and Anxiety During Socioemotional Processing

Empathy is characterized by the ability to understand and share an emotional experience with another person and is closely tied to compassion and concern for others. Consequently, this increased emotional awareness and sensitivity may also be related to increased anxiety. Taken from another perspective, higher general anxiety may translate into increased concern for others, or concern for how one's actions might affect others, and therefore may be linked to increased empathy. Furthermore, self-reflection is positively related to perspective-taking and empathic concern, while rumination is closely tied to anxiety, thus providing an additional connecting point between empathy and anxiety through enhanced internally generated thought. While previous literature suggests a relationship between empathy and anxiety, this has yet to be empirically studied using neuroimaging tools aimed at investigating the underlying neural correlates that may support these convergent responses. We therefore conducted an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (N = 49) in which participants viewed fearful and neutral human faces and rated how the faces made them feel, to promote introspection. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing empathy Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ), trait anxiety State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), worry Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and rumination Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS). Behaviorally, empathy positively correlated with worry, worry and rumination positively correlated with anxiety, and significant indirect relationships were found between empathy and anxiety through worry and rumination. Using the neuroimaging face processing task as a backdrop on which the neurobiological mechanisms of empathy and anxiety may interact, regressions of questionnaires with brain activations revealed that empathy related to activation in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), anxiety related to bilateral insula activation, and worry related to medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation, while rumination showed increased engagement of all three aforementioned regions. Functional connectivity (FC) analyses showed increased communication between the left amygdala and insula related to higher empathy, worry and rumination. Finally, whole-brain analysis using median split groups from questionnaires revealed that the lower halves of anxiety, worry and rumination exhibited increased activation in top-down attentional networks. In sum, empathy, worry and rumination related to enhanced bottom-up processing, while worry, rumination and anxiety exhibited decreased top-down attentional control, suggesting an indirect relationship between empathy and anxiety through the ruminative tendencies of worry.

Rumination related activity in brain networks mediating attentional switching in euthymic bipolar patients

Introduction

Mood disorder patients have a tendency to be more internally oriented, with difficulties in switching attentional focus, which might result in the generation of negative thoughts, such as rumination. The present study explored self-referential neural activity correlating with rumination tendency and attentional switching capacity in bipolar disorder.

Methods

Twenty euthymic bipolar patients and twenty matched healthy controls underwent a novel introspection task of switching between internally and externally focused attention during a word processing task, while their brain activity was assessed using functional MRI.

Results

During internal focus, higher activity in self-related regions (mPFC, PCC) was found in euthymic bipolar patients as compared to controls, verifying the hypothesis of exaggerated recruitment of self-referential processes in bipolar subjects. Switching from internal to external focus revealed higher parahippocampal activity in patients as compared to controls, additionally more pronounced when switching away from negative as compared to positive self-referential information. Furthermore, rumination traits correlated with activity in PCC, subgenual and pregenual ACC, and bilateral anterior insula during repetition of internal focus, specifically when evaluating negative words. Finally, we used ACC subregions that correlated with tendency to ruminate as seeds for a whole brain connectivity analysis. Patients showed stronger connectivity between sgACC (seed), pgACC, dPFC, and anterior insula during internal focus, whereas pgACC (seed) was more strongly connected to parahippocampal gyrus when switching from internal to external focus.

Conclusions

These findings reveal an overactive rumination-related network whose activity is enhanced by negative information in euthymic bipolar patients, which could possibly contribute to impaired switching of thoughts away from internal attention.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s40345-018-0137-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.