Prefrontal-subcortical pathways mediating successful emotion regulation.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Affective Neuroscience

Background:

• The prefrontal cortex plays a role in the cognitive regulation of emotion.
• Cortical-subcortical interactions underlying emotion regulation are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms of cognitive reappraisal.
• To identify subcortical pathways mediating the relationship between prefrontal cortex activity and emotion regulation.

Main Methods:

• Functional neuroimaging to identify a right ventrolateral prefrontal region (vlPFC) associated with reduced negative emotion.
• Pathway-mapping analysis to examine subcortical mediation of vlPFC effects.
• Self-report measures of emotional experience during cognitive reappraisal.

Main Results:

• vlPFC activity correlated with reduced negative emotional experience during reappraisal.
• Two distinct subcortical pathways were identified: one through the nucleus accumbens promoting reappraisal success, and another through the ventral amygdala reducing reappraisal success.
• These pathways explained approximately 50% of the variance in self-reported emotion.

Conclusions:

• The right vlPFC is involved in both the generation and regulation of emotion.
• Emotion regulation involves distinct subcortical pathways originating from the vlPFC.
• These findings suggest a general role for the vlPFC in appraisal processes.