The functional neuroanatomy of reappraisal: time matters

Humans can regulate their emotional states through a number of effortful cognitive strategies, a type of adaptive behavior not found in animals. The best studied strategy is reappraisal which consists in deliberately changing the emotional interpretation of a stimulus. Reappraisal modulates both subjective and physiological emotional response components and has long-term effects on well-being and mental health. Over the past few years, a rapidly growing neuroimaging literature has attempted to characterize the neural mechanisms that mediate reappraisal, but results have so far been relatively inconsistent. This article provides an overview of the current state of the field and presents a first formal quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging findings. It introduces a new model of the cognitive processes underlying reappraisal which builds on a conceptualization of reappraisal as a temporally extended, dynamic process and partitions reappraisal episodes into an early implementation and a later maintenance stage. In agreement with the model, preliminary evidence from parametric meta-analysis suggests the two stages are supported by distinct frontal networks. Hypotheses for further research are presented.