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Updated: May 12, 2026
Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation
Published on: August 26, 2011
Neural correlates of effective and ineffective mood induction
Nils Kohn1, Irina Falkenberg2, Thilo Kellermann2
1Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, 52070 Aachen, Germany, JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, 52070 Aachen - 52428 Jülich, Germany, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, 35039 Marburg, Germany, Section of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE58AF, UK, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Center Jülich, 52428 Jülich, Germany, and Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104-4283 and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USADepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, 52070 Aachen, Germany, JARA Brain - Translational Brain Medicine, 52070 Aachen - 52428 Jülich, Germany, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, 35039 Marburg, Germany, Section of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE58AF, UK, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Center Jülich, 52428 Jülich, Germany, and Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104-4283 and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USA nkohn@ukaachen.de.
Abstract:
Emotional reactivity and the ability to modulate an emotional state, which are important factors for psychological well-being, are often dysregulated in psychiatric disorders. Neural correlates of emotional states have mostly been studied at the group level, thereby neglecting individual differences in the intensity of emotional experience. This study investigates the relationship between brain activity and interindividual variation in subjective affect ratings. A standardized mood induction (MI) procedure, using positive facial expression and autobiographical memories, was applied to 54 healthy participants (28 female), who rated their subjective affective state before and after the MI. We performed a regression analysis with brain activation during MI and changes in subjective affect ratings. An increase in positive affective ratings correlated with activity in the amygdala, hippocampus and the fusiform gyrus (FFG), whereas reduced positive affect correlated with activity of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. Activations in the amygdala, hippocampus and FFG are possibly linked to strategies adopted by the participants to achieve mood changes. Subgenual cingulate cortex activation has been previously shown to relate to rumination. This finding is in line with previous observations of the subgenual cingulate's role in emotion regulation and its clinical relevance to therapy and prognosis of mood disorders.
