Brain Activation and Functional Connectivity of Reappraisal and Acceptance for Anxious Events

Despite the significant health consequences of anxiety, the neural basis of regulation for personal anxious events is not well understood. We examined brain activity and functional connectivity during cognitive emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and acceptance) for personal anxious events. Functional MRI (fMRI) data were obtained while 35 college students were thinking about (the control condition), reappraising, or accepting their own anxiety-provoking situations. Although reappraisal and acceptance decreased anxiety, no statistically significant differences were observed in the brain activation levels between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and the control condition. However, acceptance decreased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus more than reappraisal. Moreover, functional connectivity with the amygdala and ventral anterior insula distinguished the emotion regulation strategies for anxiety. Reappraisal showed stronger negative functional connectivity with the amygdala and cognitive control regions than other strategies. In addition, reappraisal had negative functional coupling between the ventral anterior insula and temporal pole compared with acceptance. In contrast, acceptance showed stronger positive functional coupling between the ventral anterior insula and precentral and postcentral gyrus compared with the control condition. Our findings contribute to the understanding of emotion regulation processes by revealing the brain activity and functional connectivity patterns in reappraisal and acceptance for personal anxious events.