Expressive suppression moderates the relationship between brain volume and mental health

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Mental Health

Background:

• Emotion regulation is vital for psychological and physiological well-being.
• Neuroimaging studies link emotion regulation strategies to brain volume in healthy adults.
• The moderating role of emotion regulation in brain volume-mental health associations is under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• Cluster participants based on emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) and mental health scores.
• Compare brain volumes in emotion regulation-associated regions across clusters.
• Investigate if emotion regulation strategies moderate brain volume-mental health relationships.

Main Methods:

• Unsupervised clustering of 53 healthy adults based on emotion regulation and mental health data.
• Structural MRI (T1-weighted) to assess brain volume.
• Moderation analyses to examine the influence of emotion regulation strategies.

Main Results:

• Two distinct clusters emerged based on emotion regulation and mental health profiles.
• Cluster 1 exhibited greater left rectus gyrus volume than Cluster 2.
• Expressive suppression moderated the positive association between mental health symptoms and brain volume in several regions (right superior frontal gyrus, left rectus gyrus, right amygdala, bilateral insula).

Conclusions:

• Emotion regulation strategies significantly shape mental health outcomes.
• Expressive suppression plays a moderating role in the relationship between brain structure and mental health.
• Findings highlight the interplay between emotion regulation, brain volume, and mental health in neurotypical individuals.