Immunologic influences on emotion regulation

Recent data document meaningful interactions between the immune system and the brain that provide the foundation for considering the potential influence of immunologic processes on emotion regulation. Studies from both laboratory animals and humans demonstrate that cytokine signals can access the brain and in turn lead to profound changes in neurochemistry, neuroendocrinology and behavior. Interestingly, data suggest that the behavioral and physiological consequences of stressful life experiences may also derive in part from the effects of stress on the immune response. The extant literature on brain–immune interactions is reviewed herein with special emphasis on data derived from patients undergoing treatment with the cytokine, interferon alpha. Consideration is also given to the mechanisms by which cytokines induce behavioral change, including an examination of the differential mechanisms that may be involved in cytokine effects on mood and cognition versus cytokine effects on neurovegetative function. Finally, implications of these findings are examined both from an evolutionary perspective and in terms of their relevance for treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders.     

风险框架情境下决策理性的老化研究

研究背景由于框架的影响,人们在决策时会表现出一些非理性选择和决策,但随着年龄的增长是否也存在老龄化效应,值得关注。方法以232例年轻人(青年组)和120例老年人(老年组)为被试进行2×2×2完全被试间试验。其中自变量包括决策情境的个体相关性(高相关性、低相关性)、框架价态(正框架、负框架)和年龄段(青年、老年);控制变量为风险概率,作为被试内变量(低概率为33%、高概率为40%),因变量为决策分数。观察风险框架决策情境下之风险决策理性,以及风险寻求倾向的增龄性变化。结果在风险决策框架情境下,老年组被试的非理性决策趋势更强(框架效应),正框架下决策评分为5.13±2.12、负框架下决策评分为6.55±1.05[F(1,118)=21.470,P=0.000;η2=0.156];青年组正框架下决策评分为3.18±2.49、负框架下决策评分为5.00±2.41[F(1,230)=31.260,P=0.000;η2=0.121]。老年组被试更倾向风险选择[F(1,350)=4.820,P=0.029]。结论情境框架发展过程中风险寻求趋势的增加及理性的轻微退行性改变,可以反映老年人眶额叶皮质及腹内侧前额叶皮质、杏仁核功能的老龄化,以及腹内侧前额叶皮质功能的良好维持。此外,老年人对风险概率的理解并未出现退行性改变,但可预示老年人对期望效应值的敏感性下降。     

A further evaluation of decision-making under risk and under ambiguity in schizophrenia

Abnormal decision-making has been described as a key-concept to understand some behavioral disturbances in schizophrenia. However, whether schizophrenia patients display impairments in profitable decision-making on experimental designs is still controversial (1) to assess performance on decision-making paradigms under ambiguity and under risk conditions in a large sample of schizophrenia patients and (2) to study the impact of clinical variables on decision-making performance in schizophrenia. The Iowa gambling task (IGT) and the game of dice task (GDT) were administered to assess, respectively, decision-making under ambiguity and under risk in 63 schizophrenia patients and 67 healthy controls. In addition, clinical variables (e.g., schizophrenic symptoms, self-reported depression, and impulsivity) were evaluated using appropriate questionnaires the same day. Pharmacological treatments were reported. Schizophrenia patients had impaired performances on both IGT and GDT tasks. No correlation between the decision-making tasks performance and clinical variables was found. Lower gains on the GDT were associated with executive dysfunctioning in schizophrenia. These findings give evidence that schizophrenia patients display impairments in both decision-making under ambiguity and under risk.     

The influence of emotion regulation, level of shyness, and habituation on the neuroendocrine response of three-year-old children

The current study investigated the temperamental dispositions of 53 three-year-old children (27 males, 26 females) and their behavioral and physiological responses to a stranger approach situation. Results indicated that elevations in cortisol were predicted by the child's level of shyness (with both shy and bold children showing elevations), better emotion regulation, and attendance at daycare which was believed to measure habituation to interactions with unknown adults in a playroom setting. In addition, the majority of children, both shy and bold, had cortisol levels that had begun to recover by fifteen minutes after the initial assessment. This suggests that the major concern for inhibited children is not weak regulation, but rather more frequent activation of the HPA system in response to novelty and a perceptual framework that expects fear.     

The role of emotion regulation in auditory hallucinations

Emotion regulation involves the use of strategies to influence the experience and expression of emotions. Anxiety and depression are strongly associated with the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as auditory hallucinations (AHs). Individuals usually try to down-regulate (decrease) such emotions, consequently abnormal or maladaptive use of one or more of these down-regulatory processes (e.g. increased use of expressive suppression or maladaptive attentional deployment, i.e. rumination/worry) may play an important role in AHs (e.g. increasing AH severity and distress). This study examined the self-reported use of a range of emotion regulation strategies in individuals with schizophrenia and current AHs (SZ AH; N = 34) and healthy controls (N = 34). Two separable dimensions of hallucinatory experiences (severity and distress) were assessed together with measures of anxiety, depression and happiness. Within the SZ AH group, greater use of expressive suppression was associated with an increase in severity of AHs and greater disruption in daily life. In addition, rumination was significantly positively correlated with the distress (but not with the severity) associated with AHs. Within the control group, expressive suppression, rumination and worry were associated with more anxiety/depression and less happiness, as predicted. The implications of different emotion regulation strategies for the treatment of individuals with schizophrenia and AHs are discussed.     

The match-mismatch model of emotion processing styles and emotion regulation strategies in fibromyalgia

ObjectiveIndividuals differ in their style of processing emotions (e.g., experiencing affects intensely or being alexithymic) and their strategy of regulating emotions (e.g., expressing or reappraising). A match–mismatch model of emotion processing styles and emotion regulation strategies is proposed and tested. This model specifies that for people high on affect intensity, emotion expression is more adaptive than reappraisal, whereas for alexithymic people, reappraisal is more adaptive than expression. The present study tested this model in 403 women with fibromyalgia (mean age 46.5 ± 12.3 years).MethodsIn a cross-sectional design, we assessed affect intensity (Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire), alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20), cognitive reappraisal (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire), and emotion expression (Emotional Approach Coping Scales), as well as the impact of fibromyalgia (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire).ResultsMultiple regression analyses with interaction terms indicated that among people high on affect intensity, emotion expression – but not cognitive reappraisal – was associated with less fibromyalgia impact. No support was found for the hypothesis that among alexithymic people, cognitive reappraisal would be more adaptive than emotion expression.ConclusionFindings suggest that for women with fibromyalgia who experience their emotions intensely, an emotional disclosure or expression intervention may be beneficial. This hypothesis requires verification in experimental studies.     

The association between depressive symptoms and emotion recognition is moderated by emotion regulation

In this study, we examined the associations between depression and aspects of emotional functioning, namely emotion recognition, affectivity and interpersonal problems. Particularly, the moderating role of emotion regulation in these interrelations was tested in a sample of 85 women, who exhibited a wide range of depressive symptoms (Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)). Emotion recognition was assessed with a paradigm displaying a widely used set of photographs of the six basic emotions in graded intensities. Further, participants were examined regarding emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)), interpersonal problems (Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex (IIP-C)) and affectivity (Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)). Besides correlation analyses, Johnson–Neyman technique for probing interactions in linear regression models was applied to test for possible moderating effects. Depressive symptoms were positively correlated with error rates in anger recognition, but not with the other basic emotions. This association was moderated by suppression in that regard that more severely depressed women who more frequently used suppression showed superior recognition of angry faces than those with lower suppression values. Further, suppression was associated with an affective imbalance and interpersonal problems in women with current depressive disorder. In sum, our results emphasize the importance of differentiating subtypes of depression depending on emotion regulation capabilities for research on or treatment of emotional functioning in depression.     

Dissociation of decision-making under ambiguity and decision-making under risk in patients with Parkinson's disease: A neuropsychological and psychophysiological study

Decision-making impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD) are most likely associated with dysfunctions in fronto-striatal loops. Recent studies examined decision-making in PD either in ambiguous situations with implicit rules, using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), or in risky situations with explicit rules, using the Game of Dice Task (GDT). Both tasks have been associated with the limbic–orbitofrontal–striatal loop, involved in emotional processing. However, the GDT has additionally been highly associated with the dorsolateral prefrontal–striatal loop, being involved in executive functions. The present study is the first one which examined decision-making in PD patients with both, IGT and GDT. We studied 21 non-demented PD patients on dopaminergic medication and 23 healthy controls with both tasks and a neuropsychological test battery with focus on executive functions. To analyse possible abnormalities in emotional processing, electrodermal responses (EDRs) were assessed while performing the tasks. We found that PD patients were significantly impaired in the GDT, but not in the IGT. Executive dysfunctions correlated with GDT but not with IGT performance. In both tasks, PD patients showed significantly reduced feedback EDRs after losses, but not after gains, indicating a primary decline of sensitivity to negative feedback. Our behavioural data suggest that dysfunctions in the dorsolateral prefrontal loop might be stronger than in the limbic loop, resulting in deficits in executive functions and GDT performance but unimpaired IGT performance. Reduced sensitivity to negative feedback is discussed with regard to dysfunctions in the limbic loop, which may result from pathology of limbic structures or dopaminergic medication.     

Amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotion regulation

Successful control of affect partly depends on the capacityto modulate negative emotional responses through the use ofcognitive strategies (i.e., reappraisal). Recent studies suggestthe involvement of frontal cortical regions in the modulationof amygdala reactivity and the mediation of effective emotionregulation. However, within-subject inter-regional connectivitybetween amygdala and prefrontal cortex in the context of affectregulation is unknown. Here, using psychophysiological interactionanalyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we showthat activity in specific areas of the frontal cortex (dorsolateral,dorsal medial, anterior cingulate, orbital) covaries with amygdalaactivity and that this functional connectivity is dependenton the reappraisal task. Moreover, strength of amygdala couplingwith orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal medial prefrontal cortexpredicts the extent of attenuation of negative affect followingreappraisal. These findings highlight the importance of functionalconnectivity within limbic-frontal circuitry during emotionregulation.     

Neural representation of emotion regulation goals

The use of top–down cognitive control mechanisms to regulate emotional responses as circumstances change is critical for mental and physical health. Several theoretical models of emotion regulation have been postulated; it remains unclear, however, in which brain regions emotion regulation goals (e.g., the downregulation of fear) are represented. Here, we examined the neural mechanisms of regulating emotion using fMRI and identified brain regions representing reappraisal goals. Using a multimethodological analysis approach, combining standard activation‐based and pattern‐information analyses, we identified a distributed network of lateral frontal, temporal, and parietal regions implicated in reappraisal and within it, a core system that represents reappraisal goals in an abstract, stimulus‐independent fashion. Within this core system, the neural pattern‐separability in a subset of regions including the left inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobe was related to the success in emotion regulation. Those brain regions might link the prefrontal control regions with the subcortical affective regions. Given the strong association of this subsystem with inner speech functions and semantic memory, we conclude that those cognitive mechanisms may be used for orchestrating emotion regulation. Hum Brain Mapp 37:600–620, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bottom-up and top-down emotion generation: implications for emotion regulation

Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in adaptive functioning and mounting evidence suggests that some emotion regulation strategies are often more effective than others. However, little attention has been paid to the different ways emotions can be generated: from the 'bottom-up' (in response to inherently emotional perceptual properties of the stimulus) or 'top-down' (in response to cognitive evaluations). Based on a process priming principle, we hypothesized that mode of emotion generation would interact with subsequent emotion regulation. Specifically, we predicted that top-down emotions would be more successfully regulated by a top-down regulation strategy than bottom-up emotions. To test this hypothesis, we induced bottom-up and top-down emotions, and asked participants to decrease the negative impact of these emotions using cognitive reappraisal. We observed the predicted interaction between generation and regulation in two measures of emotional responding. As measured by self-reported affect, cognitive reappraisal was more successful on top-down generated emotions than bottom-up generated emotions. Neurally, reappraisal of bottom-up generated emotions resulted in a paradoxical increase of amygdala activity. This interaction between mode of emotion generation and subsequent regulation should be taken into account when comparing of the efficacy of different types of emotion regulation, as well as when reappraisal is used to treat different types of clinical disorders.     

未治疗抑郁障碍患者自杀风险与认知情绪调节策略的关系

目的探讨具有自杀风险的抑郁障碍患者在认知情绪调节策略方面的特征及其影响因素,以早期识别具有自杀风险的患者,有针对性地给予干预。方法选取117例来自北京回龙观医院门诊、经简明国际神经精神访谈(MINI)5. 0中文版筛查符合抑郁障碍诊断标准的未治疗抑郁障碍患者,根据MINI 5. 0中文版自杀模块的访谈结果,将患者分为自杀风险组(n=52)和无自杀风险组(n=65)。采用认知情绪调节问卷(CERQ-C)进行认知调节策略的测评,采用汉密尔顿抑郁量表17项版(HAMD-17)评定抑郁症状的严重程度。结果抑郁障碍患者自杀风险发生率为44. 4%(52/117)。与无自杀风险组相比,自杀风险组患者更多见于女性、未婚、平均年龄更小、发病年龄更早、HAMD-17总评分更高、伴精神病性症状率较高,自杀风险组自我责难、接受、沉思、灾难化4个认知调节策略维度及消极认知情绪调节评分均高于无自杀风险组(P均<0. 05)。Logistic回归分析显示,女性(OR=3. 539,95%CI:1. 383~9. 057)、发病年龄(OR=0. 931,95%CI:0. 895~0. 968)、HAMD-17总评分(OR=1. 207,95%CI:1. 063~1. 370)和灾难化(OR=1. 143,95%CI:1. 002~1. 305)与抑郁障碍患者自杀风险相关(P均<0. 05)。结论女性、发病年龄早、抑郁症状严重和灾难化可能为未治疗抑郁障碍患者自杀风险的危险因素。     

藏族大学生情绪调节与自我控制能力的关系

目的探讨藏族大学生情绪调节与自我控制能力的关系。方法采用自我控制能力问卷和情绪调节量表对457名藏族大学生进行调查。结果（1）藏族大学生自我控制能力的情绪自控维度与情绪调节的重新评价和表达抑制两个雏度之间存在显著正相关;自我控制总分与重新评价维度存在显著正相关;（2）情绪调节的重新评价维度在自我控制能力的情绪自控维度上、行为自控维度上和自我控制能力总分上存在显著差异;（3）情绪调节的表达抑制与情绪自控评分存在显著相关。结论藏族大学生的情绪调节与自我控制能力高度相关。     

Implicit emotion regulation affects outcome evaluation

Efficient implicit emotion regulation processes, which run without awareness, are important for human well-being. In this study, to investigate the influence of implicit emotion regulation on psychological and electrophysiological responses to gains and losses, participants were required to select between two Chinese four-character idioms to match the meaning of the third one before they performed a monetary gambling task. According to whether their meanings were related to emotion regulation, the idioms fell into two categories. Event-related potentials and self-rating emotional experiences to outcome feedback were recorded during the task. Priming emotion regulation reduced subjective emotional experience to both gains and losses and the amplitudes of the feedback-related negativity, while the P3 component was not influenced. According to these results, we suggest that the application of implicit emotion regulation effectively modulated the subjective emotional experience and the motivational salience of current outcomes without the cost of cognitive resources. This study implicates the potential significance of implicit emotion regulation in decision-making processes.     

An examination of the incremental contribution of emotion regulation difficulties to health anxiety beyond specific emotion regulation strategies

Given the potential transdiagnostic importance of emotion dysregulation, as well as a lack of research examining emotion dysregulation in relation to health anxiety, the present study sought to examine associations among specific emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), emotion regulation difficulties, and health anxiety in a physically healthy sample of adults (N = 482). As hypothesized, results of a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that emotion regulation difficulties provided a significant incremental contribution, beyond the specific emotion regulation strategies, in predicting each of the three health anxiety variables. Among the six dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties, the dimension representing perceived access to effective emotion regulation strategies was the only emotion regulation difficulty dimension that predicted all three health anxiety variables beyond the effects of the specific emotion regulation strategies. Results indicate that emotion regulation difficulties, and particularly one's subjective appraisal of his/her ability to effectively regulate emotions, may be of importance to health anxiety. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Specificity of age differences in emotion regulation

Objectives: The present study attempts to extend previous research examining differences between young and older adults in emotion regulation, by investigating age differences across a great range of facets of emotion regulation.

Method: Young (n = 40) and older adults (n = 40) completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and self-report measures of anxiety and depression.

Results: Whereas young and older adults did not differ in terms of acceptance and awareness of emotional responses, younger adults scored higher compared to older overall, indicating greater emotion regulation difficulties. Older adults reported greater ability in engaging in goal-directed behaviour, and refraining from impulsive emotional responses. Increasing age was associated with greater access to emotion regulation strategies and greater clarity of emotions.

Conclusion: Overall, the present cross-sectional results suggest a general stability in late adulthood in several aspects of emotion regulation, suggesting specific adaptations with increasing age. Findings provided support for the construct validity of the DERS and indicated that the relationship between age and emotion regulation is influenced by verbal ability. Current results extend the focus of age-related differences in emotion regulatory control to several theoretically defined forms of emotion regulation.     

Socialization of emotion regulation strategies through friends

This study examines the effects of best friends' emotion regulation strategies (regarding the emotions anger, fear, and sadness) on the development of adolescents' emotion regulation strategies and subsequent depressive symptoms. Based on a two-wave longitudinal sample of 238 German adolescents, true change analyses showed positive effects of best friends' adaptive strategies (T1) on the change of adolescents' adaptive strategies (T2 − T1) for anger and fear. Best friends' adaptive strategies (T1) indirectly influence the development of maladaptive strategies (T2 − T1) through the change of adaptive strategies (T2 − T1) and, in turn, the development of depressive symptoms (T2 − T1; two-step mediation). Best friends' adaptive strategies for sadness did not have an effect on adolescents' adaptive strategies. In contrast to adaptive strategies, none of the friends' maladaptive strategies affected adolescents' maladaptive strategies. The results are discussed in terms of peer influences on the development of emotion regulation strategies and psychosocial adjustment.     

Peer facilitation of emotion regulation in adolescence

Emotion regulation is particularly important for adolescents as they undergo normative developmental changes in affective systems and experience heightened risk for psychopathology. Despite a high need for emotion regulation during adolescence, commonly studied emotion regulation strategies like cognitive reappraisal are less beneficial for adolescents than adults because they rely on neural regions that are still developing during this period (i.e., lateral prefrontal cortex). However, adolescence is also marked by increased valuation of peer relationships and sensitivity to social information and cues. In the present review, we synthesize research examining emotion regulation and peer influence across development to suggest that sensitivity to peers during adolescence could be leveraged to improve emotion regulation for this population. We first discuss developmental trends related to emotion regulation at the level of behavior and brain in adolescents, using cognitive reappraisal as an exemplar emotion regulation strategy. Next, we discuss social influences on adolescent brain development, describing caregiver influence and increasing susceptibility to peer influence, to describe how adolescent sensitivity to social inputs represents both a window of vulnerability and opportunity. Finally, we conclude by describing the promise of social (i.e., peer-based) interventions for enhancing emotion regulation in adolescence.     

Linking children's neuropsychological processing of emotion with their knowledge of emotion expression regulation

Understanding of emotions has been shown to develop between the ages of 4 and 10 years; however, individual differences exist in this development. While previous research has typically examined these differences in terms of developmental and/or social factors, little research has considered the possible impact of neuropsychological development on the behavioural understanding of emotions. Emotion processing tends to be lateralised to the right hemisphere of the brain in adults, yet this pattern is not as evident in children until around the age of 10 years. In this study 136 children between 5 and 10 years were given both behavioural and neuropsychological tests of emotion processing. The behavioural task examined expression regulation knowledge (ERK) for prosocial and self-presentational hypothetical interactions. The chimeric faces test was given as a measure of lateralisation for processing positive facial emotion. An interaction between age and lateralisation for emotion processing was predictive of children's ERK for only the self-presentational interactions. The relationships between children's ERK and lateralisation for emotion processing changes across the three age groups, emerging as a positive relationship in the 10-year-olds. The 10-years-olds who were more lateralised to the right hemisphere for emotion processing tended to show greater understanding of the need for regulating negative emotions during interactions that would have a self-presentational motivation. This finding suggests an association between the behavioural and neuropsychological development of emotion processing.