Should we keep some distance from distancing? Regulatory and post-regulatory effects of emotion downregulation

Emotion regulation is an indispensable part of mental health and adaptive behavior. Research into emotion regulation processes has largely focused on the concurrent effects of volitional emotion regulation. However, there is scarce evidence considering post-regulatory effects with regard to neural mechanisms and emotional experiences. Therefore, we compared concurrent effects of cognitive emotion regulation with effects at different (immediate, short- and long-term) time intervals. In an fMRI study with N = 46 (N = 30 at re-exposure) young healthy adults, we compared neuronal responses to negative and neutral pictures while participants had to distance themselves from or to actively permit emotions in response to these pictures. We investigated the temporal dynamics of activation changes related to regulation in cognitive control brain networks as well as in the amygdala during stimulation (concurrent effects, timepoint 1) and post-stimulation (immediate, timepoint 2), as well as during re-exposure with the same pictures after short (10 minutes, timepoint 3) and long (1 week, timepoint 4) time intervals. At timepoint 1, negative pictures (versus neutral pictures) elicited a strong response in regions of affective processing, including the amygdala. Distancing (as compared to permit) led to a decrease of this response, and to an increase of activation in the right middle frontal and inferior parietal cortex. We observed an interaction effect of time (stimulation vs. post-stimulation) and regulation (distance vs. permit), indicating a partial reversal of regulation effects during the post-stimulation phase (timepoint 2). Similarly, after 10 minutes (timepoint 3) and after 1 week (timepoint 4), activation in the amygdala was higher during pictures that participants were previously instructed to distance from as compared to permit. These results show that the temporal dynamics are highly variable both within experimental trials and across brain regions. This can even take the form of paradoxical aftereffects at immediate and persistent effects at prolonged time scales.

情感调节是心理健康与适应性行为不可或缺的组成部分。对于情感调节过程的研究主要集中于意志情感调节的即时效应。然而，关于神经机制和情感体验方面的后调节效应的证据却极为匮乏。因此，本研究对比了认知情感调节的即时效应与不同时间间隔（即时、短期和长期）的效应。在包含 N = 46（N = 30 在重新暴露时）名年轻健康成人的功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们比较了参与者在面对负面和中和图片时，分别采取远离或积极允许情感反应的神经元反应。我们探讨了与调节相关的认知控制脑网络以及杏仁核在刺激（即时效应，时间点1）、刺激后（即时，时间点2）以及重新暴露相同图片后短期（10分钟，时间点3）和长期（1周，时间点4）时间间隔内的激活变化的时间动态。在时间点1，与中和图片相比，负面图片在情感处理区域，包括杏仁核，引发了强烈的反应。远离（与允许相比）导致这种反应的降低，并增加了右侧中间额叶和下顶叶皮层的激活。我们观察到时间（刺激与刺激后）和调节（远离与允许）的交互作用，表明在刺激后的阶段（时间点2）调节效应的部分逆转。同样，在10分钟（时间点3）和1周（时间点4）后，杏仁核在参与者先前被指示远离的图片中的激活高于允许的图片。这些结果表明，时间动态在实验试验和大脑区域之间均表现出高度的可变性，甚至可能以即时和持久效应的形式出现于长期时间尺度上。