Amygdala–frontal connectivity during emotion regulation

Abstract

Successful control of affect partly depends on the capacity to modulate negative emotional responses through the use of cognitive strategies (i.e., reappraisal). Recent studies suggest the involvement of frontal cortical regions in the modulation of amygdala reactivity and the mediation of effective emotion regulation. However, within-subject inter-regional connectivity between amygdala and prefrontal cortex in the context of affect regulation is unknown. Here, using psychophysiological interaction analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we show that activity in specific areas of the frontal cortex (dorsolateral, dorsal medial, anterior cingulate, orbital) covaries with amygdala activity and that this functional connectivity is dependent on the reappraisal task. Moreover, strength of amygdala coupling with orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex predicts the extent of attenuation of negative affect following reappraisal. These findings highlight the importance of functional connectivity within limbic-frontal circuitry during emotion regulation.

Affect labeling enhances exposure effectiveness for public speaking anxiety

“…The findings for heart rate during anticipation and recovery and for skin conductance during recovery support the compensation hypothesis, which suggests that those with deficits will benefit more from an intervention that compensates that deficit, and are consistent with previous research showing that physiological activation (Davies et al, 2015;McClure et al, 2007) and emotional reactivity during a behavioral task (Niles et al, 2013) predict greater improvement following treatment. These findings are of particular interest because participants with more difficulty regulating emotion show decreased connectivity between areas of the PFC and the amygdala (Banks, Eddy, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2007). These findings suggest that targeting patients with the greatest neural deficits using interventions that directly address those deficits could improve treatment outcome for patients with anxiety.…”

Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume and interactions

“…This functional connectivity is important for emotion regulation, which has previously been reported in that reduced connectivity between amygdala and DLPFC in individuals with internet gaming disorder is associated with higher levels of impulsivity [Ko et al, 2015]. Another study measuring the capacity to modulate negative emotional responses through the use of cognitive strategies showed that activity in specific areas of the frontal cortex, including DLPFC, covaried with amygdala activity, and that functional connectivity between these regions was dependent on applying cognitive strategies in the regulation of negative emotion [Banks et al, 2007]. Amygdala and DLPFC connectivity has similarly been associated with unipolar depression [Siegle et al, 2007].…”

Polarity- and valence-dependent effects of prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on heart rate variability and salivary cortisol

“…In fact, one important role of DLPFC is in processing and regulating stressful, emotional responses -for instance, DLPFC shows activation when voluntarily suppressing sadness (Levesque et al, 2003) and co-activation with the amygdala during emotion reappraisal (Banks et al, 2007). Immediately following a stressful event, subcortical areas (such as the amygdala, hypothalamus and brainstem monoaminergic nuclei) trigger strong (albeit relatively unspecific) neuroendocrine responses, notably the activation of the sympatho-adreno-medullary system (SAM) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, thereby increasing noradrenaline and cortisol levels.…”