title: Negative emotion regulation in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the neural mechanisms of negative emotion regulation in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty PTSD patients and 20 healthy subjects were recruited. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the modification of emotional responses to negative stimuli. Participants were required to regulate their emotional reactions according to the auditory regulation instructions via headphones, to maintain, enhance or diminish responses to negative stimuli during fMRI scans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The PTSD group showed poorer modification performance than the control group when diminishing responses to negative stimuli. On fMRI, the PTSD group showed decreased activation in the inferior frontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, insula and putamen, and increased activation in posterior cingulate cortex and amygdala during up-regulation of negative emotion. Similar decreased activation regions were found during down-regulation of negative emotion, but no increased activation was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Trauma exposure might impair the ability to down-regulate negative emotion. The present findings will improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation underlying PTSD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Kunlin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Mingguo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jingna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Linqiong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Image, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*