title: Neural markers of positive reappraisal and their associations with trait reappraisal and worry.
abstract: Positively reinterpreting negative experiences is important for psychological well-being and represents a key mechanism of cognitive-behavioral therapies for emotional problems. Yet, little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie this process and how they relate to clinically relevant individual differences. Here we demonstrate using event-related potentials (ERPs) that positively reappraising distress-inducing images is associated with early increases in frontal control activity and later decreases in parietal arousal-related activity. Moreover, we show that people's chronic tendencies to reappraise versus worry modulate neural activity in opposing directions--trait reappraisal predicts decreases in parietal arousal-related activity during positive reappraisal implementation whereas worry predicts increases in the same waveform. These findings provide novel insights into the neural time course of positive reappraisal. They also speak to the potential clinical utility of neurophysiological measures as relatively inexpensive, noninvasive biomarkers that could serve as risk indicators and treatment mediators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Jason S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hartwig
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Tim P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Alexander A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Jendrusina
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Ethan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kross
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult