title: Neural correlates of emotion regulation in patients with schizophrenia and non-affected siblings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with schizophrenia often experience problems regulating their emotions. Non-affected relatives show similar difficulties, although to a lesser extent, and the neural basis of such difficulties remains to be elucidated. In the current paper we investigated whether schizophrenia patients, non-affected siblings and healthy controls (HC) exhibit differences in brain activation during emotion regulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  All subjects (n = 20 per group) performed an emotion regulation task while they were in an fMRI scanner. The task contained two experimental conditions for the down-regulation of emotions (reappraise and suppress), in which IAPS pictures were used to generate a negative affect. We also assessed whether the groups differed in emotion regulation strategies used in daily life by means of the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Though the overall negative affect was higher for patients as well as for siblings compared to HC for all conditions, all groups reported decreased negative affect after both regulation conditions. Nonetheless, neuroimaging results showed hypoactivation relative to HC in VLPFC, insula, middle temporal gyrus, caudate and thalamus for patients when reappraising negative pictures. In siblings, the same pattern was evident as in patients, but only in cortical areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given that all groups performed similarly on the emotion regulation task, but differed in overall negative affect ratings and brain activation, our findings suggest reduced levels of emotion regulation processing in neural circuits in patients with schizophrenia. Notably, this also holds for siblings, albeit to a lesser extent, indicating that it may be part and parcel of a vulnerability for psychosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Department of Rehabilitation, Lentis Psychiatric Institute, Zuidlaren, The Netherlands; Rob Giel Research Center, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lisette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van der Meer
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Lentis Psychiatric Institute, Zuidlaren, The Netherlands; Research Department, Lentis Psychiatric Institute, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marte
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Swart
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Rob Giel Research Center, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jorien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Velde
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Department of Psychotic Disorders, GGZ Drenthe, Assen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gerdina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pijnenborg
authors.affiliation: Rob Giel Research Center, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Durk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wiersma
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Rob Giel Research Center, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bruggeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aleman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D035781:Siblings; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires