title: Emotion regulation: quantitative meta-analysis of functional activation and deactivation.
abstract: Emotion regulation is hypothesized to be a multifaceted process by which individuals willfully modulate the intensity and direction of emotional response via prefrontally mediated inhibition of subcortical response-related regions of the brain. Here we employ activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies to (1) reveal a consistent network of structures active during emotion regulation, (2) identify the target regions inactivated by the willful regulation process, and (3) investigate the consistency of activated structures associated with downregulation and upregulation. Results reveal signal change in bilateral amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus that decreased in downregulated states and increased in upregulated states, while cortical regions including superior frontal gyrus, cingulate, and premotor areas exhibited enhanced activity across all regulation conditions. These results provide consistent evidence for the role of amygdala activity in experienced emotional intensity, where intentional dampening and exaggeration are clearly expressed. However, the execution of emotional upregulation and downregulation may involve distinct subsets of frontocortical structures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dewitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hudgens-Haney
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Schaeffer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: N F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Hussein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Smart
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States; Department of Neuroscience, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States; BioImaging Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, United States. Electronic address: sabat@uga.edu.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sabatinelli
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Amygdala; Deactivation; Emotion regulation; Meta-analysis; fMRI