title: Influence of repressive coping style on cortical activation during encoding of angry faces.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Coping plays an important role for emotion regulation in threatening situations. The model of coping modes designates repression and sensitization as two independent coping styles. Repression consists of strategies that shield the individual from arousal. Sensitization indicates increased analysis of the environment in order to reduce uncertainty. According to the discontinuity hypothesis, repressors are sensitive to threat in the early stages of information processing. While repressors do not exhibit memory disturbances early on, they manifest weak memory for these stimuli later. This study investigates the discontinuity hypothesis using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy volunteers (20 repressors and 20 sensitizers) were selected from a sample of 150 students on the basis of the Mainz Coping Inventory. During the fMRI experiment, subjects evaluated and memorized emotional and neutral faces. Subjects performed two sessions of face recognition: immediately after the fMRI session and three days later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Repressors exhibited greater activation of frontal, parietal and temporal areas during encoding of angry faces compared to sensitizers. There were no differences in recognition of facial emotions between groups neither immediately after exposure nor after three days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The fMRI findings suggest that repressors manifest an enhanced neural processing of directly threatening facial expression which confirms the assumption of hyper-responsivity to threatening information in repression in an early processing stage. A discrepancy was observed between high neural activation in encoding-relevant brain areas in response to angry faces in repressors and no advantage in subsequent memory for these faces compared to sensitizers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Astrid Veronika
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ter Horst
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Victoria Gabriele
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dannlowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Konrad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ohrmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kugel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Egloff
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Arolt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suslow
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000786:Anger; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult