title: Brain functional correlates of emotion regulation across adolescence and young adulthood.
abstract: Few studies have examined the neural correlates of emotion regulation across adolescence and young adulthood. Existing studies of cognitive reappraisal indicate that improvements in regulatory efficiency may develop linearly across this period, in accordance with maturation of prefrontal cortical systems. However, there is also evidence for adolescent differences in reappraisal specific to the activation of "social-information processing network" regions, including the amygdala and temporal-occipital cortices. Here, we use fMRI to examine the neural correlates of emotional reactivity and reappraisal in response to aversive social imagery in a group of 78 adolescents and young adults aged 15-25 years. Within the group, younger participants exhibited greater activation of temporal-occipital brain regions during reappraisal in combination with weaker suppression of amygdala reactivity-the latter being a general correlate of successful reappraisal. Further analyses demonstrated that these age-related influences on amygdala reactivity were specifically mediated by activation of the fusiform face area. Overall, these findings suggest that enhanced processing of salient social cues (i.e., faces) increases reactivity of the amygdala during reappraisal and that this relationship is stronger in younger adolescents. How these relationships contribute to well-known vulnerabilities of emotion regulation during this developmental period will be an important topic for ongoing research.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stephanou
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.|Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Victoria, 3052, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Davey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kerestes
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whittle
authors.affiliation: MRI Research Unit, Hospital Del Mar, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pujol
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.|Monash Clinical and Imaging Neuroscience, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yücel
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.|Monash Clinical and Imaging Neuroscience, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fornito
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López-Solà
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, 3053, Australia.
authors.forename: Ben J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Harrison
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: adolescence; cognitive; development; emotion regulation; fMRI; reappraisal; social