title: Emotion Regulation and Excess Weight: Impaired Affective Processing Characterized by Dysfunctional Insula Activation and Connectivity.
abstract: Emotion-regulation strategies are understood to influence food intake. This study examined the neurophysiological underpinnings of negative emotion processing and emotion regulation in individuals with excess weight compared to normal-weight controls. Fifteen participants with excess-weight (body mass index >25) and sixteen normal-weight controls (body mass index 18-25) performed an emotion-regulation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were exposed to 24 negative affective or neutral pictures that they were instructed to Observe (neutral pictures), Maintain (sustain the emotion elicited by negative pictures) or Regulate (down-regulate the emotion provoked by negative pictures through previously trained reappraisal techniques). When instructed to regulate negative emotions by means of cognitive reappraisal, participants with excess weight displayed persistently heightened activation in the right anterior insula. Decreased responsivity was also found in right anterior insula, the orbitofrontal cortex and cerebellum during negative emotion experience in participants with excess weight. Psycho-physiological interaction analyses showed that excess-weight participants had decreased negative functional coupling between the right anterior insula and the right dlPFC, and the bilateral dmPFC during cognitive reappraisal. Our findings support contentions that excess weight is linked to an abnormal pattern of neural activation and connectivity during the experience and regulation of negative emotions, with the insula playing a key role in these alterations. We posit that ineffective regulation of emotional states contributes to the acquisition and preservation of excess weight.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERObn), Instituto Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Steward
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Picó-Pérez
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Fernanda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mata
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Martínez-Zalacaín
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cano
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Salud Mental (CIBERsam), Instituto Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Contreras-Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERObn), Instituto Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fernández-Aranda
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yucel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBER Salud Mental (CIBERsam), Instituto Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Psychobiology and Methodology in Health Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soriano-Mas
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verdejo-García
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult