Lévesque Johanne, Eugène Fanny, Joanette Yves, Paquette Vincent, Mensour Boualem, Beaudoin Gilles, Leroux Jean-Maxime, Bourgouin Pierre, Beauregard Mario
Centre de Recherche, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Biol Psychiatry. 2003 Mar 15;53(6):502-10. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(02)01817-6.
The ability to voluntarily self-regulate negative emotion is essential to a healthy psyche. Indeed, a chronic incapacity to suppress negative emotion might be a key factor in the genesis of depression and anxiety. Regarding the neural underpinnings of emotional self-regulation, a recent functional neuroimaging study carried out by our group has revealed that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex are involved in voluntary suppression of sexual arousal. As few things are known, still, with respect to the neural substrate underlying volitional self-regulation of basic emotions, here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural circuitry associated with the voluntary suppression of sadness.
Twenty healthy female subjects were scanned during a Sad condition and a Suppression condition. In the Sad condition, subjects were instructed to react normally to sad film excerpts whereas, in the Suppression condition, they were asked to voluntarily suppress any emotional reaction in response to comparable stimuli.
Transient sadness was associated with significant loci of activation in the anterior temporal pole and the midbrain, bilaterally, as well as in the left amygdala, left insula, and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) (Brodmann area [BA] 47). Correlational analyses carried out between self-report ratings of sadness and regional blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal changes revealed the existence of positive correlations in the right VLPFC (BA 47), bilaterally, as well as in the left insula and the affective division of the left anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 24/32). In the Suppression condition, significant loci of activation were noted in the right DLPFC (BA 9) and the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (BA 11), and positive correlations were found between the self-report ratings of sadness and BOLD signal changes in the right OFC (BA 11) and right DLPFC (BA 9).
These results confirm the key role played by the DLPFC in emotional self-regulation. They also indicate that the right DLPFC and right OFC are components of a neural circuit implicated in voluntary suppression of sadness.
自愿自我调节负面情绪的能力对健康心理至关重要。事实上，长期无法抑制负面情绪可能是抑郁症和焦虑症发病的关键因素。关于情绪自我调节的神经基础，我们团队最近进行的一项功能性神经影像学研究表明，背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）和前扣带回皮质参与了对性唤起的自愿抑制。然而，关于基本情绪的意志性自我调节的神经基质，目前仍知之甚少。在此，我们使用功能磁共振成像来确定与自愿抑制悲伤相关的神经回路。
对20名健康女性受试者在悲伤状态和抑制状态下进行扫描。在悲伤状态下，受试者被指示对悲伤的电影片段做出正常反应，而在抑制状态下，他们被要求自愿抑制对类似刺激的任何情绪反应。
短暂悲伤与双侧颞极前部和中脑以及左侧杏仁核、左侧岛叶和右侧腹外侧前额叶皮质（VLPFC，布罗德曼区域[BA]47）的显著激活位点相关。悲伤的自我报告评分与局部脑血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号变化之间的相关性分析显示，右侧VLPFC（BA 47）、双侧以及左侧岛叶和左侧前扣带回回的情感区（BA 24/32）存在正相关。在抑制状态下，右侧DLPFC（BA 9）和右侧眶额皮质（OFC，BA 11）有显著激活位点，悲伤的自我报告评分与右侧OFC（BA 11）和右侧DLPFC（BA 9）的BOLD信号变化之间存在正相关。
这些结果证实了DLPFC在情绪自我调节中发挥的关键作用。它们还表明，右侧DLPFC和右侧OFC是参与自愿抑制悲伤的神经回路的组成部分。
