Herwig Uwe, Baumgartner Thomas, Kaffenberger Tina, Brühl Annette, Kottlow Mara, Schreiter-Gasser Ursula, Abler Birgit, Jäncke Lutz, Rufer Michael
Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland.
Neuroimage. 2007 Aug 15;37(2):652-62. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.023. Epub 2007 May 24.
Strategies of cognitive control are helpful in reducing anxiety experienced during anticipation of unpleasant or potentially unpleasant events. We investigated the associated cerebral information processing underlying the use of a specific cognitive control strategy during the anticipation of affect-laden events. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined differential brain activity during anticipation of events of unknown and negative emotional valence in a group of eighteen healthy subjects that used a cognitive control strategy, similar to "reality checking" as used in psychotherapy, compared with a group of sixteen subjects that did not exert cognitive control. While expecting unpleasant stimuli, the "cognitive control" group showed higher activity in left medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex areas but reduced activity in the left extended amygdala, pulvinar/lateral geniculate nucleus and fusiform gyrus. Cognitive control during the "unknown" expectation was associated with reduced amygdalar activity as well and further with reduced insular and thalamic activity. The amygdala activations associated with cognitive control correlated negatively with the reappraisal scores of an emotion regulation questionnaire. The results indicate that cognitive control of particularly unpleasant emotions is associated with elevated prefrontal cortex activity that may serve to attenuate emotion processing in for instance amygdala, and, notably, in perception related brain areas.
认知控制策略有助于减轻在预期不愉快或潜在不愉快事件时所体验到的焦虑。我们研究了在预期充满情感的事件期间使用特定认知控制策略时相关的大脑信息处理过程。利用功能磁共振成像，我们在一组18名使用认知控制策略（类似于心理治疗中使用的“现实检验”）的健康受试者预期未知且具有负性情绪效价的事件时，检查了其大脑活动差异，并与一组16名未进行认知控制的受试者进行了比较。在预期不愉快刺激时，“认知控制”组在左内侧和背外侧前额叶皮质区域表现出更高的活动，但在左扩展杏仁核、丘脑枕/外侧膝状体核和梭状回的活动减少。在“未知”预期期间的认知控制也与杏仁核活动减少相关，并且进一步与岛叶和丘脑活动减少相关。与认知控制相关的杏仁核激活与情绪调节问卷的重新评估分数呈负相关。结果表明，对特别不愉快情绪的认知控制与前额叶皮质活动增强有关，这可能有助于减弱例如杏仁核以及特别是与感知相关的脑区中的情绪处理。
