Papousek Ilona, Weiss Elisabeth M, Perchtold Corinna M, Weber Hannelore, de Assunção Vera Loureiro, Schulter Günter, Lackner Helmut K, Fink Andreas
Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2017 Apr;11(2):577-590. doi: 10.1007/s11682-016-9537-2.
Encouraging patients to use cognitive reappraisal constitutes the core of modern psychotherapeutic approaches. However, evidence for specific neural correlates of the capacity for cognitive reappraisal, which is a necessary prerequisite for the effective implementation of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life, has been sparse to date. In the present study, the capacity for cognitive reappraisal was studied in terms of the participants' inventiveness in generating alternative appraisals of anger-evoking events, and was correlated with frontal EEG alpha asymmetry recorded while the participants were generating reappraisals as well as during a common creative idea generation task. During cognitive reappraisal efforts, individuals higher on the capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals showed more left-lateralized activity in lateral prefrontal cortex, specifically in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex extending toward the frontal pole. This effect was observed independently from the activation during novel idea generation without emotional component, indicating that specific demands are implicated in the generation of reappraisals of emotional events. Taken together, the results indicate that individuals higher on the capacity for cognitive reappraisal are more capable or more prone to recruit appropriate brain regions when the situation demands coming up with alternative appraisals of stressful events. The findings may stimulate the development of more individually targeted interventions.
鼓励患者运用认知重评是现代心理治疗方法的核心。然而，认知重评能力的特定神经关联证据，作为在日常生活中有效实施认知重评的必要前提，迄今为止一直很稀少。在本研究中，从参与者对引发愤怒事件生成替代性评价的创造力方面研究了认知重评能力，并将其与参与者在生成重评时以及在一项常见的创意生成任务期间记录的额叶脑电图α波不对称性相关联。在认知重评过程中，在生成认知重评能力方面较高的个体在外侧前额叶皮层，特别是在向额极延伸的腹外侧前额叶皮层中表现出更多的左侧化活动。这种效应在没有情感成分的新颖想法生成过程中的激活情况中是独立观察到的，这表明在对情感事件的重评生成中涉及特定的需求。综合来看，结果表明，在认知重评能力方面较高的个体在情境要求对压力事件进行替代性评价时，更有能力或更倾向于调动适当的脑区。这些发现可能会促进更具个性化针对性干预措施的发展。
