Department of Psychotherapy and Systems Neuroscience, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
Bender Institute of Neuroimaging, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2021 Mar 5;16(3):268-279. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa159.
Reinterpretation and distancing are two cognitive reappraisal tactics, used to regulate one's emotions in response to emotion-eliciting stimuli or situations. Relatively less is known about their (differential) lasting effects on emotional responding and related neural correlates. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated 85 healthy females, participating in a 2-day cognitive emotion regulation experiment. On the first day, participants were instructed to passively look at, reinterpret or distance from repeatedly presented aversive pictures. One week later, they were re-exposed to the same stimuli without regulation instruction, in order to assess lasting effects. The main outcome measures comprised ratings of negative feelings and blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses. Lasting effects for reinterpretation compared with looking at aversive pictures during passive re-exposure 1 week later were reflected in stronger activation of the left amygdala, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and reduced negative feelings. Neither distancing compared with looking at aversive pictures nor reinterpretation compared with distancing did result in significant effects during re-exposure. These findings indicate that reinterpretation leads to reduced negative feelings 1 week later, which might be mediated by inhibitory vmPFC activation or stronger positive emotions during re-exposure. However, the missing difference compared with distancing questions the specificity of the results and the mechanisms underlying these two cognitive reappraisal tactics.
重新解释和距离分离是两种认知重评策略，用于调节人们对情绪诱发刺激或情境的情绪反应。关于它们（差异）对情绪反应和相关神经相关物的持续影响，人们知之甚少。这项功能磁共振成像研究调查了 85 名健康女性，她们参与了为期两天的认知情绪调节实验。在第一天，参与者被指示被动地观看、重新解释或远离反复呈现的厌恶图片。一周后，他们在没有调节指令的情况下重新暴露于相同的刺激下，以评估持续的效果。主要的结果测量包括负面感受的评分和血氧水平依赖性反应。与一周后被动重新暴露时观看厌恶图片相比，重新解释的持续效果反映在左杏仁核、腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）的激活增强和负面感受的减轻。在重新暴露期间，距离分离与观看厌恶图片相比，以及重新解释与距离分离相比，都没有产生显著的效果。这些发现表明，重新解释导致一周后负面感受的减轻，这可能是通过重新暴露期间 vmPFC 的抑制性激活或更强的积极情绪来介导的。然而，与距离分离相比，缺失的差异质疑了这两种认知重评策略的结果和机制的特异性。
