Anger Modulates Influence Hierarchies Within and Between Emotional Reactivity and Regulation Networks

Abstract

Emotion regulation is hypothesized to be mediated by the interactions between emotional reactivity and regulation networks during the dynamic unfolding of the emotional episode. Yet, it remains unclear how to delineate the effective relationships between these networks. In this study, we examined the aforementioned networks’ information flow hierarchy during viewing of an anger provoking movie excerpt. Anger regulation is particularly essential for averting individuals from aggression and violence, thus improving prosocial behavior. Using subjective ratings of anger intensity we differentiated between low and high anger periods of the film. We then applied the Dependency Network Analysis (DEPNA), a newly developed graph theory method to quantify networks’ node importance during the two anger periods. The DEPNA analysis revealed that the impact of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was higher in the high anger condition, particularly within the regulation network and on the connections between the reactivity and regulation networks. We further showed that higher levels of vmPFC impact on the regulation network were associated with lower subjective anger intensity during the high-anger cinematic period, and lower trait anger levels. Supporting and replicating previous findings, these results emphasize the previously acknowledged central role of vmPFC in modulating negative affect. We further show that the impact of the vmPFC relies on its correlational influence on the connectivity between reactivity and regulation networks. More importantly, the hierarchy network analysis revealed a link between connectivity patterns of the vmPFC and individual differences in anger reactivity and trait, suggesting its potential therapeutic role.

Neural Processing of Narratives: From Individual Processing to Viral Propagation

“…This becomes even more evident if one understands narratives more broadly, as narratives and movie clips represent the two most potent categories of emotion-eliciting stimuli (Westermann et al, 1996 ). Even induction of anger often recognized to be challenging, is possible with narrated movie clips as stimuli (Jacob et al, 2018 ).…”

Network abnormalities among non‐manifesting Parkinson disease related LRRK2 mutation carriers

“…It has been suggested that an examination of hierarchy of nodes in a network could help characterize its functional specificity (Sporns, ) and accurately identify the nodes (i.e., brain regions) or edges (i.e., connections between the nodes) that are most critical among specific pathologies. Dependency network analysis (D EP NA), a newly developed graph based analysis method, was used to distinguish different patterns of network hierarchy and information flow within brain networks (Jacob et al, ; Jacob, Gilam, Lin, Raz, & Hendler, ; Jacob, Shany, Goldin, Gross, & Hendler, ). D EP NA evaluates a brain regions' importance within a given network according to its influence over the correlations between all other pairs of brain regions (i.e., “Influencing Degree” ), or how much was it influenced by the rest of the network (i.e., “Influenced Degree” ).…”

Reappraisal of Interpersonal Criticism in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Brain Network Hierarchy Perspective

“…In the present study, we applied Dependency Network Analysis (D EP NA)-a newly developed graph based analysis method-to distinguish different patterns of network hierarchy and information flow within and between brain networks (Jacob et al 2016(Jacob et al , 2018. D EP NA evaluates a brain region's importance within a given network according to its influence over the correlations between all other pairs of brain regions, henceforth, termed "Influencing Degree."…”