Detaching from the negative by reappraisal: the role of right superior frontal gyrus (BA9/32)

Abstract

The ability to reappraise the emotional impact of events is related to long-term mental health. Self-focused reappraisal (REAPPself), i.e., reducing the personal relevance of the negative events, has been previously associated with neural activity in regions near right medial prefrontal cortex, but rarely investigated among brain-damaged individuals. Thus, we aimed to examine the REAPPself ability of brain-damaged patients and healthy controls considering structural atrophies and gray matter intensities, respectively. Twenty patients with well-defined cortex lesions due to an acquired circumscribed tumor or cyst and 23 healthy controls performed a REAPPself task, in which they had to either observe negative stimuli or decrease emotional responding by REAPPself. Next, they rated the impact of negative arousal and valence. REAPPself ability scores were calculated by subtracting the negative picture ratings after applying REAPPself from the ratings of the observing condition. The scores of the patients were included in a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) analysis to identify deficit related areas (ROI). Then, a ROI group-wise comparison was performed. Additionally, a whole-brain voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) analysis was run, in which healthy participant's REAPPself ability scores were correlated with gray matter intensities. Results showed that (1) regions in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), comprising the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA9) and the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), were associated with patient's impaired down-regulation of arousal, (2) a lesion in the depicted ROI occasioned significant REAPPself impairments, (3) REAPPself ability of controls was linked with increased gray matter intensities in the ROI regions. Our findings show for the first time that the neural integrity and the structural volume of right SFG regions (BA9/32) might be indispensable for REAPPself. Implications for neurofeedback research are discussed.

Frontal Structural Neural Correlates of Working Memory Performance in Older Adults

“…Aron et al (2004) argues that the right VLPFC plays a critical role in cognitive inhibition. Cognitive inhibition is a component of executive control that can be localized to the right inferior frontal gyrus, specifically the pars opercularis (Molnar-Szakacs et al, 2005; Falquez et al, 2014). Inhibition can be defined as the suppression of inappropriate responses (Aron et al, 2004).…”

“…The SFG is thought to contribute to higher cognitive functions, and play a particularly important role in working memory (Boisgueheneuc et al, 2006). The functional anatomical region referred to as the DLPFC (BA9) overlaps structurally, in part, with SFG (Owen et al, 2005; Falquez et al, 2014). …”

Orbital and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Functional Connectivity of Major Depression Vulnerability and Disease

“…The function of this part of SFG is not well studied, but it shows consistent functional coupling with nodes of the default mode network (74, 17, 75, 76). Moreover, introspective tasks increase activity specifically in this part of SFG, with activity extending medially into BA32 (77), while damage to SFG and BA32 correlates with impairment in re-appraising the personal relevance of negative events (78). Interestingly, this part of SFG has also been implicated in expressions of positive affect such as laughter (79) and humor (80) important for self-centered re-appraisal.…”

Changing views of emotion regulation and neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy

“…Emotion regulation through reappraisal has been investigated in many functional neuroimaging studies, which showed the involvement of prefrontal areas (including structural changes; Falquez et al, 2014;Giuliani, Drabant, & Gross, 2011) and the down-regulation of limbic structures such as the amygdala (Buhle et al, 2014;Diekhof et al, Fig. 2 Neural correlates of emotion regulation. Neural correlates of reappraisal (yellow circles) and suppression (red circles) previously reported in three studies that have compared reappraisal and suppression (Goldin et al, 2008;Hayes et al, 2010;Vanderhasselt et al, 2012).…”