The capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals is reflected in asymmetric activation of frontal brain regions

Abstract

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.

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner

“…Interestingly, relative to the AUT, RGT‐specific activation (RGT > AUT) was found in a rather right‐lateralized network, including the right SFG and MFG, the right MTG and the right precuneus, and bilateral angular gyri. Numerous studies emphasized the relevance of prefrontal regions and associated executive functions for successful reappraisal generation, implying both the left [Choi et al, ; Dörfel et al, ; Johnstone et al, ; Papousek et al, ; Price et al, ], and the right lateral PFC in the top–down regulation of negative affect [Falquez et al, ; Ochsner et al, ; Phan et al, ; Veit et al, ]. In our study, RGT‐specific activation of the right SFG was also positively correlated with RIT performance outside the scanner (RIT‐fluency, RIT‐flexibility).…”

“…When you go to talk to your flatmate, he tells you that he was watching TV and then didn't feel like cleaning up anymore.” [Weber et al, , p. 360]. This study's reappraisal generation task (RGT) was specifically designed for an fMRI environment and consisted of eight RIT vignettes already applied in previous EEG studies [Fink et al, ; Papousek et al, ; four original vignettes by Weber et al, ; four additional vignettes created by Papousek et al, ] Additionally, we constructed 12 more anger‐eliciting vignettes for the purpose of this study, matching the main characteristics of the existing vignettes to the best possible extent. The applied RGT provides several advantages over other reappraisal approaches, not only because of the increased self‐relevance and the relation to reality of its vignettes, but also because it allows controlling for actual adherence to reappraisal instructions, which is rarely seen in emotion regulation research [Demaree et al, ].…”

“…We expect both creativity tasks to activate brain regions supporting executive functions (e.g., lateral prefrontal cortex) [Badre and Wagner, ; Derrfuss et al, ; Kim et al, ]. This prefrontal activation however might be stronger and possibly more left‐lateralized in cognitive reappraisal, as here, executive functions need to operate in an emotional context, which might create additional demands and accordingly enhance activity in left frontal areas [Fink et al, ; Papousek et al, ]. Additionally, we expect the AUT to produce stronger activation in left parieto‐temporal regions, which have been shown to be particularly sensitive to the originality facet of creativity [Abraham et al, ; Fink et al, ; Kleibeuker et al, ].…”

“…Cognitive reappraisal, for instance, requires high cognitive flexibility to shift between various contextual perspectives and to exercise novel strategies. This can among others be attributed to basic executive functions such as the inhibition of prepotent associations, memory updating, and cognitive switching [Joormann and Gotlib, 2010;Malooly et al, 2013;Weber et al, 2014], which likely determine the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in reducing negative affect [Papousek et al, 2017;Pe et al, 2013]. Executive processes have also been established as important prerequisites of creative thoughts in general [Beaty and Silvia, 2012;Fink and Benedek, 2014;Gonen-Yaacovi et al, 2013], with the growing consensus that it is their close interaction with default network processes (mind-wandering, loose associations) [Beaty et al, , 2016Jung et al, 2013] that yields truly original ideas.…”

More habitual physical activity is linked to the use of specific, more adaptive cognitive reappraisal strategies in dealing with stressful events

“…This capacity is measured by the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test (RIT; Weber, Loureiro de Assunção, Martin, Westmeyer, & Geisler, 2014). The fluency in generating reappraisals (i.e., the quantity of ideas) in the RIT can be regarded as a direct prerequisite for effective reappraisal implementation in daily life (Papousek et al, 2017;Weber et al, 2014). Past research showed meaningful relations of reappraisal fluency with both relevant brain activation and indices of well-being: Higher reappraisal fluency was linked to more left-lateralized recruitment of the lateral prefrontal cortex during individuals' reappraisal of potential stressors (Papousek et al, 2017).…”