Modulating emotional responses

TLDR

Humans possess a primitive neural system for processing emotions such as fear and anger, yet uniquely can modulate these instinctive reactions through intellectual processes like reasoning, rationalizing, and labeling. The study aimed to identify the neural networks underlying humans’ ability to modulate emotional responses. Using fMRI, subjects performed either a perceptual task matching facial affect or an intellectual task labeling affect with linguistic cues. Matching angry or frightened faces increased amygdala activity, whereas labeling these expressions reduced amygdala activity and increased right prefrontal cortex activity, indicating higher cortical regions attenuate emotional responses.

Abstract

Humans share with animals a primitive neural system for processing emotions such as fear and anger. Unlike other animals, humans have the unique ability to control and modulate instinctive emotional reactions through intellectual processes such as reasoning, rationalizing, and labeling our experiences. This study used functional MRI to identify the neural networks underlying this ability. Subjects either matched the affect of one of two faces to that of a simultaneously presented target face (a perceptual task) or identified the affect of a target face by choosing one of two simultaneously presented linguistic labels (an intellectual task). Matching angry or frightened expressions was associated with increased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the left and right amygdala, the brain's primary fear centers. Labeling these same expressions was associated with a diminished rCBF response in the amygdalae. This decrease correlated with a simultaneous increase in rCBF in the right prefrontal cortex, a neocortical region implicated in regulating emotional responses. These results provide evidence for a network in which higher regions attenuate emotional responses at the most fundamental levels in the brain and suggest a neural basis for modulating emotional experience through interpretation and labeling.