The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults

TLDR

Cognitive reappraisal is an adaptive emotion‑regulation skill in adulthood, yet its developmental trajectory is unclear, with some evidence suggesting linear prefrontal maturation and other studies indicating non‑linear socio‑emotional changes during adolescence. The study compared children, adolescents, and young adults on a task that separates negative emotional reactivity from reappraisal ability. Participants performed this task while fMRI measured brain activity across age groups. Behaviorally, reappraisal ability showed linear and quadratic age effects but reactivity did not; neurally, left ventrolateral prefrontal activation increased linearly with age, whereas medial prefrontal, posterior cingulate, and anterior temporal regions displayed a quadratic pattern, with adolescents showing reduced reactivity‑related activation but heightened reappraisal‑related activation.

Abstract

The ability to use cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions is an adaptive skill in adulthood, but little is known about its development. Because reappraisal is thought to be supported by linearly developing prefrontal regions, one prediction is that reappraisal ability develops linearly. However, recent investigations into socio-emotional development suggest that there are non-linear patterns that uniquely affect adolescents. We compared older children (10-13), adolescents (14-17) and young adults (18-22) on a task that distinguishes negative emotional reactivity from reappraisal ability. Behaviorally, we observed no age differences in self-reported emotional reactivity, but linear and quadratic relationships between reappraisal ability and age. Neurally, we observed linear age-related increases in activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, previously identified in adult reappraisal. We observed a quadratic pattern of activation with age in regions associated with social cognitive processes like mental state attribution (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, anterior temporal cortex). In these regions, we observed relatively lower reactivity-related activation in adolescents, but higher reappraisal-related activation. This suggests that (i) engagement of the cognitive control components of reappraisal increases linearly with age and (ii) adolescents may not normally recruit regions associated with mental state attribution, but (iii) this can be reversed with reappraisal instructions.