Deconstructing the brain bases of emotion regulation: A systems-identification approach using Bayes factors

Cognitive reappraisal is fundamental to cognitive therapies and everyday emotion regulation. Analyses using Bayes factors and an axiomatic systems-identification approach identified four reappraisal-related components encompassing distributed neural activity patterns across two independent fMRI studies (n=182 and n=176): (1) An anterior prefrontal system selectively involved in cognitive reappraisal; (2) A fronto-parietal-insular system engaged by both reappraisal and emotion generation, demonstrating a general role in appraisal; (3) A largely subcortical system activated during negative emotion generation but unaffected by reappraisal, including amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray; and (4) a posterior cortical system of negative emotion-related regions down-regulated by reappraisal. These systems covaried with individual differences in reappraisal success and were differentially related to neurotransmitter binding maps, implicating cannabinoid and serotonin systems in reappraisal. These findings challenge limbic-centric models of reappraisal and provide new systems-level targets for assessing and enhancing emotion regulation.