Neural correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in youth with and without anxiety

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Namita Tanya Padgaonkar ◽  
Jessica Uy ◽  
Samantha DePasque ◽  
Adriana Galván ◽  
Tara Peris
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Frontal Pole ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Youth Anxiety ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Regulatory Capacity ◽  
Anxious Youth

Background: Youth with anxiety disorders struggle with managing emotions relative to peers, but the neural basis of this difference has not been examined. Methods: Youth (Mage=13.6; range=8-17) with (n=37) and without (n=24) anxiety disorders completed a cognitive reappraisal task while undergoing fMRI. Emotional reactivity and regulation, functional activation, and beta-series connectivity were compared across groups. Results: Groups did not differ on emotional reactivity or regulation. However, affect ratings and fronto-limbic activation after viewing aversive imagery (with and without regulation) were higher for anxious youth. Anxious youth did not demonstrate age-dependent changes in regulation, whereas regulation in control youth increased linearly. Stronger amygdala-vmPFC connectivity related to greater anxiety in control youth, but less anxiety in anxious youth. Stronger amygdala-frontal pole connectivity related to worse emotion regulation in control youth, but better emotion regulation in anxious youth. Conclusions: Anxious youth regulate when instructed, but this does not relate to age. Viewing aversive imagery related to heightened negative affect even after reappraisal, accompanied by higher fronto-limbic activation. Emotion dysregulation in youth anxiety disorders may stem from heightened emotionality and potent bottom-up neurobiological responses to aversive stimuli. Findings suggest the importance of treatments focused on both reducing initial emotional reactivity and bolstering regulatory capacity.

Is borderline personality disorder really an emotion dysregulation disorder and, if so, how? A comprehensive experimental paradigm

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Skye Fitzpatrick ◽  
Sonya Varma ◽  
Janice R. Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Vagal Tone ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Emotional Recovery

Abstract Background Leading theories suggest that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an emotion dysregulation disorder involving lower basal vagal tone, higher baseline emotion, heightened emotional reactivity, delayed emotional recovery, and emotion regulation deficits. However, the literature to date lacks a unifying paradigm that tests all of the main emotion dysregulation components and comprehensively examines whether BPD is an emotion dysregulation disorder and, if so, in what ways. This study addresses the empirical gaps with a unified paradigm that assessed whether BPD is characterized by five leading emotion dysregulation components compared to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and healthy control (HC) groups. Methods Emotion was assessed across self-report, sympathetic, and parasympathetic indices. Participants with BPD, GAD, and HCs (N = 120) first underwent baseline periods assessing basal vagal tone and baseline emotional intensity, followed by rejection-themed stressors assessing emotional reactivity. Participants then either reacted normally to assess emotional recovery or attempted to decrease emotion using mindfulness or distraction to assess emotion regulation implementation deficits. Results Individuals with BPD and GAD exhibited higher self-reported and sympathetic baseline emotion compared to HCs. The BPD group also exhibited self-reported emotion regulation deficits using distraction only compared to the GAD group. Conclusions There is minimal support for several emotion dysregulation components in BPD, and some components that are present appear to be pervasive across high emotion dysregulation groups rather than specific to BPD. However, BPD may be characterized by problems disengaging from emotion using distraction.

scholarly journals Positive and Negative Emotion Regulation in Adolescence: Links to Anxiety and Depression

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Young ◽  
Christina Sandman ◽  
Michelle Craske
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Adolescent Anxiety

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews the current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological, and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of altered neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Approaches to improve treatments based on empirical evidence of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescents are also discussed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.

Functional Neurocircuitry and Neuroimaging Studies of Anxiety Disorders

2013 ◽  
pp. 606-620
Author(s):  
Madeleine S. Goodkind ◽  
Anett Gyurak ◽  
Amit Etkin
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Specific Phobia ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Anxiety And Fear

Anxiety and fear serve adaptive functions and include wide-ranging subjective, physiological, behavioral, and cognitive responses. When these reactions are present chronically, and to a heightened degree that generalizes to signals beyond those that are objectively dangerous, one sees emergence of clinical anxiety disorders. Historically, anxiety disorders have been conceptualized as disruptions in fear processing, though more recent accounts also highlight changes in emotional reactivity beyond fear and deficits in emotion regulation. In this chapter, we review the neural circuitry relevant for fear processing and for emotional reactivity and regulation more broadly. We then review neuroimaging studies of social anxiety disorder, specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. We highlight areas of overlap between disorders as well as disorder-specific perturbations.

Emotion regulation mediates relationships between perceived childhood invalidation, emotional reactivity, and emotional eating

2020 ◽  
pp. 135910532094286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby Braden ◽  
LaNaya Anderson ◽  
Rachel Redondo ◽  
Tanya Watford ◽  
Elizabeth Emley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Dialectical Behavior Therapy ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Eating ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Emotional Sensitivity ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Model Apply

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is informed by the biosocial model which suggests that emotional sensitivity and childhood invalidation interact to influence emotion dysregulation, leading to behavioral disorders. Although adapted DBT interventions have resulted in improved emotional eating, little research has been conducted to examine whether key aspects of the biosocial model apply to emotional eating. Adults ( N = 258) were enrolled via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Three separate mediation analyses were performed using Hayes’ SPSS macro. Results showed that emotion regulation difficulties mediated the relationships between biosocial variables (i.e. perceived maternal and paternal invalidation and emotional reactivity) and emotional eating.

scholarly journals Positive and negative emotion regulation in adolescence: links to anxiety and depression

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Seaton Young ◽  
Christina F Sandman ◽  
Michelle G. Craske
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Adolescent Anxiety

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Greater integration of multiple measures within the same study would also facilitate more reliable evidence of effects observed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.

Attentional Bias in Youth With Clinical Anxiety: The Moderating Effect of Age

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo R. Carmona ◽  
Jennie M. Kuckertz ◽  
Jenna Suway ◽  
Nader Amir ◽  
John Piacentini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Significant Bias ◽  
Youth Anxiety ◽  
Anxious Youth ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Effect Of Age

Cognitive models of anxiety suggest that threat-related attentional biases are associated with youth anxiety disorders. Although meta-analyses suggest that anxious youths display a bias toward threat, there is variability among studies, with youths displaying either an attention bias toward or away from threat. One possibility that may account for these discrepancies is the effect of youth age. Previous studies have found an effect of age on attentional biases in nonclinical samples. In this study, we examined the effects of age on attentional biases in youths diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Clinically anxious youths (N = 33) completed the probe detection task using threat-related word stimuli. Our results revealed a significant effect of age, with older youths (11–17 years) displaying a significant bias away from threat and younger youths (8–10 years) displaying a nonsignificant bias toward threat. These findings suggest that anxious youth may have either an attentional bias toward or away from threat-related words depending on age.

Functional Neurocircuitry and Neuroimaging Studies of Anxiety Disorders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine S. Goodkind ◽  
Amit Etkin
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Specific Phobia ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Anxiety And Fear

Anxiety and fear serve adaptive functions and include wide-ranging subjective, physiological, behavioral, and cognitive responses. When these reactions are present chronically, and to a heightened degree that generalizes to signals beyond those that are objectively dangerous, one sees emergence of clinical anxiety disorders. Historically, anxiety disorders have been conceptualized as disruptions in fear processing, though more recent accounts also highlight changes in emotional reactivity beyond fear and deficits in emotion regulation. In this chapter, we review the neural circuitry relevant for fear processing and for emotional reactivity and regulation more broadly. We then review neuroimaging studies of social anxiety disorder, specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. We highlight areas of overlap between disorders as well as disorder-specific perturbations.

scholarly journals Difficulties with emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking child maltreatment with the emergence of psychopathology

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 899-915 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Weissman ◽  
Debbie Bitran ◽  
Adam Bryant Miller ◽  
Jonathan D. Schaefer ◽  
Margaret A. Sheridan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
General Psychopathology ◽  
Psychopathology Symptoms

AbstractChildhood maltreatment is associated with increased risk for most forms of psychopathology. We examine emotion dysregulation as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking maltreatment with general psychopathology. A sample of 262 children and adolescents participated; 162 (61.8%) experienced abuse or exposure to domestic violence. We assessed four emotion regulation processes (cognitive reappraisal, attention bias to threat, expressive suppression, and rumination) and emotional reactivity. Psychopathology symptoms were assessed concurrently and at a 2-year longitudinal follow-up. A general psychopathology factor (p factor), representing co-occurrence of psychopathology symptoms across multiple internalizing and externalizing domains, was estimated using confirmatory factor analysis. Maltreatment was associated with heightened emotional reactivity and greater use of expressive suppression and rumination. The association of maltreatment with attention bias varied across development, with maltreated children exhibiting a bias toward threat and adolescents a bias away from threat. Greater emotional reactivity and engagement in rumination mediated the longitudinal association between maltreatment and increased general psychopathology over time. Emotion dysregulation following childhood maltreatment occurs at multiple stages of the emotion generation process, in some cases varies across development, and serves as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking child maltreatment with general psychopathology.

scholarly journals Development and Validation of a State-Based Measure of Emotion Dysregulation

Assessment ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Lavender ◽  
Matthew T. Tull ◽  
David DiLillo ◽  
Terri Messman-Moore ◽  
Kim L. Gratz
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Experiential Avoidance ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Affect Intensity ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Study Designs

Existing measures of emotion dysregulation typically assess dispositional tendencies and are therefore not well suited for study designs that require repeated assessments over brief intervals. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a state-based multidimensional measure of emotion dysregulation. Psychometric properties of the State Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (S-DERS) were examined in a large representative community sample of young adult women drawn from four sites ( N = 484). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor solution, with results supporting the internal consistency, construct validity, and predictive validity of the total scale and the four subscales: Nonacceptance (i.e., nonacceptance of current emotions), Modulate (i.e., difficulties modulating emotional and behavioral responses in the moment), Awareness (i.e., limited awareness of current emotions), and Clarity (i.e., limited clarity about current emotions). S-DERS scores were significantly associated with trait-based measures of emotion dysregulation, affect intensity/reactivity, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness, as well as measures of substance use problems. Moreover, significant associations were found between the S-DERS and state-based laboratory measures of emotional reactivity, even when controlling for the corresponding original DERS scales. Results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the S-DERS as a state-based measure of emotion regulation difficulties.

scholarly journals There Is More to Mindfulness Than Emotion Regulation: A Study on Brain Structural Networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Baltruschat ◽  
Antonio Cándido ◽  
Antonio Maldonado ◽  
Carmen Verdejo-Lucas ◽  
Elvira Catena-Verdejo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire ◽  
Dispositional Mindfulness ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Structural Networks

Dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation are two psychological constructs closely interrelated, and both appear to improve with the long-term practice of mindfulness meditation. These constructs appear to be related to subcortical, prefrontal, and posterior brain areas involved in emotional processing, cognitive control, self-awareness, and mind wandering. However, no studies have yet discerned the neural basis of dispositional mindfulness that are minimally associated with emotion regulation. In the present study, we use a novel brain structural network analysis approach to study the relationship between structural networks and dispositional mindfulness, measured with two different and widely used instruments [Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)], taking into account the effect of emotion regulation difficulties. We observed a number of different brain regions associated with the different scales and dimensions. The total score of FFMQ and MAAS overlap with the bilateral parahippocampal and fusiform gyri. Additionally, MAAS scores were related to the bilateral hippocampus and the FFMQ total score to the right insula and bilateral amygdala. These results indicate that, depending on the instrument used, the characteristics measured could differ and could also involve different brain systems. However, it seems that brain areas related to emotional reactivity and semantic processing are generally related to Dispositional or trait mindfulness (DM), regardless of the instrument used.

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