The Neural Bases of the Cognitive Control of Emotion

情绪认知控制的神经基础

基本信息

批准号：
7145640
负责人：
KEVIN N OCHSNER
金额：
$ 36.23万
依托单位：
COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2006
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2006-09-01 至 2011-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the past decade an important approach to describing and treating clinical and behavioral disorders has been the application of cognitive neuroscience techniques, like brain imaging, to understanding mechanisms of dysfunction. This approach has not yet been applied to understanding the mechanisms underlying the human ability to use higher cognitive abilities to regulate emotion. Understanding these mechanisms is important because cognitive therapies are highly effective for treating the emotion dysregulation associated with numerous mental and physical health disorders, ranging from post-traumatic stress and depression to cardiovascular disease. In the past five years, we and others have completed an initial wave of research on this issue that has identified interactions between prefrontal control systems and emotion processing systems (such as the amygdala) that underlie the effective cognitive down-regulation of negative emotion. The goal of this proposal is to move beyond these initial steps to more precisely characterize a normative model of the neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion. Towards that end, we propose a series of fMRI experiments is designed to address specific questions about the neural bases of two forms of cognitive emotion regulation with demonstrated clinical and laboratory efficacy: distraction and reappraisal. An emphasis is placed on examining the down-regulation of negative emotion, because of its relevance to numerous clinical disorders. Experiments 1-4 address our first specific aim, which is to determine how the neural bases of distraction and reappraisal depend upon the type of emotion eliciting stimulus. These Experiments examine the regulation of anticipatory anxiety, emotions driven by cognitive appraisals of images vs. physical pain, positive vs. negative emotion, and the long-term effects of regulation on emotional responses. Experiments 5 and 6 address our second specific aim, which is to identify the neural bases of specific subtypes of distraction and reappraisal. These Experiments examine the use of different kinds of thoughts to distract oneself from an aversive stimulus, or the use of different kinds of reappraisal to transform the meaning of that stimulus. In general, we hypothesize that the regulatory effects of a given strategy can be understood in terms of the functions associated with particular prefrontal systems control systems and their effects upon brain systems that encode stimulus features (e.g. temporal or somatosensory cortex) or generate emotional responses (e.g. amygdala). The long term goal of our approach is to provide a model of the neural bases of effective cognitive control over emotion in healthy adults that could - in future work - be used to explain the mechanisms underlying dysfunctional emotional responses in clinical populations.

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去的十年中，描述和治疗临床和行为障碍的一种重要方法是认知神经科学技术（如脑成像）的应用，用于了解功能障碍的机制。这种方法尚未应用于理解人类使用更高认知能力来调节情绪的能力的基础机制。了解这些机制很重要，因为认知疗法对于治疗与许多精神和身体健康疾病相关的情绪失调非常有效，从创伤后压力和抑郁症到心血管疾病。在过去的五年中，我们和其他人已经完成了有关此问题的初步研究浪潮，该研究已经确定了前额叶控制系统与情绪处理系统（例如杏仁核）之间的相互作用，这些互动是对负面情绪有效下调的有效认知下调的基础。该建议的目的是超越这些初始步骤，以更精确地描述情感认知控制的神经基础的规范模型。为此，我们提出了一系列fMRI实验，旨在解决有关两种形式的认知情绪调节神经基础的特定问题，并显示出临床和实验室功效：分心和重新评估。由于与众多临床疾病相关，重点是检查负面情绪的下调。实验1-4解决了我们的第一个特定目标，即确定分心和重新评估的神经基础如何取决于引起刺激的情绪的类型。这些实验检查了预期焦虑的调节，图像与身体疼痛的认知评估，积极情绪与负面情绪以及调节对情绪反应的长期影响。实验5和6解决了我们的第二个特定目的，即确定分心和重新评估的特定亚型的神经碱基。这些实验检查了使用不同种类的思想来分散自己的厌恶刺激，或者使用不同种类的重新评估来改变该刺激的含义。通常，我们假设可以从与特定的前额叶系统控制系统相关的功能及其对编码刺激特征（例如时间或体感皮质）或产生情绪反应的脑系统的影响来理解给定策略的调节作用。我们方法的长期目标是为健康成年人的有效认知控制情绪的神经基础提供模型，这些模型可以用来解释临床人群中功能障碍情绪反应的机制。