Return to search

Ventral Prefrontal Cortex and Emotion Regulation

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC) involvement in emotion regulation. However, critical evidence demonstrating the ventral PFCâs direct influence on emotion regulation is still lacking. Furthermore, it is unclear whether this hypothesized role of the ventral PFC in emotion regulation generalizes to situations that require uninstructed and spontaneous engagement of regulation. These critical gaps in our knowledge were addressed by utilizing, i) low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of healthy individuals performing instructed emotion regulation, and ii) experience-sampling of emotion regulation in a sample of patients with ventral PFC lesions. Study results indicated that experimental disruption of cortical activity of healthy individualâs ventrolateral PFC resulted in a laterality-specific modulation of regulation effectiveness for negative affect. Specifically, left-sided disruption resulted in inhibition whereas right-sided disruption resulted in enhancement of reappraisal effectiveness. Supportive evidence from skin conductance responses reflecting physiological arousal during emotion regulation further corroborated these results. Results from the experience sampling study demonstrated that individuals with damage to the ventral PFC region experience intensity of subjective emotional experience and emotional fluctuation that are different from normative patterns of affect regulation observed in healthy controls. Results from these two studies enrich our understanding of frontal lobe involvement in emotion regulation. More broadly, they can contribute to identifying novel treatment targets for clinical conditions affected by mood dysregulation, such as depression, bipolar disorders, and anxiety disorders.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11102016-153819
Date15 November 2016
CreatorsKim, Joseph Un
ContributorsDavid H. Zald, Jennifer Blackford, Bunmi Olatunji, Scott Wylie
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11102016-153819/
Rightsrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Page generated in 0.0129 seconds