BIO + MED
Brain imaging study
provides insight into
regulating negative
emotion
When watching shock drama
television shows such as Nip/Tuck and Law
& Order: SVU, people often turn away in
disgust at the excessive blood, open flesh,
and story lines that sometimes hit too
close to home. For surgeons and profilers,
however, who are used to staying
composed in highly stressful situations,
watching these shows can be easy. Recent
research by Philippe Goldin, Ph.D., Kateri
McRae, Ph.D., Wiveka Ramel, Ph.D., and
James Gross, Ph.D. of the Psychology
Department at Stanford University
explores how two different emotion
regulation strategies influence a network
of brain areas, which subsequently control
emotional responses to stimuli that would
typically turn stomachs.
Reappraisal vs.
Suppression
According to emotion research, each
of us can regulate our emotions using
methods that can be applied before or
after we experience an emotion: cognitive
reappraisal and expressive suppression.
Cognitive reappraisal occurs before we
feel our anticipated emotion and allows
us to redefine the meaning of a situation.
Expressive suppression, in contrast,
refers to our ability to inhibit behaviors
associated with an emotional response.
“Cognitive reappraisal is more linguistic
and logic-based and involves changing
how you view a situation based on how
you are thinking about it,” explains Dr.
Philippe Goldin, a post-doctoral fellow
in Gross’ Stanford Psychophysiology
Laboratory and first-author on their recent
article in Biological Psychiatry. “Expressive
suppression is a different strategy that
involves changing how you display an
emotion, not suppressing or changing the
emotion you are experiencing.”
stanford scientific
written by KEVIN WEINER
Boiling Pot
Emotion Generative and
Emotion Regulatory
Brain Regions
The Stanford study was the first to
compare cognitive reappraisal and
expressive suppression using emotional
stimuli and neuroimaging methods.
Goldin and colleagues focused on three
main areas of the brain: the amygdala,
insula, and pre-frontal cortex. The
amygdala and insula are critical for
processing and generating emotion, while
sub-regions of the pre-frontal cortex (PFC)
are involved in regulating the emotions
we feel.
Since reappraisal and suppression involve
different areas within a given network
of brain regions, Goldin suspected that
emotion generative areas and emotion
regulatory regions would be activated
differently depending on which regulation
method participants used. “Current
theories elaborate that suppression can
paradoxically sometimes lead to enhanced
physiological reactivity, through skin
conductance, heart rate, even how
another person in the room feels when
someone is suppressing. We were curious
to see if this also involved brain activity,”
Goldin explains.
It’s Showtime
Goldin and colleagues used functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
examine neural activity as each of their
participants watched different 15-second
video clips. Some clips displayed neutral
images such as nature scenes, while
others displayed disturbing imagery such
as amputations, surgical procedures,
vomiting, and animal slaughter.
While participants were in the scanner, a
small video camera was positioned about
6 inches in front of their faces, capturing
everything from a face twitch to a grimace.
Prior to the fMRI scanning sessions, the
researchers trained participants to inhibit
their face muscles and practice different
types of thinking to modulate emotions
when exposed to these disturbing videos.
“We gave them training on what it means
to suppress facial expressions and to
reappraise; then we actually had them
speak out loud and practice implementing
thinking or reinterpretation strategies,”
Goldin elaborates.
Prior to each clip in the scanner, a cue
appeared on the monitor to instruct
participants to just watch, to think
objectively and reinterpret the meaning
of what they were viewing (reappraisal), or
to suppress their facial expression but not
their emotions (suppression). Following
each clip, participants were cued to rate
their negative emotion intensity.
Hot on the Inside, Cool
on the Outside
Results revealed that suppression – or
keeping the face still while watching
disgusting clips – actually induced an
increase in neural activity within the
amygdala and insula, while reappraisal
induced a decrease in each of these areas.
“One of the key things we found is
that with suppression, the PFC areas
attempting to suppress the facial muscles
seem to come online later in these film
clips and in terms of the emotion neural
architecture actually lead to increases in
amygdala and insula,” Goldin explains.
“In contrast, reappraisal is a strategy that
requires PFC activation early on to get
it going and then dwindles, which then
seems to trigger a reduction in amygdala
and insula activation.”
Comparing the two strategies, there is
little cost to using reappraisal because
viewers have already changed their
mindset in the beginning and have
a strategy prepared to deal with the
of Emotion
associated emotions. This subsequently
leaves less work for the emotion
generating amygdala and insula. On the
other hand, suppression can become
physiologically detrimental because
though viewers are cool on the outside,
they are boiling on the inside. As
emotional responses rise in the amygdala
and insula at seeing a face transplant on “Suppression can paradoxically sometimes
Nip/Tuck, for example, a viewer may want
to impress his girlfriend by not moving a
lead to enhanced physiological reactivity.”
face muscle despite his disgust. The PFC
works to combat how his body wants to
– Philippe Goldin
respond and his brain activity shows this brain regions is like increasing the flame A Proposed Neural Model of Emotion
battle. on the stove. Pretty soon the water is Regulation. Goldin and colleagues
going to boil and the lid will pop.” hypothesized that activity within
Humans control their face muscles like subregions of the prefrontal cortex
this every day to conceal feelings – in Regulating emotions is not always easy, would rise initially when using
the office, during interviews, even with and it can sometimes be difficult to know reappraisal strategies, but drop over
loved ones in order to avoid emotionally whether to simply express frustration the duration of the film clip, while the
overwhelming situations. Although this is with a difficult situation, attempt to reverse would occur for suppression
often beneficial and necessary, it can also hide the irritation and appear calm, or strategies.
be harmfully straining. try to re-frame the situation altogether.
The researchers involved in the recent

Credit: Kevin Weiner edited

Blow Off Some Steam or Stanford study believe that learning which

from Dr. Philippe Goldin

Let It Sit? of these coping strategies to use in various
Goldin and colleagues hope to apply situations is crucial to maintaining health
their research to clinical populations such and peace of mind.
as patients with social anxiety disorder.
This is critical because long-term use of
reappraisal improves emotional control
and interpersonal functioning. In contrast,
long-term use of suppression can decrease
emotional control and increase depressive
symptoms. However, Goldin stresses that
reappraisal is not always the best strategy
and that it can overlap with suppression
even for those not employed in jobs
reminiscent of shock drama television
shows. KEVIN WEINER is a second year graduate student in Psychology, focusing in Neuroscience.
When not writing about science, taking classes, or doing research, you can find Kevin
Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/pho

surfing and writing poetry.

“The skillfulness is in knowing when
it is most beneficial to apply different To Learn More
strategies,” Goldin explains. “For example, Goldin, P., McRae, K., Ramel, W., & Gross, J. (2008). The Neural Basis of Emotion Regulation:
suppression is okay for the short-term Reappraisal and Suppression of Negative Emotion. Biological Psychiatry 63: 577-586.
and necessary sometimes, but if it is the
only strategy used in the long-term, the
For more information, visit the departmental website of Professor James Gross and his
lab: http://www.psych.stanford.edu/~psyphy/.
constant activation of emotion-generative