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Approaching or Decentering? Differential Neural Networks Underlying Experiential Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Defusion

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Abstract: The current study investigated experiential emotion regulation. Rooted in an experien-tial- and client-centered psychotherapeutic approach, experiential emotion regulation involves an active, non-intervening, accepting, open and welcoming approach towards the bodily felt affec-tive experience in a welcoming, compassionate way, expressed in ‘experiential awareness’ in a first phase, and its verbalization or ‘experiential expression’ in a second phase . Defusion refers to the ability to observe one's thoughts and feelings in a detached manner . Nineteen healthy par-ticipants completed an emotion regulation task during fMRI scanning by processing highly arousing negative events by images. Both experiential emotion regulation and cognitive de-fusion resulted in higher negative emotion compared to a ‘watch’ control condition. On the neurophysiological level, experiential emotion regulation recruited brain areas that regulate attention towards affective- and somatosensorial experience such as the anterior cingulate cortex, the paracingulate gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the prefrontal pole, areas underlying multisensory information integration (e.g., angular gyrus), and linking body states to emotion recognition and awareness (e.g., postcentral gyrus). Experiential emotion regulation, relative to the control condition, also resulted in a higher interaction between the anterior insular cortex and left amygdala while participants experienced less negative emotion. Cognitive defusion decreased activation in the subcortical areas such as the brainstem, the thalamus, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. In contrast to cognitive defusion, xperiential emotion regulation relative to demonstrated greater activation in the left angular gyrus, indicating more multisensory infor-mation integration. These findings provide insight into different and specific neural networks underlying psychotherapy-based experiential emotion regulation and cognitive defusion.
Journal: BRAIN SCIENCES
ISSN: 2076-3425
Issue: 9
Volume: 12
Pages: 1-9
Publication year:2022
Keywords:emotion regulation, experiential emotionregulation, cognitive defusion
Accessibility:Open