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

The current study investigated experiential emotion regulation. Rooted in experiential- and client-centered psychotherapeutic approaches (Gendlin, 1973; Greenberg & Vandekerckhove, 2008; Rogers, 1957) , experiential emotion regulation involves an ac-tive, 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 (Vandekerckhove et al., 2012). Defusion refers to the ability to observe one's thoughts and feelings in a detached manner (Bernstein et al., 2015). Nineteen healthy participants completed an emotion regulationER task during fMRI scanning by processing highly arousing negative events by images. Both experiential ER emotion regulation and cog-nitive defusion resulted in higher negative emotion compared to a “‘watch”’ control condition. On the neurophysiological level, experiential ER emotion regulation re-cruited brain areas that regulate attention towards affective- and somatosensorial ex-perience such as the anterior cingulate cortex, the paracingulate gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, and the prefrontal pole, areas underlying multisensory information in-tegration (e.g., angular gyrus), and areas linking body states to emotion recognition and awareness (e.g., postcentral gyrus). Experiential ER 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. Cogni-tive defusion decreased activation in the subcortical areas such as: the brainstem, the thalamus, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. In direct contrast to cognitive defusion, experiential ER emotion regulation relative to demonstrated greater activation in the left angular gyrus, indicating more multisensory information integration. These find-ings provide insight into different and specific neural networks underlying psycho-therapy-based experiential ER emotion regulation and cognitive defusion.

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Trefwoorden:emotion regulation, experiential emotionregulation, cognitive defusion

Toegankelijkheid:Open