Ihre Suche

In authors or contributors

Ergebnisse 2 Einträge

  • Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, two major emotion regulation strategies, are differentially related to emotional well-being. The aim of this study was to test the association of individual differences in these two emotion regulation strategies with gray matter volume of brain regions that have been shown to be involved in the regulation of emotions. Based on high-resolution magnetic resonance images of 96 young adults voxel-based morphometry was used to analyze the gray matter volumes of the a priori regions of interest, including amygdala, insula, dorsal anterior cingulate and paracingulate cortex, medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and their association with cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression usage as well as neuroticism. A positive association of cognitive reappraisal with right and tendentially left amygdala volume and of neuroticism with left amygdala volume (marginally significant) was found. Expressive suppression was related to dorsal anterior cingulate/paracingulate cortex and medial PFC gray matter volume. The results of this study emphasize the important role of the amygdala in individual differences in cognitive reappraisal usage as well as neuroticism. Additionally, the association of expressive suppression usage with larger volumes of the medial PFC and dorsal anterior/paracingulate cortex underpins the role of these regions in regulating emotion-expressive behavior.

  • INTRODUCTION: Few studies so far have directly compared the neural processing of visual sexual stimuli in men and women. Also, most of these studies only compared sexual with neutral stimuli, making it difficult to disentangle sexual stimulus processing from general emotional processing. AIM: The current study aimed to explore gender commonalities and differences in neural activity associated with the processing of visual sexual stimuli in a large sample of 50 men and 50 women. In order to disentangle effects of sexual processing from those of general emotional processing, we employed sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures. METHODS: Subjects passively viewed sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session. Pictures were presented in 24 blocks of five pictures each. Every block was rated immediately after its presentation with respect to valence, arousal, and sexual arousal. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood oxygen level dependent responses measured by fMRI and subjective ratings. RESULTS: fMRI analysis revealed a distributed network for the neural processing of sexual stimuli comprising the hypothalamus, the nucleus accumbens, as well as orbitofrontal, occipital, and parietal areas. This network could be identified (i) for both men and women, with men showing overall stronger activations than women and (ii) independent of general emotional arousal or valence effects. CONCLUSION: Our data speak in favor of a common neural network associated with the processing of visual sexual stimuli in men and women. Apart from the observed gender commonalities, overall stronger responses in men were observed that might indicate stronger sexual responsivity in men.

Last update from database: 11.12.25, 09:29 (UTC)