@phdthesis{Steinfurth2017,
  author    = {Elisa Steinfurth},
  title     = {Neurobiological Correlates of Emotion Regulation},
  journal    = {Neurobiologische Korrelate der Emotionsregulation},
  url       = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-opus-22471},
  pages     = {113},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Psychological health is a result of the effective interplay between explicit and implicit attempts to regulate ones’ emotions (Koole \& Rothermund, 2011). Emotion regulation refers to processes that influence the intensity, the duration and the type of emotion experienced (Gross \& Thompson, 2007). While explicit emotion regulation comprises effortful mental processes, implicit emotion regulation refers to processes that require no monitoring and terminate automatically (Gyurak, Gross, \& Etkin, 2011). In the present thesis, explicit and implicit strategies to regulate emotions were investigated. In Study 1, a well-established paradigm (Gross \& Levenson, 1993) was adapted to examine the up- and down-regulation of positive and negative emotions using two different explicit emotion regulation strategies. To infer on the neurobiological correlates, blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance tomography. Furthermore, as a trait marker for the individual ability to regulate emotions, heart rate variability (HRV) was acquired during rest. In Study 2, implicit emotion regulation was examined. Therefore, a well-established fear extinction paradigm was compared to a novel approach based on the integration of new information during reconsolidation (Schiller et al., 2010). Autonomic arousal was measured via the skin conductance response during fear acquisition, fear extinction and after fear reinstatement. In Study 3, two dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies —worrying and rumination— were investigated. Excessive worrying and rumination are pathogenic characteristics of psychological disorders. Behavioral, autonomic and BOLD activity was recorded during worried and ruminative thinking as well as during neutral thinking. The results showed that explicit emotion regulation was associated with modulated BOLD activity in the amygdala according to the regulation direction independent of the applied strategy and the valence of the emotion. In addition, increased dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activity was observed during regulation compared to passively viewing emotional pictures. The findings are in line with previous research (Eippert etal., 2007; Kim \&Hamann, 2007; Ochsner etal., 2004) and support the key role of the dlPFC during the explicit regulation of emotions. Similarly, implicit emotion regulation was associated with a decreased autonomic fear response, which was sustained after fear extinction during reconsolidation. The findings underscore the notion, that this novel technique might alter the initial fear memory resulting in a permanently diminished fear response (Nader, Schafe, \& LeDoux, 2000; Schiller et al., 2010). Dysfunctional emotion regulation was associated with increased autonomic activity and fear potentiated startle (during worry) as well as increased BOLD activity in the insula (during worry and rumination) and increased BOLD activity in the amygdala (during rumination). In addition, neural activity in brain areas associated with the default mode network was observed. These findings stress the preserved negative emotional activity and the self-referential nature of the examined dysfunctional strategies. The results of all three studies are integrated into a neuro-biological model of emotion regulation focusing on the interplay between subcortical and prefrontal brain areas.},
  language  = {en}
}