The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation
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The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation Florin Dolcos 1,2,3 & Yuta Katsumi 1,2 & Chen Shen 1,2 & Paul C. Bogdan 1,2 & Suhnyoung Jun 1,2 & Ryan Larsen 1 & Wendy Heller 1,2,3 & Kelly Freeman Bost 4 & Sanda Dolcos 1,2
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract Emotional well-being depends on the ability to adaptively cope with various emotional challenges. Most studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation strategies deployed relatively later in the timing of processing that leads to full emotional experiences. However, less is known about strategies that are engaged in earlier stages of emotion processing, such as those involving attentional deployment. We investigated the neural mechanisms associated with self-guided Focused Attention (FA) in mitigating subjective negative emotional experiences. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded while participants viewed a series of composite negative and neutral images with distinguishable foreground (FG) and background (BG) areas. Participants were instructed to focus either on the FG or BG components of the images, and then rated their emotional experiences. Behavioral results showed that FA was successful in decreasing emotional ratings for negative images viewed in BG Focus condition. At the neural level, the BG Focus was associated with increased activity in regions typically implicated in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex) and decreased activity in regions linked to affective processing (amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Dissociable brain activity linked to FA also was identified in visual cortices, including between the parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, showing increased versus decreased activity, respectively, during the BG Focus. These findings complement the evidence from prior FA studies with recollected emotional memories as internal stimuli and further demonstrate the effectiveness of self-guided FA in mitigating negative emotional experiences associated with processing of external unpleasant stimuli. Keywords Affect . Emotion control . Amygdala . Prefrontal cortex . Emotion-cognition interactions
Introduction
Florin Dolcos and Yuta Katsumi Shared First-Authorship * Florin Dolcos [email protected]; http://dolcoslab.beckman.illinois.edu * Sanda Dolcos [email protected]; http://dolcoslab.beckman.illinois.edu 1
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
3
Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
4
Family Resiliency Center, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Research on emotion regulation (ER)—the processes influencing which, when, and how emotions are experienced and expressed—has
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