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Abstract: Adverse learning experiences play a significant role in the etiology of anxiety disorders. However, not all individuals experiencing negative events develop heightened anxiety. This is possibly due to individual differences in the regulation of negative emotions associated with these negative events. Cognitive reappraisal is defined as reinterpreting an emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact. A more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal in daily life has been shown to be more adaptive. However, no study to date examined the association of dispositional cognitive reappraisal with emotional learning, in order to elucidate individual differences in negative emotional responses towards aversive events. The goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to investigate the association of dispositional cognitive reappraisal with subjective, electrodermal and neural correlates of fear acquisition and extinction. Data of 41 healthy individuals, who participated in a socially relevant differential conditioning paradigm (acquisition and extinction learning: day 1, extinction recall: day 2), were acquired. Dispositional cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with right insula, and hippocampus activation during acquisition. Furthermore, the reduction of self-reported conditioned fear during extinction learning as well as reduced insula and enhanced rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation during extinction learning was related to cognitive reappraisal. In addition, reduced recovery of conditioned arousal, reduced anterior cingulate and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation and enhanced ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation during extinction recall was observed in individuals with higher cognitive reappraisal scores. The results indicate that dispositional cognitive reappraisal modulates subjective and neural correlates of fear conditioning, probably leading to reduced acquisition and stronger extinction learning and recall. These results point to the important role of dispositional cognitive reappraisal in the development and modification of conditioned emotional responses and might further improve our understanding of anxiety disorders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Exposure therapy builds on the mechanism of fear extinction leading to decreased fear responses. How the stress hormone cortisol affects brain regions involved in fear extinction in humans is unknown. For this reason, we tested 32 men randomly assigned to receive either 30 mg hydrocortisone or placebo 45 min before fear extinction. In fear acquisition, a picture of a geometrical figure was either partially paired (conditioned stimulus; CS+) or not paired (CS−) with an electrical stimulation (unconditioned stimulus; UCS). In fear extinction, each CS was presented again, but no UCS occurred. Cortisol increased conditioned skin conductance responses in early and late extinction. In early extinction, higher activation towards the CS− than to the CS+ was found in the amygdala, hippocampus and posterior parahippocampal gyrus. This pattern might be associated with the establishment of a new memory trace. In late extinction, the placebo compared with the cortisol group displayed enhanced CS+/CS− differentiation in the amygdala, medial frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. A change from early deactivation to late activation of the extinction circuit as seen in the placebo group seems to be needed to enhance extinction and to reduce fear. Cortisol appears to interfere with this process thereby impairing extinction of recently acquired conditioned fear. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aversive social learning experiences might play a significant role in the aetiology of social anxiety disorder. Therefore, we investigated emotional learning and unlearning processes in healthy humans using a social conditioning paradigm. Forty-nine healthy subjects participated in a 2-day fMRI differential conditioning protocol. Acquisition and extinction were conducted on Day 1 and extinction recall on Day 2. BOLD responses, ratings and skin conductance responses were collected. Our data indicate successful conditioning and extinction on the neural and subjective level. As a main result, we observed a positive correlation of social anxiety and conditioning responses on the subjective level (valence and fear) as well as on the neural level with significant CS+/CS− differentiation in the left amygdala and the left hippocampus. Further, significant CS+/CS− differentiation in the left amygdala was found during extinction and was associated with lower scores in social anxiety. During extinction recall, we found a tendentially negative correlation of social anxiety and CS+/CS− differentiation in the vmPFC. In sum, we were able to show that social anxiety is related to conditionability with socially threatening stimuli. This could point to an important aspect in the aetiology of social anxiety disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phobic responses are strong emotional reactions towards phobic objects, which can be described as a deficit in the automatic regulation of emotions. Difficulties in the voluntary cognitive control of these emotions suggest a further phobia-specific deficit in effortful emotion regulation mechanisms. The actual study is based on this emotion regulation conceptualization of specific phobias. The aim is to investigate the neural correlates of these two emotion regulation deficits in spider phobics. Sixteen spider phobic females participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which they were asked to voluntarily up- and down-regulate their emotions elicited by spider and generally aversive pictures with a reappraisal strategy. In line with the hypothesis concerning an automatic emotion regulation deficit, increased activity in the insula and reduced activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was observed. Furthermore, phobia-specific effortful regulation within phobics was associated with altered activity in medial prefrontal cortex areas. Altogether, these results suggest that spider phobic subjects are indeed characterized by a deficit in the automatic as well as the effortful regulation of emotions elicited by phobic compared with aversive stimuli. These two forms of phobic emotion regulation deficits are associated with altered activity in different medial prefrontal cortex subregions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The underlying neurobiological mechanisms that account for the onset and maintenance of binge-eating disorder (BED) are not sufficiently understood. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored the neural correlates of visually induced food reward and loathing. Method: Sixty-seven female participants assigned to one of four groups (overweight BED patients, overweight healthy control subjects, normal-weight healthy control subjects, and normal-weight patients with bulimia nervosa) participated in the experiment. After an overnight fast, the participants'' brain activation was recorded during each of the following three conditions: visual exposure to high-caloric food, to disgust-inducing pictures, and to affectively neutral pictures. After the fMRI experiment, the participants rated the affective value of the pictures. Results: Each of the groups experienced the food pictures as very pleasant. Relative to the neutral pictures, the visual food stimuli provoked increased activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and insula across all participants. The BED patients reported enhanced reward sensitivity and showed stronger medial OFC responses while viewing food pictures than all other groups. The bulimic patients displayed greater arousal, ACC activation, and insula activation than the other groups. Neural responses to the disgust-inducing pictures as well as trait disgust did not differ between the groups. Conclusions: This study provides first evidence of differential brain activation to visual food stimuli in patients suffering from BED and bulimia nervosa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Findings from several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies implicate the existence of a distinct neural disgust substrate, whereas others support the idea of distributed and integrative brain systems involved in emotional processing. In the present fMRI experiment 12 healthy females viewed pictures from four emotion categories. Two categories were disgust-relevant and depicted contamination or mutilation. The other scenes showed attacks (fear) or were affectively neutral. The two types of disgust elicitors received comparable ratings for disgust, fear and arousal. Both were associated with activation of the occipitotemporal cortex, the amygdala, and the orbitofrontal cortex; insula activity was nonsignificant in the two disgust conditions. Mutilation scenes induced greater inferior parietal activity than contamination scenes, which might mirror their greater capacity to capture attention. Our results are in disagreement with the idea of selective disgust processing at the insula. They point to a network of brain regions involved in the decoding of stimulus salience and the regulation of attention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Early findings reveal high levels of stress during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic with an increase of stress burden towards the second wave. • Self-regulation is an important coping strategy to restore allostasis. • Higher prefrontal activity during emotion regulation predicted less stress during the peaks of infection rates in the first and second wave. • Higher prefrontal inhibitory control predicted less stress burden between both waves when infection rates were low. • Our findings highlight the importance of prefrontal regulation as effective coping mechanisms in the face of unprecedented stressors. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has confronted millions of people around the world with an unprecedented stressor, affecting physical and mental health. Accumulating evidence suggests that emotional and cognitive self-regulation is particularly needed to effectively cope with stress. Therefore, we investigated the predictive value of affective and inhibitory prefrontal control for stress burden during the COVID-19 crisis. Physical and mental health burden were assessed using an online survey, which was administered to 104 participants of an ongoing at-risk birth cohort during the first wave in April 2020. Two follow-ups were carried out during the pandemic, one capturing the relaxation during summer and the other the beginning of the second wave of the crisis. Prefrontal activity during emotion regulation and inhibitory control were assessed prior to the COVID-19 crisis. Increased inferior frontal gyrus activity during emotion regulation predicted lower stress burden at the beginning of the first and the second wave of the crisis. In contrast, inferior and middle frontal gyrus activity during inhibitory control predicted effective coping only during the summer, when infection rates decreased but stress burden remained unchanged. These findings remained significant when controlling for sociodemographic and clinical confounders such as stressful life events prior to the crisis or current psychopathology. We demonstrate that differential stress-buffering effects are predicted by the neural underpinnings of emotion regulation and cognitive regulation at different stages during the pandemic. These findings may inform future prevention strategies to foster stress coping in unforeseen situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Studies investigating the neural responses toward sexual stimuli can provide an important basis for further understanding disorders of sexual functioning. Although our knowledge of the neural correlates of sexual stimulus processing has increased considerably in the last decade, the stability of the observed effects in studies on neural sexual responses has been rather neglected. Aims The current study aimed to test the stability of behavioral and neural responses to visual sexual stimuli in men and women over a time span of 1 to 1.5 years. To disentangle valence and arousal-related aspects of sexual stimulus processing, we employed not only sexual and neutral, but also positive and negative emotional stimuli. Methods A sample of 56 subjects (24 women) was assessed twice, with an interval of 1 to 1.5 years between assessments. During a functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI) session, participants passively viewed sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures. 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 ( BOLD) responses measured by fMRI and stimulus ratings. Results fMRI analyses revealed a distributed network involved in the processing of sexual stimuli, with large parts of this network being consistently activated at both assessment points. Nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, occipital and parietal cortex showed the most robust results with respect to group stability. Responses of anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal, parietal and occipital cortex showed interindividual stability. Gender differences were restricted to a few regions of interest. Conclusions Our data indicate stability of neural responses toward sexual stimuli not only on the group but also on the individual level. Activation of parietal and occipital cortex might reflect a trait like character of attention related responses toward sexual stimuli. Wehrum-Osinsky S, Klucken T, Kagerer S, Walter B, Hermann A, and Stark R. At the second glance: Stability of neural responses toward visual sexual stimuli. J Sex Med 2014;11:2720-2737. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]