Author:
Cheng Si,Qiu Xiufu,Li Sijin,Mo Licheng,Xu Feng,Zhang Dandan
Abstract
The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) plays a pivotal role in cognitive reappraisal. Previous studies suggested a functional asymmetry of the bilateral VLPFC, but the evidence is still insufficient during cognitive reappraisal. In this study, we conducted an online single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS) to investigate the causal and distinct roles of the left and right VLPFC in reappraisal. Participants were instructed to reappraise (down-regulate) or attend to pictures depicting social exclusion scenarios while the spTMS was applied over the left or right VLPFC of the participants’ brains. The results showed that spTMS of either the left or the right VLPFC would increase reappraisal difficulty. Meanwhile, the outcome of reappraisal (measured by self-reported negative feelings) significantly deteriorated when the right (but not the left) VLPFC was temporally interrupted by spTMS, while the verbal fluency during oral reporting of the reappraisal strategy was significantly reduced when the left VLPFC was interrupted by spTMS. Taken together, these findings provide causal evidence for the involvement of left and right VLPFC with distinct roles: while the left VLPFC is responsible for the linguistic especially semantic process of generating and selecting appraisals according to the goal of emotion regulation, the right VLPFC plays a critical role in inhibiting inappropriate negative emotions and thoughts generated by the effective scenarios. These findings deepen our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanism of emotion regulation.
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,Biological Psychiatry,Psychiatry and Mental health,Neurology,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Cited by
5 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献