Cited by 1,761Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Prefrontal-Subcortical Pathways Mediating Successful Emotion Regulation

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Wager, Tor D., Davidson, Matthew L., Hughes, Brent L., Lindquist, Martin A., Ochsner, Kevin N.·2008·Neuron

Abstract

Although prefrontal cortex has been implicated in the cognitive regulation of emotion, the cortical-subcortical interactions that mediate this ability remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we identified a right ventrolateral prefrontal region (vlPFC) whose activity correlated with reduced negative emotional experience during cognitive reappraisal of aversive images. We then applied a pathway-mapping analysis on subcortical regions to locate mediators of the association between vlPFC activity and reappraisal success (i.e., reductions in reported emotion). Results identified two separable pathways that together explained approximately 50% of the reported variance in self-reported emotion: (1) a path through nucleus accumbens that predicted greater reappraisal success, and (2) a path through ventral amygdala that predicted reduced reappraisal success (i.e., more negative emotion). These results provide direct evidence that vlPFC is involved in both the generation and regulation of emotion through different subcortical pathways, suggesting a general role for this region in appraisal processes.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.09.006

Cites

115 of 115 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Greater dmPFC activation and amygdala connectivity correspond to reappraisal success in healthy people and in SAD patients.

    “Further, greater dmPFC activation and connectivity with the amygdala corresponded to reappraisal success in both healthy individuals (Banks, Eddy, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2007; Wager, Davidson, Hughes, Lindquist, & Ochsner, 2008) and patients with social anxiety disorder (Goldin et al., 2009).”

    From Changes in functional connectivity with cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder predict outcomes at follow-up (2020) · cites this paper as Wager, Davidson, Hughes, Lindquist, & Ochsner, 2008

    Results §2 reports that greater DMPFC activation was associated with reappraisal success, supporting that part of the claim about healthy individuals. Results §3 examines connectivity with the amygdala using vlPFC, not DMPFC, and finds that greater amygdala activity predicted reduced success. The social-anxiety-disorder finding is attributed to Goldin et al. in the citing sentence, not to Wager et al. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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  • In Wager et al. (2008), when rated success of emotional regulation was regressed on cognitive reappraisal contrast, dlPFC contribution was smaller and lOFC/vlPFC larger than in standard subtraction analysis.

    “In one of the studies (Wager et al., 2008), when the rated success of emotional regulation was regressed on the cognitive reappraisal of emotion contrast, the dlPFC contribution was smaller and that of the lOFC/vlPFC larger than in the standard subtraction analysis (Figure 5).”

    From Top-Down Dysregulation—From ADHD to Emotional Instability (2016) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008

    The Results sections on reappraisal-related activations and correlates of reappraisal success (Figures 2A–B; pages unavailable) describe a standard contrast activating dorsal and ventral PFC, followed by a regression that identifies bilateral vlPFC among regions associated with rated success. This supports the broad contrast between the analyses, but the text does not explicitly compare the size of dlPFC and vlPFC contributions or identify a larger lateral OFC contribution. (LLM, conf=0.81)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • VLPFC mediates amygdala activity in response to negative stimuli.

    “some studies demonstrated the role of VLPFC on mediating Amygdala activity in respect to negative stimuli41,42”

    From Ventrolateral but not Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex tDCS effectively impact emotion reappraisal – effects on Emotional Experience and Interbeat Interval (2018) · cites this paper as [41]

    The Results section (‘Testing the amygdala and NAC/VS as mediators using a priori ROIs’; page unavailable) reports that left-amygdala activity was positively associated with vlPFC activity during reappraisal of emotional pictures. It suggests that vlPFC plays a role in negative affective responses through the amygdala, but does not establish that vlPFC causally mediates amygdala activity; in the paper’s mediation analysis, the amygdala is the mediator. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The emotional Stroop task regularly shows prefrontal activations in dlPFC and lOFC/vlPFC.

    “The emotional Stroop task regularly shows prefrontal activations both in dlPFC and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC)/vlPFC (Eippert et al., 2007; Wager et al., 2008; Kanske et al., 2011; Golkar et al., 2012; Buhle et al., 2014)”

    From Top-Down Dysregulation—From ADHD to Emotional Instability (2016) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008

    The Results section on reappraisal-related activations reports dorsal and ventral prefrontal activity during reappraisal, not during an emotional Stroop task. The Methods describe picture-viewing and reappraisal conditions; a search for “emotional Stroop” found no passage addressing whether that task regularly activates dlPFC and lateral OFC/vlPFC. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Positive amygdala-VLPFC associations negatively predict regulation success, and positive ventral striatum-VLPFC associations positively predict regulation success.

    “This dual role of the VLPFC in emotion regulation may be reflected in positive amygdala-VLPFC associations which negatively predict regulation success and positive VS-VLPFC associations which positively predict regulation success (Wager et al., 2008).”

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Cites

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15 of the 130 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Kober H Barrett LF Joseph J Bliss-Moreau E Lindquist K Duncan S Mize J Wager TD Networks of Emotion: Functional parcelation and pathway analysis from meta-analytic data (in press)
  2. Ochsner KN Barrett LF Mayne TJ Bonanno GA A multiprocess perspective on the neuroscience of emotion Emotions: Currrent issues and future directions 2001 New York, NY The Guilford Press 38 81
  3. Pitkanen A Aggleton JP Connectivity of the rat amygdaloid complex The amygdala: a functional analysis 2000 New York Oxford University Press 690 pp. xiv
  4. Wager TD Barrett LF Bliss-Moreau E Lindquist K Duncan S Kober H Joseph J Davidson M Mize J Lewis M The Neuroimaging of Emotion Handbook of Emotion (in press)

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Authors
Wager, T. D., Davidson, M. L., Hughes, B. L., Lindquist, M. A., & Ochsner, K. N.
Affiliations
Columbia University (US)
Corresponding author
Wager, Tor D.
Venue
Neuron
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2008-09
Volume
59
Issue
6
Pages
1037-1050
ISSN
0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2049423401
Cited by
1,761
References
130
Citations by year
2026: 65 · 2025: 84 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 91 · 2022: 94 · 2021: 122 · 2020: 210 · 2019: 103 · 2018: 129 · 2017: 105 · 2016: 105 · 2015: 97 · 2014: 106 · 2013: 104 · 2012: 90
FWCI
31.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuron (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0631637)
  • National Institutes of Health (MH076136, MH076137)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Keywords
emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, negative emotions, appraisal process, pathway mapping
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Amygdala, Brain Mapping, Concept Formation, Emotions, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Prefrontal Cortex, Comprehension

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