The DOI matches its Crossref record; 114 of the 130 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Prefrontal-Subcortical Pathways Mediating Successful Emotion Regulation
Open accessAbstract
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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“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“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
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“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).”
From Neural network of cognitive emotion regulation—an ALE meta-analysis and MACM analysis (2014) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“but one can infer from our analyses and the literature, that a highly plausible candidate structure in the direct pathway model would be the VLPFC as it detects salience, is a core structure for appraisal processes (Hampshire et al., 2010; Wager et al., 2008) and would also be in a good position to initiate higher order cognitive processes or complex behaviors through its involvement in the medial”
From Neural network of cognitive emotion regulation—an ALE meta-analysis and MACM analysis (2014) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“In this study, vmPFC activity was associated with increased reappraisal success in a manner mediated by changes in the ventral striatum, though other dorsomedial and lateral prefrontal regions are likely to be important as well [54,55].”
From Ventromedial prefrontal–subcortical systems and the generation of affective meaning (2012) · cites this paper as [54]
In the citing paper
“In one recent study, positive reappraisal reduced amygdala responses to aversive visual images and increases activity in the ventral striatum, which in turn predict reappraisal effects on emotional experience [54] (figure 1h).”
From Ventromedial prefrontal–subcortical systems and the generation of affective meaning (2012) · cites this paper as [54]
In the citing paper
“A second prediction is that reappraisal-related fMRI activity will emerge when controlling for activity in lateral cortical ‘attention systems’ (partially done in [54]; see Supplementary Online Materials for additional discussion).”
From Ventromedial prefrontal–subcortical systems and the generation of affective meaning (2012) · cites this paper as [54]
In the citing paper
“the NAc-vmPFC pathway previously shown to be important for emotion/pain regulation, and valuation in a range of contexts [6],[53],[74]–[77]”
From Distinct Brain Systems Mediate the Effects of Nociceptive Input and Self-Regulation on Pain (2015) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“Ex-partner versus Friend was predicted by increased activity in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), right temporal parietal junction (TPJ) and precuneus, which are reliably associated with mentalizing about others38,39, and several other regions associated with negative emotion and its regulation20,40,41, including thalamus, supplementary motor area and inferior frontal gyrus.”
From Separate neural representations for physical pain and social rejection (2014) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“and VS activity mediated the relationship between ventrolateral PFC activation and reappraisal success (i.e. less negative emotional experience).”
From Neural correlates of social exclusion across ages: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional MRI studies (2017) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“Wager and colleagues (2008) found that ventrolateral PFC activation was positively correlated with that of the VS when engaging in cognitive reappraisal of aversive images”
From Neural correlates of social exclusion across ages: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional MRI studies (2017) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“Similarly, ventral lPFC has also been identified in studies of negative affect following social exclusion (Sebastian et al., 2009), emotion regulation in labeling negative affect (Lieberman et al., 2007), and negative emotion reappraisal (Wager et al., 2008).”
From Risk-taking and social exclusion in adolescence: neural mechanisms underlying peer influences on decision-making (2013) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“Given its role in reward processing, the ventral striatum may serve to aid in the reappraisal of negative experiences into positive interpretations (Masten et al., 2009, Wager et al., 2009).”
From Dopaminergic reward sensitivity can promote adolescent health: a new perspective on the mechanism of ventral striatum activation (2016) · cites this paper as Wager et al., 2009
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Citations
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“The MEPM analysis is based on a standard three-variable path model (Baron and Kenny, 1986) with a bootstrap test for the statistical significance of the product a*b (Efron and Tibshirani, 1993; Shrout and Bolger, 2002), as diagrammed in Figure 1.”
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Phan, K. L., Wager, T., Taylor, S. F., & Liberzon, I. (2002) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1087 · Cited by 3,502 · cited 1×
“…stimuli that do (e.g. a small child crying hysterically) and stimuli that do not (e.g. a fearful facial expression) generate negative emotional experiences, it is more consistently activated by the stimuli that do not elicit experience (Phan et al., 2002; Phan et al., 2004; Wager et al., in press).”
Self-citationEtkin, A., & Wager, T. D. (2007) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07030504 · Cited by 3,391 · cited 5×
“The amygdala is the affect-related region most commonly modulated during reappraisal (Ochsner and Gross, 2005, 2008); it has been implicated in detecting, attending to, and encoding into memory affectively arousing and especially threatening stimuli (Holland and Gallagher, 1999; Phelps, 2006; Whalen, 1998), and it is…”
InfluentialSelf-citation
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“Significance and SE of the associated path coefficients were bootstrapped (10,000 samples) and adjusted using the bias-corrected and accelerated percentile method (Wager et al., 2008).”
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“The right vlPFC, located at the junction between the VAN and FPN, is known to mediate cognitive control of emotions [70], and it is part of the clusters that are positively correlated with the dACC/adMCC seeded resting-state functional connectivity (Figure 3).”
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“The observed efficacy of longer intervention sessions (> 1 h) producing larger effect sizes supports the neuroplasticity hypothesis, whereby repeated therapeutic exposure facilitates structural and functional brain changes (Wager et al. 2008).”
Siegel, P., & Peterson, B. S. (2025) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.14037 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- 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)
- PMC
- PMC2742320
- 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
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 1780 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- 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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