Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain mechanisms and plasticity

“A variety of psychological disorders are associated with reduced emotion regulation capacity (Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995; Davidson, 2000; Gross, 1998; Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996; Mennin, Heimberg, Turk, & Fresco, 2002).”

“Moreover, such asymmetries reflect both state and trait components (32, 33) with both phasic positive mood as well as dispositional positive affect associated with greater relative left-sided anterior activation.”

“Both immediately after the training period and 4 months later, electroencephalogram monitoring revealed that meditators showed increases in leftsided anterior brain activation, which has been repeatedly linked to greater positive, approach-related emotions (for a review, see Davidson, 2000).”

“The present study may have had substantially greater power to detect reappraisal-related activations and hence may have detected bilateral and orbital PFC involvement in the cognitive downregulation of emotion.”

“…results are consistent with the hypothesis that meditation induces a significant reorganization of frontal hemispheric activity associated with emotional reactivity and outlook perhaps related to the increases in theta and alpha EEG activation (R. J. Davidson, 2000; R. J. Davidson et al., 2003).”

“), interprets and perpetuates the emotional quality of the stimulus and seems to be regulated in part by indirect inhibitory input from the left DLPF”

“The use of facial electromyography (EMG) to measure global variations in positive or negative affective experience across different regulatory conditions (e.g., Jackson, Malmstadt, Larson, & Davidson, 2000) suggests a promising solution.”

“L, left hemisphere; R, right hemisphere. longed responses to the CC outcome that extend into to emotions (Davidson, 2000).”

“In several publications, Davidson (2000, 2004) has referred to emotion regulation in terms of affective style and has described opportunity for regulation at various dynamics of affective chronometry: (1) the threshold to respond; (2) the magnitude of the response; (3) the rise time to the peak of…”

“On the basis of findings from several new studies reviewed above, we have suggested (Davidson 2000b) that at least one important component of what the ventromedial and/or orbital prefrontal cortex “does” in affective responding is modulate the time course of emotional responding, particularly…”

“While these affective differences across individuals appear to follow somewhat stable trajectories over the life course, they can also be subject to change (Davidson, 2000, 2002; Fredrickson et al., 2008).”

“Some researchers have suggested, based upon this anatomical arrangement, that one function of at least certain regions of PFC is to modulate or inhibit activity in the amygdala. Davidson (2000, 2002) has”

“Substantial EEG studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex has asymmetric involvement in the experience of affect (Davidson 2000).”

“, & Davidson, I. (1986). Coding causal beliefs in natural discourse.”

“…1999) and, specifically, if the DLPFC nitiates a process of emotion regulation that results in inhibition f limbic regions such as the amygdala (Davidson 2000, 2003; revets and Raichle 1998; Mayberg et al 1999; Ochsner et al 2002; 004), sustained emotional reactivity might result indirectly…”

“A potential candidate mechanism for such disinhibition involves decreased inhibition from integrative cortical brain structures such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (Davidson 2000).”

“This may lead to interpretational problems because positive and negative affective states have been shown to have different antecedents (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001), may function relatively independently (Davis, Zautra, & Smith, 2004), and are differentially represented in peoples’ behaviors (Ge…”

“, 2008; Giluk, 2009, 2010) in large part because mindfulness enhances the brain circuits responsible for emotional regulation (Davidson, 2000; Siegel, 2007).”

“emotion regulation is an essential component of mental health and that problems of regulation are associated with a variety of forms of psychopathology (Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995; Davidson, 2000; Gross, 1998).”

“Individual activation asymmetries in the prefrontal cortex and the metabolic activity in the amygdala have been linked to differences in affective reactivity (Davidson, 2000).”

“negative affect, but the ability to modulate between negative and positive affective states, which can be described as a form of emotional flexibility, appears to be key mechanisms for resilience in children (Davidson, 2000).”

“Maladaptive emotional responses (e.g., Davidson, 2000), relationship patterns (e.g., Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999; Lang & Carstensen, 2002), delinquent behavioral tendencies (e.g., Anderson, Bechara, Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1999; Damasio, 2000), addictive behaviors (Steele & Josephs,…”

“…meaning and correlates of hemispheric asymmetries in EEG activity has suggested that this ubiquitous phenomenon indexes a neural system that has emotion-specific influences whereby the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex have been found to be differentially involved in emotion (Davidson, 2000).”

“[43] These interindividual differences in the sensitivity to regulate emotions have been referred to as affective style.[44] Although temperament and personality factors are important contributing factors for the development of emotion regulation skills,[45] we understand affective style in this context as primarily a…”

“…2002), predicting the future (e.g., Gilbert & Ebert, 2002; Gilbert et al., 1998), workmotivation (e.g., Seo et al., 2004), psychopathology (e.g., Davidson, 2000; Davidson et al., 2002), well-being, (e.g., Davidson, 2004), health (Gallo et al., 2005), and personality (e.g.,Revelle, 1995;Watson,…”

“They are only modestly correlated (1) and the experience of positive and negative emotions are associated with activation of different areas of the brain (7).”

“Greater relative right frontal EEG activation has been associated with negative affect and depression (Davidson, 2000) and with poor emotion regulation (Fox, 1994).”

“…arousing stimuli and modulating their encoding into memory (LeDoux, 2000; Phelps, 2006; Sabatinelli et al., 2005), as well right prefrontal and parietal regions implicated in attentional vigilance and individual differences in negative affective style (Davidson, 2000; Posner & Petersen, 1990).”

“Positive and negative emotions are expected to differentially activate the left and right prefrontal cortices, respectively, as suggested by lesion and electrophysiological data (Davidson, 2000).”

“The prefrontal cortex appears to play an important role in emotion regulation, particularly in inhibiting limbic regions such as the amygdala (Davidson, 2000; Drevets & Raichle, 1998; Mayberg et al., 1999; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002; Ochsner et al., 2004).”

“, & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Developmental neuroscience perspectives on emotion regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 2, 132–140. doi:10.1111=j.1750-8606.2008.00055.x Goldstein, R. Z., & Volkow, N. D. (2011). Dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex in addiction: Neuroimaging findings and clinical implications. Natur…”

“Other forms of emotion regulation, such as constructive anger expression (Davidson et al., 2000a,b), positive affective style (Davidson, 2000), a “cool” attentional focus (Ayduk et al., 2002), distraction (e.g., Rusting and Nolen-Hoeksema, 1998; Stemmler, 1997), or more automatic types of emotion…”

“Goldsmith’s approach, as well as the affective dimensions of Rothbart’s model, falls within a larger body of research on affective style, a broader construct used to define any trait-level individual differences in affective phenomena (e.g., trait differences in EEG asymmetry; Davidson, 2000) and personality theories…”

“In light of our previous work on laterality in emotion (Davidson, 2000; Heller et al., 1998), the bilateral nature of the OFC activation in the present study points to the need for specificity in two regards.”

“…has become symbolic for understanding emotions in our era seems to have comparatively little to do with the mediation of emotional feelings (Damasio et al., 2000), even though it certainly initiates emotional arousal as a result of certain perceptual inputs (Whalen, 1998, but see Davidson, 2000).”

“Evidence suggests that individuals have characteristic thresholds for emotion activation, characteristic moods, emotion expression styles, and regulatory capacities and that recurring emotions or emotion patterns have traitlike status (Davidson, 2000; Diener & Diener, 1996; Eisenberg, Guthrie, et al., 1997; N. Fox, He…”

“…circuits involving the refrontal cortex and hippocampus have been implicated in both isrupted emotion regulation and antisocial/aggressive behavior Davidson 2000; Davidson et al 2000; Hoptman et al 2002; Raine 002), whereas frontal and executive function deficits are freuently identified in…”

“Some have proposed that greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry in infants may be associated with a disposition towards behavioral inhibition and negative affect (Davidson 1998; 2000; Fox, 1994 for reviews).”

“Dayan et al. (2006) assessed the effects of prenatal depression and anxiety on spontaneous preterm birth (>37 weeks gestation) in a prospective cohort study and found that depression during pregnancy affects outcome, but slightly differently depending on medication status.”

“Brain research (Davidson, 2000) has revealed that when people are emotionally distressed, like when they are anxious or depressed, the most active sites in the brain are circuitry converging on the amygdala, part of the brain’s emotional centers, and the right prefrontal cortex, a brain region that controls the hyper…”

“These individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation constitute a person’s affective style (see [22,23] for theoretical reviews), may be critically influenced by a person’s sense of life purpose, and may also shape how much purpose and meaning one feels, suggesting bi-directional influences between thes…”

“Considering that depression and anxiety disorders are generally conceptualized as being caused or at least accompanied by dysfunctions of emotion [35], the cognitive emotion regulation strategies contributing to resilience might provide a target for interventions in patients with these illnesses.”

“5-HTT has been shown to be involved in brain development and in individual differences in mood and emotion regulation (Caspi et al., 2010), which have been demonstrated to be related to resilience in behavioral and biological research (Curtis & Cicchetti, 2007; Davidson, 2000).”

“…depression and child frontal brain activity (Dawson et al., 1997; Dawson, Frey, Panagiotides, et al., 1999; Field, Fox, et al., 1995; Jones et al., 2000) and may reflect the well-established role of the prefrontal cortex in emotion regulation and expression (Davidson, 2000; Marshall & Fox, 2000).”

“First, abundant evidence from our laboratory has established that there are reliable individual differences in resting baseline parameters of brain electrical activity from prefrontal scalp regions that predict affective style [for review, see Davidson, 2000; Davidson et al., 2000b].”

“Specifically, findings suggest that the left PFC is an important brain area in a widespread circuit that mediates appetitive approach, while the right PFC appears to form a major component of a neural circuit that instantiates defensive withdrawal [8, 10].”

“Evidence suggests that right frontal EEG asymmetry, a marker of trait negative affectivity ~see Davidson, 2000!, is one biological marker of poor emotion regulation strategies, whereas left frontal EEG asymmetry may protect against the impact of negative affectivity through greater access to…”

“Although this suggests (Davidson, 2000b) that the affect systems are relatively separate owing to their strong associations with left and right prefrontal areas involved in approach and avoidance, nevertheless neural activation may both enhance the time course of PA and shorten that of NA.”

“circuit that instantiates defensive withdrawal [39, 40].”

“Individual differences in amygdala activation to negative stimuli are associated with dispositional negative affect [7] and pessimism [8], which are conceptually related to neuroticism.”

“clear that the implications for stress regulation lie at the interface of “lower level” emotional input and “higher level” cognitive processing, and the reciprocal relations between them, as evidenced in studies demonstrating functional connectivity between the amygdala, anterior cingulate gyrus, and PFC [153, 154].”

“Recently, an interesting series of studies in the biology of human resilience have been undertaken (Dienstbier, 1991; Davidson, 2000; Morgan et al., 2000; Morgan et al., 2002).”

“Approach and avoidance likely represent separable but interacting systems rather than a continuum of reactivity, given evidence of distinct neurological and psychological underpinnings (e.g., Coan, Allen, & HarmonJones, 2001; Davidson, 2000; Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997; Fowles, 1994; Fox, 1994; Gray & McNaughton, 2000…”

“Within the explanatory framework of the emotion theory of differential hemispheric lateralization (Davidson, 2000), the observed left hemisphere asymmetry in resilient maltreated children may reflect a bias in the recognition and representation of emotion.”

“Variable recruitment of activation in amygdala and regions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which are part of the circuitry important to emotional and social behavior, likely mediates such individual differences in emotion reactivity (Davidson, 2000).”

“…such as reappraisal (e.g., Gross & John, 2003; Zillmann, 1993), constructive anger expression (e.g., K. Davidson, MacGregor, Stuhr, Dixon, & MacLean, 2000), positive affective style (e.g., R. J. Davidson, 2000), or emotional intelligence (e.g., Feldman-Barrett & Gross, 2001; Salovey et al., 1993).”

“Asymmetries in frontal brain electrical activity are thought to reflect the processing (Davidson, 1998, 2000) and regulation of emotion (Fox, 1994).”

“An inverse relationship between frontal deficits and elevated amygdala response in mood disorders has been reported previously (Davidson 2000; Siegle et al. 2002).”

“Davidson, R. J. (2000). Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: brain mechanisms and plasticity. Am Psychol, 55(11), 1196-1214. Davidson, R. J. (2002). Anxiety and affective style: role of prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Biol Psychiatry, 51(1), 68-80. Davidson, R. J., Pizzagalli, D., Nitschke, J. B., & Putna…”

“For example, I have argued (e.g., Davidson, 2000) that there are regulatory processes in emotion that occur automatically and that modulate the onset and recovery function of emotion.”

“Regardless of their adaptive function, in some cases, due to the failure of proper responding to one’s emotions, particular patterns of emotions can predispose a person to mental health problems (Davidson, 2000).”

“For example, studies have found that parents with depression and their children evidence similar patterns of electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry, including greater right versus left side hemispheric activation that has been associated with processing negative emotion (Davidson, 2000).”