The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults.

By Kateri McRae, James J. Gross, Jochen Weber, Elaine R. Robertson, Peter Sokol-Hessner, Rebecca D. Ray, John D. E. Gabrieli, Kevin N. Ochsner. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2012

653 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ability to use cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions is an adaptive skill in adulthood, but little is known about its development. Because reappraisal is thought to be supported by linearly developing prefrontal regions, one prediction is that reappraisal ability develops linearly. However, recent investigations into socio-emotional development suggest that there are non-linear patterns that uniquely affect adolescents. We compared older children (10-13), adolescents (14-17) and young adults (18-22) on a task that distinguishes negative emotional reactivity from reappraisal ability. Behaviorally, we observed no age differences in self-reported emotional reactivity, but linear and quadratic relationships between reappraisal ability and age. Neurally, we observed linear age-related increases in activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, previously identified in adult reappraisal. We observed a quadratic pattern of activation with age in regions associated with social cognitive processes like mental state attribution (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, anterior temporal cortex). In these regions, we observed relatively lower reactivity-related activation in adolescents, but higher reappraisal-related activation. This suggests that (i) engagement of the cognitive control components of reappraisal increases linearly with age and (ii) adolescents may not normally recruit regions associated with mental state attribution, but (iii) this can be reversed with reappraisal instructions.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Education, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6db42b2eaea9858b629a3ae5754f2e0dd0cee988

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Citations in the corpus

Emotion and the Prefrontal Cortex: An Integrative Review (2017, background): “It is widely recognized that the PFC plays a central role in emotion regulation (Beauregard, Levesque, & Bourgouin, 2001; Etkin et al., 2015; Johnstone et al., 2007; McRae et al., 2012; Ochsner et al., 2002; Ochsner & Gross, 2005; Ochsner & Gross, 2014; Quirk & Beer, 2006; Wager et al., 2008).”
The Development of Human Amygdala Functional Connectivity at Rest from 4 to 23 Years: a cross-sectional study (2014, neutral): “…like skin conductance responses (e.g. Banks et al., 2007; Etkin et al., 2006, 2011; Fisher et al., 2009; Gee et al., 2013; Goldin et al., 2008; McRae et al., 2012; Hare et al., 2008; Hariri et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2011a; Linnman et al., 2012; Perlman and Pelphrey, 2011; Phan et al., 2005;…”
Perceived Maternal Autonomy Support and Early Adolescent Emotion Regulation: A Longitudinal Study (2015, positive): “This development is fostered by children’s emerging capacity to use more sophisticated and constructive emotion regulation (ER) styles (McRae et al., 2012; Zeman et al., 2006).”
Coping, Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology in Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analysis and Narrative Review (2017, background): “A consistent pattern of findings has emerged, suggesting that increased activation during reappraisal of emotional stimuli occurs in several areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), including the ventromedial, ventrolateral, and dorsolateral PFC (e.g., Belden et al., 2014, 2015; Dougherty et al., 2015;”
Functional imaging studies of emotion regulation: A synthetic review and evolving model of the cognitive control of emotion (2012, neutral): “HYA Dec Neg Reint Photos Early Yes McRae et al.(180) Healthy aged”
Sleep restriction worsens mood and emotion regulation in adolescents (2013, background): “In the adolescent brain, the prefrontal-subcortical circuits that govern emotion are rapidly developing (Giedd, 2004; McRae et al., 2012), and sleep researchers have speculated that chronic sleep restriction can alter that development (Beebe, 2011).”
Emotion Regulation: Current Status and Future Prospects (2015, background): “How plastic is the typical developmental sequence for learning different forms of emotion regulation (McRae et al., 2012)?”
PoKi: A Large Dataset of Poems by Children (2020, background): “These include biological/maturational changes (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1994), acquisition and implementation of different emotion regulation strategies (McRae et al., 2012), dynamic restructuring of interpersonal relationships (De Goede et al., 2009), and exposure and adaption to new environments and…”