Cognitive Emotion Regulation: Insights from Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2008 Apr;17(2):153-158. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00566.x.

Abstract

Recent developments in the study of cognitive emotion regulation illustrate how functional imaging is extending behavioral analyses. Imaging studies have contributed to the development of a multi-level model of emotion regulation that describes the interactions between neural systems implicated in emotion generation and those implicated in emotional control. In this article, we review imaging studies of one type of cognitive emotion regulation, namely reappraisal. We show how imaging studies have contributed to the construction of this model, illustrate the interplay of psychological theory and neuroscience data in its development, and describe how this model can be used as the basis for future basic and translational research.

Keywords: amygdala; cognitive control; emotion; emotion regulation; prefrontal cortex.