Emotion regulation capacity lacks a shared neural signature

A large preregistered analysis examined whether commonly used measures of cognitive reappraisal capacity capture the same ability and whether they track activity in brain circuits thought to regulate emotion. Reappraisal means changing how a situation is interpreted to reduce its emotional impact. The researchers combined 40 functional MRI datasets involving 2,175 participants, testing three measures: self-reported habitual reappraisal, changes in emotional ratings during a reappraisal task, and reduced amygdala activity while reappraising. The study addresses a key assumption in emotion research: that brain regions involved in regulation within an individual can also explain why some people regulate emotions better than others.

The measures showed little convergence. Amygdala down-regulation was associated with reduced emotional ratings, but the relationship was very small (r = 0.08); questionnaire scores were not meaningfully associated with either measure, and the three did not share a common underlying signal. None of the measures showed the expected relationship with canonical prefrontal regulatory circuits. Instead, task-based emotional ratings were associated with amygdala and sensorimotor responses, while questionnaires had no detectable brain-wide associations. Prefrontal control circuits were active during both emotional reactions and reappraisal, suggesting they are not specific markers of regulation. The findings caution against inferring an individual’s emotional-regulation ability from activity in presumed regulatory regions, with implications for brain biomarkers, interventions and clinical explanations of emotional difficulties.