Activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex predicts psychological well-being and emotion regulation: A source localization study

1
Activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
predicts psychological well-being and emotion
regulation A source localization study
Catherine J. Norris, Carien M. van Reekum, Larry
L. Greischar, Regina C. Lapate, Alexander J.
Shackman, Brenton W. McMenamin, Richard J.
Davidson
Department of Psychology and Waisman Laboratory
for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of
Wisconsin Madison
Introduction
Results Picture Task EEG
Results Whole Brain Analysis
VMPFC activation during the picture presentation
correlated with PWB regardless of picture
valence. However, participants who showed greater
VMPFC activation during the viewing of negative
pictures also exhibited decreased reactivity to
negative pictures and better regulation of
negative affect, as demonstrated by startle
eyeblink magnitude (top panel) and EMG activation
over corrugator supercilii (bottom panel).
In order to investigate the relationship between
Psychological Well-Being (PWB) and neural
activation at rest, we first conducted a whole
brain correlation between estimated alpha
activity during the pre-picture epoch and PWB.
Individuals with higher PWB exhibited greater
activation of the VMPFC during the pre-picture
epoch.
The primary goal of the Midlife in the United
States (MIDUS) investigation is to study the
relationship between health and well-being over
the course of life. In the current study, we
examined dimensions of psychological well-being
and source localization estimates of EEG recorded
at the scalp to better understand the patterns of
neural activity associated with healthy emotional
functioning. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex
(VMPFC) has been implicated in the successful
regulation of negative affect. When individuals
are asked to actively down-regulate their
negative emotional responses, researchers have
reported an increase in VMPFC activation (Ochsner
et al., 2002, 2004) and a decrease in amygdala
activation (Schaefer et al., 2002). Furthermore,
Urry et al. (2006) found that VMPFC and amygdala
activation were inversely correlated, suggesting
that the VMPFC plays a critical role in down-
regulating negative affect. We sought to
examine whether psychological well-being is
associated with increased VMPFC activation both
at baseline and in response to negative emotional
stimuli. This pattern of activity would suggest
that individuals with greater psychological
well-being are both better prepared and more
successful at regulating their affect.
Blink Magnitude (z-scored)
Notably, no other region exhibited a significant
relationship between PWB and neural activation.
This finding suggests that individuals high in
PWB are more prepared to regulate their affect.
Next, we conducted correlations between
activation in the VMPFC and specific dimensions
of Psychological Well-Being in order to
investigate the dimensions of PWB that most
strongly contribute to this relationship. The two
dimensions of PWB that correlated with activation
of the VMPFC at rest were Environmental Mastery
and Self-Acceptance.
r(68) .361, p lt.01
r(49) .515, p lt.001
Method
Corrugator Activity

• Participants 84 (43 female) individuals from
  MIDUS ranging in age from 37 82
• Data
• 1. Picture Task EEG. Participants completed an
  emotion modulated startle task in which they
  viewed a series of negative, neutral, and
  positive pictures. Eyeblink startle was measured
  in response to 50 ms 105 dB probes presented both
  during and after the pictures (Figure 1a). High
  density EEG (using a 128-channel Geodesics Sensor
  Net) and EMG over corrugator supercilii were
  collected continuously.
• 2. Baseline EEG. 12 minutes of resting baseline
  EEG activity was also collected (half eyes
  open/closed half pre-/post-task).
• 3. Self-report measures. Participants completed
  multiple questionnaires both as part of the
  current project (e.g., PANAS, DPAS, STAIX) as
  well as part of a self-administered questionnaire
  at a different time (e.g., Psychological
  Well-Being Ryff, 1989, COPE).
• Data Processing
• ICA was used to remove eye blinks, eye movements,
  and HR remaining artifact was hand-scored
• Spectral frequency was determined for each of 7
  2-s bins
• Alpha activity (8-13 Hz) was localized using
  LORETA-Key
• LORETA-Key solution coefficients were averaged
  across bins (Figure 1b) and baseline corrected
• Correlations were conducted between self-report
  measures and log transformed LORETA-Key estimates
  of alpha activity

r(80) -.25, p lt.05
r(80) -.254, p lt.05
Conclusions
A stepwise regression including all dimensions of
PWB indicated that Environmental Mastery was the
strongest predictor of activation in the VMPFC at
rest. Thus, individuals who are competent in
managing their environment and have a sense of
control over the external world exhibit greater
VMPFC activation at rest.
Individuals high in Psychological Well-Being
exhibit greater activation of the VMPFC at rest,
suggesting that they are more prepared to
regulate their affect. Importantly, the dimension
of PWB that is most critical for this
relationship is Environmental Mastery, or the
ability to take control of ones environment. In
addition, greater VMPFC activation during the
viewing of negative pictures is associated with
decreased reactivity to and increased recovery
from negative stimuli, as indexed by
psychophysiological indices including startle
eyeblink and corrugator EMG. This finding is
consistent with existing fMRI data suggesting
that the VMPFC is involved in successful emotion
regulation.
Results Anatomical ROI Analysis
In order to examine the structural specificity of
the relationship between PWB and activation in
the PFC, we conducted correlations between
activation in a series of anatomically-based ROIs
and PWB. These correlations suggest that
Psychological Well-Being is associated with
greater activation of the VMPFC, but not
necessarily the ACC. In addition, this
relationship does not appear to be lateralized.
(a)
References
Figure 1. Two views of the trial structure for
the emotion modulated startle task. Panel (a)
illustrates that startle probes were presented
both during picture presentation (2.5 s
post-picture onset labeled probe c) as well as
after picture offset (both 0.5 and 2 s
post-picture offset, labeled probe a). Panel
(b) indicates the four epochs for which
LORETA-Key source estimates of task-related EEG
and corrugator EMG were examined.
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(b)
Correspondence may be addressed to
norris1_at_wisc.edu