Background:
Emotion regulation involves the cognitive manipulation of subjective and physiological experiences of emotion. Recent neuroimaging studies implicate distinct patterns of prefrontal cortical inhibition of subcortical regions in association with particular cognitive regulatory strategies, alongside modulation of autonomic responses associated with various forms of negative affect. The use of maladaptive cognitive regulatory mechanisms is associated with altered neural activity in healthy individuals and increased negative affect in healthy and clinical populations.
Methods:
The role of emotion dysregulation in the development and maintenance of affective and psychotic symptoms is considered from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Neuropsychological and social-cognitive processes involved in emotion regulation are discussed in the context of neural mechanisms of cognitive control and emotion processing in healthy individuals. The symptoms of affective (bipolar, schizoaffective) and nonaffective (schizophrenia) psychotic disorders are considered as manifestations of emotion dysregulation according to known neuropsychological and social processing defi cits, and clinical neuropathology.
Results:
Emotion regulation relies on synergy within bidirectional fronto-striatal-thalamic and brainstem networks involved in emotion perception, affect generation and control of the autonomic nervous system. Convergent evidence from cognitive neuropsychological and neurobiological investigations in affective and nonaffective psychoses implicates differential dysfunction in these neural systems supporting the cognitive regulation of emotion.
Conclusions:
The cognitive control of emotion may be disrupted by abnormalities in cognitive and/or neural processes subserving social perception, affect generation or regulation. Consideration of the neuropsychological and social-cognitive profiles of affective and nonaffective psychoses alongside regional neuropathology suggests the existence of distinct patterns of emotion dysregulation in these conditions.