The Neuroscience of Emotion Regulation

Effective emotion regulation is indispensable for mental and physical health. In recent decades, vast progress has been made in elucidating the neural mechanisms that underlie emotion regulation and in relating these neural mechanisms to other levels of analysis (e.g., self-reported experience and behavior). This work has shown that particular emotion regulation strategies differ in the psychological and neural mechanisms through which they operate as well as their adaptiveness and fit to particular contexts and individuals. In this guide, we aim to provide an overview of the literature on the neuroscience of emotion regulation. We will first provide general overviews of the field, including undergirding appraisal-based theoretical frameworks for understanding emotion and emotion regulation and their neural correlates. We will then move to reviewing the literature on the psychological and neural correlates of implementing particular emotion regulation strategies. We will then review the literature on the importance of individual differences and situational context in understanding the neuroscience of emotion regulation. Next, we will review the neuroscience of emotion regulation in clinical disorders. Finally, we will review emotion regulation training interventions as well as review interdisciplinary approaches between emotion regulation, affective neuroscience, and related fields (e.g., developmental neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology).