Multivariate Brain Activity While Viewing and Reappraising Affective Scenes Does Not Predict the Multiyear Progression of Preclinical Atherosclerosis in Otherwise Healthy Midlife Adults
Publication Date
2-19-2022
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Emotion regulation, Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Cognitive reappraisal, Cardiovascular disease (CVD)
Abstract
Cognitive reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that is postulated to reduce risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), particularly the risk due to negative affect. At present, however, the brain systems and vascular pathways that may link reappraisal to CVD risk remain unclear. This study thus tested whether brain activity evoked by using reappraisal to reduce negative affect would predict the multiyear progression of a vascular marker of preclinical atherosclerosis and CVD risk: carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT). Participants were 176 otherwise healthy adults (50.6% women; aged 30–51 years) who completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task involving the reappraisal of unpleasant scenes from the International Affective Picture System. Ultrasonography was used to compute CA-IMT at baseline and a median of 2.78 (interquartile range, 2.67 to 2.98) years later among 146 participants. As expected, reappraisal engaged brain systems implicated in emotion regulation. Reappraisal also reduced self-reported negative affect. On average, CA-IMT progressed over the follow-up period. However, multivariate and cross-validated machine-learning models demonstrated that brain activity during reappraisal failed to predict CA-IMT progression. Contrary to hypotheses, brain activity during cognitive reappraisal to reduce negative affect does not appear to forecast the progression of a vascular marker of CVD risk.
Copyright Date
2-19-2022
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
The Society for Affective Science
Provenance
Received from author
Language
English (eng)
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by The Society for Affective Science. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Gianaros, P. J., Rasero, J., DuPont, C. M., Kraynak, T. E., Gross, J. J., McRae, K., Wright, A. G. C., Verstynen, T. D., & Barinas-Mitchell, E. (2022). Multivariate Brain Activity while Viewing and Reappraising Affective Scenes Does Not Predict the Multiyear Progression of Preclinical Atherosclerosis in Otherwise Healthy Midlife Adults. Affective Science, 3(2), 406–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00098-y
Publication Title
Affective Science
Volume
3(2)
First Page
406
Last Page
424
ISSN
2662-2041
PubMed ID
36046001
Recommended Citation
Gianaros, P. J., Rasero, J., DuPont, C. M., Kraynak, T. E., Gross, J. J., McRae, K., Wright, A. G. C., Verstynen, T. D., & Barinas-Mitchell, E. (2022). Multivariate Brain Activity while Viewing and Reappraising Affective Scenes Does Not Predict the Multiyear Progression of Preclinical Atherosclerosis in Otherwise Healthy Midlife Adults. Affective Science, 3(2), 406–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00098-y