Less is more: psychological and morphometric differences between low and high reappraisers

Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in individuals’ well-being, as it is known that deficits in regulating emotions can lead to psychological and psychiatric diseases. Cognitive reappraisal is widely considered as an adaptive and effective emotion regulation strategy. People are more or less able to apply it, but it is still not clear how reappraisal affects brain structures and the psychological profile of individuals. For this reason, in our study we aim to explore the impact of applying reappraisal both at the neural and psychological level. Source-based Morphometry (SBM), a whole-brain multivariate method based on the Independent Component Analysis that extracts patterns of covariation of grey matter (“independent networks”), was applied to the MRI images of 37 participants. In order to enrich their psychological profiles, we measured their experienced affectivity (PANAS) and their empathic abilities (IRI). Based on the frequency of applying reappraisal (ERQ), participants were split into low vs high reappraisers (18 vs 19). An independent source of grey matter emerged as different between groups: specifically, low reappraisers showed more grey matter volume concentration in a network including frontal, temporal and parietal regions as compared to high reappraisers. At the psychological level, low reappraisers reported stronger experienced negative affect, while no difference among reappraisers emerged about empathic abilities. Capitalizing on a multivariate method to structural analysis that is innovative in this field, this study extends previous observations on individual differences in the ability to regulate emotions and it describes a plausible impact of reappraisal on brain structures and affectivity.