Self-regulation refers to controlling our emotions and actions in the pursuit of higher-order goals. Although research suggests commonalities in the cognitive control of emotion and action, evidence for a shared neural substrate is scant and largely circumstantial. Here we report on two large-scale meta-analyses of human neuroimaging studies on emotion or action control, yielding two fronto-parieto-insular networks. The networks’ overlap, however, was restricted to four brain regions: posteromedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral anterior insula, and right temporo-parietal junction. Conversely, meta-analytic contrasts revealed major between-network differences, which were independently corroborated by clustering domain-specific regions based on their intrinsic functional connectivity, as well as by functionally characterizing network sub-clusters using the BrainMap database for quantitative forward and reverse inference. Collectively, our analyses identified a core system for implementing self-control across emotion and action, beyond which, however, either regulation facet appears to rely on broadly similar yet distinct subnetworks. These insights into the neurocircuitry subserving affective and executive facets of self-control suggest both processing commonalities and differences between the two aspects of human self-regulation.

自我调节是指在追求更高层次的目标时控制自己的情绪和行为。尽管研究表明情绪和行动的认知控制存在共性，但共享神经基础的证据很少，而且主要是间接的。在这里，我们报告了关于情绪或动作控制的人类神经影像学研究的两项大规模元分析，产生了两个额顶岛网络。然而，网络的重叠仅限于四个大脑区域：后内侧前额叶皮层、双侧前脑岛和右侧颞顶叶交界处。相反，元分析对比揭示了主要的网络间差异，这些差异通过基于其内在功能连接性对域特定区域进行聚类来独立证实，以及使用 BrainMap 数据库对网络子集群进行功能表征，以进行定量正向和反向推理。总的来说，我们的分析确定了一个核心系统，用于跨情绪和行动实施自我控制，然而，除此之外，任何一个监管方面似乎都依赖于广泛相似但不同的子网络。这些对神经回路支持自我控制的情感和执行方面的见解表明人类自我调节的两个方面之间的处理共性和差异。