Emotional acceptance is an important emotion regulation strategy promoted by most psychotherapy approaches. We adopted the Activation Likelihood Estimation technique to obtain a quantitative summary of previous fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies of acceptance and test different hypotheses on its mechanisms of action. The main meta-analysis included 13 experiments contrasting acceptance to control conditions, yielding a total of 422 subjects and 170 foci of brain activity. Additionally, subgroups of studies with different control conditions (react naturally or focus on emotions) were identified and analysed separately. Our results showed executive areas to be affected by acceptance only in the subgroup of studies in which acceptance was compared to natural reactions. In contrast, a cluster of decreased brain activity located in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus was associated with acceptance regardless of the control condition. These findings suggest that high-level executive cortical processes are not a distinctive feature of acceptance, whereas functional deactivations in the PCC/precuneus constitute its specific neural substrate. The neuroimaging of emotional acceptance calls into question a key tenet of current neurobiological models of emotion regulation consisting in the necessary involvement of high-level executive processes to actively modify emotional states, suggesting a complementary role for limbic portions of the default system.

中文翻译：

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情绪调节的神经生物学模型：接受作为情绪调节策略的神经影像学研究的荟萃分析

情绪接受是大多数心理治疗方法提倡的重要情绪调节策略。我们采用激活似然估计技术来获得对先前 fMRI（功能磁共振成像）接受研究的定量总结，并测试其作用机制的不同假设。主要的荟萃分析包括 13 项对比接受与控制条件的实验，共产生 422 名受试者和 170 个大脑活动焦点。此外，分别确定和分析了具有不同控制条件（自然反应或专注于情绪）的研究亚组。我们的研究结果表明，仅在将接受与自然反应进行比较的研究亚组中，执行领域才会受到接受的影响。相比之下，无论控制条件如何，位于后扣带皮层（PCC）/楔前叶的一组大脑活动减少与接受有关。这些发现表明，高级执行皮层过程并不是接受的显着特征，而 PCC/楔前叶的功能失活构成了其特定的神经基质。情绪接受的神经影像学对当前情绪调节的神经生物学模型的一个关键原则提出了质疑，该模型包括高级执行过程的必要参与以积极改变情绪状态，这表明默认系统的边缘部分具有互补作用。这些发现表明，高级执行皮层过程并不是接受的显着特征，而 PCC/楔前叶的功能失活构成了其特定的神经基质。情绪接受的神经影像学对当前情绪调节的神经生物学模型的一个关键原则提出了质疑，该模型包括高级执行过程的必要参与以积极改变情绪状态，这表明默认系统的边缘部分具有互补作用。这些发现表明，高级执行皮层过程并不是接受的显着特征，而 PCC/楔前叶的功能失活构成了其特定的神经基质。情绪接受的神经影像学对当前情绪调节的神经生物学模型的一个关键原则提出了质疑，该模型包括高级执行过程的必要参与以积极改变情绪状态，这表明默认系统的边缘部分具有互补作用。