Emotion regulation in young adults with family history of harmful alcohol use: A fMRI study

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use disorder is associated with difficulties in emotion regulation and cognitive reappraisal. Family history of harmful alcohol use increases risk of substance use disorders, but no studies have examined whether family history is associated with altered neural activation during cognitive reappraisal relative to passive viewing of negative images in a sample of young adults without current substance use disorders.

Methods: Participants (N = 75 with positive [n = 31] or negative [n = 44] family histories of harmful alcohol use) completed the emotion regulation task during an MRI scan, and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to assess use of emotion regulation and suppression strategies. Whole-brain analyses and amygdala region of interest analyses using linear mixed-effects models assessed family history group and cue effects on neural activation during the task.

Results: The groups did not differ on trait reappraisal, suppression, or negative emotion following reappraisal. In general, group effects in whole-brain and amygdala activation during the cognitive reappraisal contrast indicated small effect sizes (2.2% of voxels had d>0.20) that were not significantly different. Participants with positive family histories engaged the right middle and superior frontal gyri to a greater extent than participants with negative family histories during the decrease-negative cue (t = 4.14, p = .001).

Conclusions: For at-risk young adults without current harmful substance use, family history of harmful alcohol use does not appear to be associated with disrupted emotion regulation when instructed to apply cognitive reappraisal. Reappraisal may be a feasible therapeutic target for those who develop a substance use disorder with associated emotion dysregulation.

Keywords: Emotion regulation; FMRI; Family history of harmful alcohol use; Substance use risk.

Figure 1.

Significant effect of group-by-cue interaction on neural activation at the minimum voxel-wise threshold of k ≥ 54, p < .001. A. Whole-brain analysis revealed a significant effect of group-by-cue on neural activation in the right area 9/46d (middle frontal gyrus) and right anterior and posterior area 9 (superior frontal gyrus) located in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. B. Family history positive participants had greater activation than family history negative participants during the decrease-negative cue. The family history positive group demonstrated cognitive reappraisal in this region via greater activation during the decrease-negative cue relative to the look-negative cue. Black = Decrease-negative, red = Look-negative, green = Look-neutral.

Figure 2.

Magnitude of the effect of group on the cognitive reappraisal contrast. A. An unthresholded effect size map depicting the magnitude of the effect of group during the decrease-negative relative to look-negative contrast. Warmer colors (e.g., orange) indicate a greater effect of group during the decrease-negative cue, while cool colors (e.g., blue) indicate a greater effect of group during the look-negative cue. As can be seen, family history group does not appear to have a meaningful effect on cognitive reappraisal capacity as the majority of brain regions have small effect sizes d < .20. B. The graph depicts the sample sizes needed to detect a small effect of d = .20 at various power levels. To be adequately powered (.80) to detect a meaningful yet small effect (d = .20) of group on cognitive reappraisal capacity, we would need a sample of 788 participants (indicated by the black circle).

Figure 3.

ROI Analyses: Effect of cue on neural activation in the amygdala. Black = Decrease-negative, red = Look-Negative, green = Look-neutral. A. Significant main effect of cue in the left and right basolateral amygdalae with greater activation during look-negative versus look-neutral contrast. B. Significant main effect of cue in the left and right central amygdalae. The left central amygdala demonstrated greater activation during the decrease-negative cue versus look-negative cue, and the look-negative cue versus look-neutral cue. The right central amygdala demonstrated greater activation during the look-negative cue versus look-neutral cue only.