The role of the ventral striatum in the relationship between impulsive decision-making and emotional self-regulation by cognitive reappraisal

Abstract

Delay discounting (DD), the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed ones, is a key measure of temporal impulsivity. While its link to behavioral self-regulation is well-studied, the relationship with emotional self-regulation is less understood. This study explored this relationship and its neuroanatomical mediators in the brain's reward system. We administered the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and a DD task to 155 young adult college students and collected structural MRI data. Our data revealed that greater use of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy was significantly associated with lower DD rates (i.e., reduced temporal impulsivity). No such relationship was found for expressive suppression. Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that higher cognitive reappraisal scores were associated with lower gray matter volume in the left ventral striatum, which in turn predicted lower DD. While the pattern of results is statistically consistent with full mediation, the cross-sectional nature of our data precludes causal inference. In conclusion, these results identify a novel neuroanatomical mechanism for temporal impulsivity. They suggest that cognitive reappraisal helps control impulsive choice and the process is mediated by the ventral striatum. This may provide a useful biomarker for developing interventions to improve self-control.

Keywords: Delay discounting; Emotion regulation; Intertemporal choice task; Reward system; Valuation; Ventral striatum.

Fig. 1

Intertemporal choice task and the associated areas of the brain’s reward system. (A) Schematic diagram illustrating the hypothesis. X represents the independent variable (emotion regulation), Y the dependent variable (impulsive choice), and M the mediating variable (gray matter volume); (B) Example task trial. Participants were asked to make a series of 120 choices between a smaller immediate reward (e.g., 10,000 won now) and a larger delayed reward (e.g., 45,000 won in 62 days); (C) The areas belonging to the brain’s reward system and delay discounting, shown in green. These include the ventral striatum and the medial prefrontal cortex, which are both components of the valuation network. The green areas were identified in a previous meta-analysis that examined the neural correlates of the subjective valuation of rewards. We used these areas to create a binary mask for small-volume multiple comparison corrections.

Fig. 2

Association between cognitive reappraisal scores and delay discounting. Scatterplot of a correlation analysis between scores for cognitive reappraisal on the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and delay discounting scores, after regressing out age, sex, IQ, and duration of education.

Fig. 3

Brain areas associated with cognitive reappraisal. (A) When we applied small volume correction with a binary mask for the brain’s reward system to correct for multiple comparisons, we found the gray matter volume of the left ventral striatum to be negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal scores; (B) 3D rendering of a cluster associated with cognitive reappraisal scores (red).

Fig. 4

Negative mediation effect of the gray matter volume of the left ventral striatum on the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and delay discounting (path a × path b: coefficient = − 0.003, standard error [SE] = 0.002, p = 0.041). This was evidenced by cognitive reappraisal score-associated reductions in the GMV of the left VS (negative path a: coefficient = − 0.002, SE = 0.001, p = 0.012) and a correlation between the gray matter volume of the left ventral striatum and DD rates (positive path b: coefficient = 2.047, SE = 0.877, p = 0.019). GMV, gray matter volume; VS, ventral striatum.