Journal Article

Networks underpinning emotion: A systematic review and synthesis of functional and effective connectivity

Wibroe, Johannes, Tolmeijer, Eva, Mason, Liam, Peters, Emmanuelle, Underwood, Raphael

2021

Overview

•We reviewed 33 studies of functional connectivity of emotion in healthy participants.•Our results challenge a hierarchical model of emotion processing.•Causal connectivity analyze identify dynamic modulatory relationships between regions.•We derive a quality tool to make recommendations addressing variability in study design. Existing models of emotion processing are based almost exclusively on brain activation data, yet make assumptions about network connectivity. There is a need to integrate connectivity findings into these models. We systematically reviewed all studies of functional and effective connectivity employing tasks to investigate negative emotion processing and regulation in healthy participants. Thirty-three studies met inclusion criteria. A quality assessment tool was derived from prominent neuroimaging papers. The evidence supports existing models, with primarily limbic regions for salience and identification, and frontal areas important for emotion regulation. There was mixed support for the assumption that regulatory influences on limbic and sensory areas come predominantly from prefrontal areas. Rather, studies quantifying effective connectivity reveal context-dependent dynamic modulatory relationships between occipital, subcortical, and frontal regions, arguing against purely top-down regulatory theoretical models. Our quality assessment tool found considerable variability in study design and tasks employed. The findings support and extend those of previous syntheses focused on activation studies, and provide evidence for a more nuanced view of connectivity in networks of human emotion processing and regulation.

• Publisher: Elsevier Inc,Elsevier Limited,Academic Press,Elsevier
• Subject: Affect (Psychology) / Amygdala - diagnostic imaging / Anxiety / Brain Mapping - methods / Brain research / Causal connectivity / Dynamic causal modeling / Effective connectivity / Emotion / Emotional Regulation - physiology / Emotions / Emotions - physiology / Female / Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging / Functional connectivity / Healthy / Human / Humans / Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Influence / Magnetic resonance imaging / Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods / Male / Nerve Net - diagnostic imaging / Neural networks / Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging / Neuroimaging / Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging / Quality control / Systematic review