ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2015
Neural correlates of 'distracting' from emotion during autobiographical recollection.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Neural Correlates of Direct vs. Generative Retrieval of Episodic Autobiographical Memory.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Common and distinct correlates of construction and elaboration of episodic-autobiographical memory: An ALE meta-analysis.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- Neural correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation associated with treatment response in a randomized clinical trial for posttraumatic stress disorder.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2020Trial
- Enhancing resilience, flexibility, and well-being through cognitive-emotional training: behavioral and neural evidence.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Regulating Negative Autobiographical Memories: An fMRI Investigation of Reappraisal and Distraction in Middle-aged and Older Adults.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dissociating and linking divergent effects of emotion on cognition: insights from current research and emerging directions.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Article
- How shifting visual perspective during autobiographical memory retrieval influences emotion: A change in retrieval orientation.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Review
- The Role of Interoceptive Sensibility and Emotional Conceptualization for the Experience of Emotions.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Cultivating Affective Resilience: Proof-of-Principle Evidence of Translational Benefits From a Novel Cognitive-Emotional Training Intervention.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Eye-Movement Intervention Enhances Extinction via Amygdala Deactivation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2018Article
- Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Resilience Against Emotional Distress: An Integrative Brain-Personality-Symptom Approach Using Structural Equation Modeling.Personality neuroscience · 2018Article
- Flexible parasympathetic responses to sadness facilitate spontaneous affect regulation.Psychophysiology · 2017Article
- Emerging Directions in Emotional Episodic Memory.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Review
- Affective updating ability and stressful events interact to prospectively predict increases in depressive symptoms over time.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Remembering emotional autobiographical memories (AMs) is important for emotional well-being, and investigation of the role of emotion regulation (ER) during AM recollection has relevance for understanding mental health issues. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the brain mechanisms underlying ER and AM, less is known about the role of ER during AM recollection. The present study investigated how focusing away (or 'distracting') from the emotional content during AM recollection influences the subjective re-experiencing of emotions and the associated neural correlates, by manipulating the retrieval focus of participants who remembered emotional AMs while fMRI data were recorded. First, focusing away from emotion led to decreased self-reported emotional responses, along with increased engagement of ER-related regions (ventro-medial prefrontal cortex, vmPFC), and reduced activity in emotion-related regions (amygdala, AMY). Second, increased vmPFC activity was linked to reduced emotional ratings, during the non-emotional focus. Third, mediation analysis identified vmPFC as a functional hub integrating affective signals from AMY and mediating their impact on the subjective re-experiencing of emotion, according to the current retrieval focus. Collectively, these findings shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to effectively switch attentional focus away from emotions during AM recollections and have direct relevance for understanding, preventing and treating affective disorders, characterised by reduced ability to regulate emotions.
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