Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Exploratory experimental neuroimaging (fMRI) laboratory study assessing brain activation during within-subject cognitive tasks.
PubMed 17576282 · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
What was done
Participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task to assess the neural mechanisms of affect labeling. Brain responses were measured while participants viewed negative emotional images during affect labeling compared to other forms of encoding.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values or statistical effect sizes. Qualitatively, affect labeling reduced activity in the amygdala and other limbic regions relative to comparison encoding conditions. Affect labeling selectively increased activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC). RVLPFC activation was inversely correlated with amygdala activity, and mediation analysis indicated this relationship was mediated by medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) activity.
Why it matters
This study provides mechanistic neuroimaging evidence that verbally labeling negative emotional stimuli downregulates amygdala reactivity via a pathway involving the RVLPFC and MPFC.
Limits
The abstract does not state the sample size, participant demographics, baseline characteristics, or specific control encoding tasks used. No numerical data, confidence intervals, or effect sizes are provided. Behavioral outcomes and real-world emotional regulation efficacy were not reported.