Regulating Emotion to Improve Physical Health
The opinion of mind–body interaction has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years, as exemplified by accumulating evidence indicating that physical health (body) is associated with emotion and emotion regulation (mind). Yet, the neural basis linking emotion regulation with physical health remains largely uninvestigated. Here we used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural basis of this pathway in a large population of healthy young adults. With a systematic study revealing the association of self-reported physical health and emotion traits of personality and general affective experiences, we further demonstrated that, for better physical health, individuals needed to regulate their emotion more effectively. Importantly, individuals who had larger gray matter (GM) volume in the amygdala reported not only a higher ability of emotion regulation but also better physical health. Further, GM volume in the amygdala mediated the correlation between emotion regulation ability and physical health. Our findings suggest that the amygdala plays a critical role in the neural circuit through which emotion regulation may influence physical health. Therefore, our study takes the first step toward exploring the neuroanatomical basis for body–mind interaction and may inform interventions aimed at promoting physical health by augmenting skills of emotion regulation.
Historically, the most popular opinion on the body–mind problem is the dualism that the body and mind are distinct substances, and the body is a machine-like entity separate from the mind (Descartes, 1985 [1641]). A specific example of the mind–body problem in medical practice and health psychology is the relationship between mental constructs (mind) and physical health (body) (e.g., Pelletier, 1992; Bates et al., 1997; Ryff and Singer, 1998; Astin et al., 2003). Owing to the dominance of this tradition of dualism in modern medical practices, physical health and mental health are viewed as separate entities, leading to the avoidance of considering mental constructs as a critical factor in physical health. In recent years, both theoretical and technical advances have illustrated the intrinsic link between physical health and mental characteristics such as emotion and personality in research of health psychology (e.g., Adler and Matthews, 1994; Smith et al., 2012). Yet, a critical issue that remains largely uninvestigated is the neural basis (brain) through which physical health (body) is linked with mental constructs (mind).
There is accumulating evidence indicating the association between physical health and emotion. For example, both negative and positive emotions have been shown to have an impact on physical health, as indexed by variables such as mortality, morbidity, disease severity, functioning of the immune and cardiovascular systems and self-reports of physical symptoms (Herbert and Cohen, 1993; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002; Krantz and McCeney, 2002; Pressman and Cohen, 2005; Suls and Bunde, 2005; Chida and Hamer, 2008). In addition, neuroticism (i.e., the tendency to experience negative emotions such as depression and anxiety) and Type A behavioral pattern (i.e., hostility, anger and aggressiveness) have been acknowledged as well-established personality risks for physical health outcomes as diverse as heart disease, asthma, hypertension, longevity and symptom reporting (Goodwin and Friedman, 2006; Smith, 2006; Hampson and Friedman, 2008; Chida and Steptoe, 2009; Smith et al., 2012). Based on the association between physical health and emotion, it can be deduced that higher ability of emotion regulation, which promotes adaptive coping with environmental demands, as encompassed in the construct of emotional intelligence (Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Bar-On, 1997), contributes to better physical health (Schutte et al., 2007; Martins et al., 2010). A variety of cognitive and behavioral mechanisms have been proposed in the research of emotion intelligence (EI) to account for the association between emotion regulation ability and physical health (Woolery and Salovey, 2004; Zeidner et al., 2006; van Heck and den Oudsten, 2008; Keefer et al., 2009). However, the underlying neural basis through which emotion regulation ability may exert influences on physical health has not been examined. Here, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify the neural basis that bridges emotion regulation ability and physical health.
To do this, we first systematically examined the association between self-reported physical health and emotion traits of personality and general affective experiences in a large population of healthy young adults (N = 253). With a firmly established association between physical health and emotion at hand, we further tested the hypothesis that higher emotion regulation ability was associated with better physical health through the amygdala because (i) both functional and structural MRI studies indicate the amygdala as a core component in the neural circuit of emotion processing (Davis and Whalen, 2001; Phelps and LeDoux, 2005; Holmes et al., 2012) and emotion regulation (Tottenham et al., 2010; Ochsner et al., 2012), and (ii) the amygdala is critical in regulating physiological stress responses of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis (Herman and Cullinan, 1997; Tsigos and Chrousos, 2002), and individual differences in both activation and gray matter (GM) volume of the amygdala were associated with stressor-related physiological parameters, which linked to physical health (Urry et al., 2006; Gianaros et al., 2008, 2009; Taylor et al., 2008; Gianaros and Sheu, 2009).
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
The opinion of mind–body interaction has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years, as exemplified by accumulating evidence indicating that physical health (body) is associated with emotion and emotion regulation (mind). Yet, the neural basis linking emotion regulation with physical health remains largely uninvestigated. Here we used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural basis of this pathway in a large population of healthy young adults. With a systematic study revealing the association of self-reported physical health and emotion traits of personality and general affective experiences, we further demonstrated that, for better physical health, individuals needed to regulate their emotion more effectively. Importantly, individuals who had larger gray matter (GM) volume in the amygdala reported not only a higher ability of emotion regulation but also better physical health. Further, GM volume in the amygdala mediated the correlation between emotion regulation ability and physical health. Our findings suggest that the amygdala plays a critical role in the neural circuit through which emotion regulation may influence physical health. Therefore, our study takes the first step toward exploring the neuroanatomical basis for body–mind interaction and may inform interventions aimed at promoting physical health by augmenting skills of emotion regulation.
Introduction
Historically, the most popular opinion on the body–mind problem is the dualism that the body and mind are distinct substances, and the body is a machine-like entity separate from the mind (Descartes, 1985 [1641]). A specific example of the mind–body problem in medical practice and health psychology is the relationship between mental constructs (mind) and physical health (body) (e.g., Pelletier, 1992; Bates et al., 1997; Ryff and Singer, 1998; Astin et al., 2003). Owing to the dominance of this tradition of dualism in modern medical practices, physical health and mental health are viewed as separate entities, leading to the avoidance of considering mental constructs as a critical factor in physical health. In recent years, both theoretical and technical advances have illustrated the intrinsic link between physical health and mental characteristics such as emotion and personality in research of health psychology (e.g., Adler and Matthews, 1994; Smith et al., 2012). Yet, a critical issue that remains largely uninvestigated is the neural basis (brain) through which physical health (body) is linked with mental constructs (mind).
There is accumulating evidence indicating the association between physical health and emotion. For example, both negative and positive emotions have been shown to have an impact on physical health, as indexed by variables such as mortality, morbidity, disease severity, functioning of the immune and cardiovascular systems and self-reports of physical symptoms (Herbert and Cohen, 1993; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002; Krantz and McCeney, 2002; Pressman and Cohen, 2005; Suls and Bunde, 2005; Chida and Hamer, 2008). In addition, neuroticism (i.e., the tendency to experience negative emotions such as depression and anxiety) and Type A behavioral pattern (i.e., hostility, anger and aggressiveness) have been acknowledged as well-established personality risks for physical health outcomes as diverse as heart disease, asthma, hypertension, longevity and symptom reporting (Goodwin and Friedman, 2006; Smith, 2006; Hampson and Friedman, 2008; Chida and Steptoe, 2009; Smith et al., 2012). Based on the association between physical health and emotion, it can be deduced that higher ability of emotion regulation, which promotes adaptive coping with environmental demands, as encompassed in the construct of emotional intelligence (Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Bar-On, 1997), contributes to better physical health (Schutte et al., 2007; Martins et al., 2010). A variety of cognitive and behavioral mechanisms have been proposed in the research of emotion intelligence (EI) to account for the association between emotion regulation ability and physical health (Woolery and Salovey, 2004; Zeidner et al., 2006; van Heck and den Oudsten, 2008; Keefer et al., 2009). However, the underlying neural basis through which emotion regulation ability may exert influences on physical health has not been examined. Here, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify the neural basis that bridges emotion regulation ability and physical health.
To do this, we first systematically examined the association between self-reported physical health and emotion traits of personality and general affective experiences in a large population of healthy young adults (N = 253). With a firmly established association between physical health and emotion at hand, we further tested the hypothesis that higher emotion regulation ability was associated with better physical health through the amygdala because (i) both functional and structural MRI studies indicate the amygdala as a core component in the neural circuit of emotion processing (Davis and Whalen, 2001; Phelps and LeDoux, 2005; Holmes et al., 2012) and emotion regulation (Tottenham et al., 2010; Ochsner et al., 2012), and (ii) the amygdala is critical in regulating physiological stress responses of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis (Herman and Cullinan, 1997; Tsigos and Chrousos, 2002), and individual differences in both activation and gray matter (GM) volume of the amygdala were associated with stressor-related physiological parameters, which linked to physical health (Urry et al., 2006; Gianaros et al., 2008, 2009; Taylor et al., 2008; Gianaros and Sheu, 2009).
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