Self-Choice Emotion Regulation Enhances Stress Reduction: Neural Basis of Self-Choice Emotion Regulation.

Background/objectives: Opting to perform emotion regulation when facing high-arousal stimuli enhances the reduction in negative emotions. Previous research has indicated that self-choice, that is, personally choosing from multiple alternatives, can improve performance. However, it is unclear whether the emotion regulation strategy chosen among multiple alternatives in daily life enhances stress reduction compared to a forced strategy. This study aimed to reveal the effects of self-choice emotion regulation and its underlying neural basis.

Methods: Participants were 40 healthy adults who met the inclusion criteria; they performed self-choice emotion regulation, forced emotion regulation, and no emotion regulation (the control condition) while their brain activity was captured using a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. First, the participants were shown a stressful scenario. Secondly, they rated the stress they experienced. Thirdly, they performed self-choice or forced emotion regulation or did nothing. Finally, participants rated their stress level again.

Results: Self-choice emotion regulation reduced stress better than forced-choice emotion regulation. The stress reduction was associated with decreases in the activation of the left opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus.

Conclusions: Self-choice can improve emotion regulation, and this effect is likely mediated by the neural efficiency of the left inferior frontal gyrus.