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Zhang X, Zhang L, Yu F, Zhang W. Can Brain Activities of Guided Metaphorical Restructuring Predict Therapeutic Changes? Neuroscience 2023; 531:39-49. [PMID: 37689232 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.08.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 07/27/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/11/2023]
Abstract
The present study examined whether brain activities of metaphorical restructuring could predict improvements in emotion and general self-efficacy (GSES). Sixty-two anxious graduates were randomly assigned to either the metaphor group (n = 31) or the literal group (n = 31). After completing the pretest (T1), the participants were first presented with micro-counseling dialogues (MCD) to guide metaphorical or literal restructuring, and their functional brain activities were simultaneously recorded. They then completed the posttest (T2) and 1 week's follow-up (T3). It was found that (1) compared with the literal group, the metaphor group had more insightful experiences, a greater increase in positive affect and GSES at T2, and a greater decrease in psychological distress at T2 and T3; (2) the metaphor group showed a greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and bilateral temporal gyrus, and further activation in the left hippocampus positively predicted T2 GSES scores while that in the IFG and left hippocampus positively predicted the reduction slope of distress over the three time points. One important limitation is that the results should be interpreted with caution when generalizing to clinical anxiety samples due to the participants were graduate students with anxiety symptoms rather than clinical sample. These results indicated that metaphor restructuring produced greater symptom improvements, and activation in the hippocampus and IFG could predict these symptom improvements. This suggests that the activation of the two regions during the restructuring intervention may be a neural marker for symptom improvements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Psychology, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Lu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Fei Yu
- Department of Psychology, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050010, China
| | - Wencai Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
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Zhang Z, Meng J, Li Z, Sun Y, Li Y, Luo J. The role of creative cognitive reappraisals in positively transforming negative emotions. Psych J 2022; 11:837-851. [PMID: 36053876 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Recent studies have found the connections between cognitive reappraisals' creativity and their regulatory efficacy. The present study proposed and tested a novel hypothesis on the function of cognitive reappraisals, especially creative ones. That is, whether they could positively alter negative emotional arousal toward unpleasant stimuli. To this end, two questions were investigated: (a) whether the creative reappraisals were more capable than ordinary ones of transforming the negative stimuli (pictures) to be perceived as positive, and (b) whether these two kinds of reappraisals made the "negative-to-positive transformation" through different mechanisms. To answer the first question, we examined the power of the creative and ordinary reappraisals in making the "negative-to-positive transformation" using an indirect and delayed "positive-or-negative" picture-sorting task (Exp. 1, n = 41 with a statistical power of 0.877), or using a direct and immediate subjective rating (Exp. 2, n = 31 with a statistical power of 0.768). To answer the second question, we checked how the factor of creativeness (creative vs. ordinary reappraisal) interacted with the factor of "timing" (simultaneous vs. delayed reappraisal delivery, Exp. 1), or with that of "dose" (one vs. three reappraisal applications; Exp. 2), in making the "negative-to-positive transformation," respectively, and examined if the variation of "timing" or "dose" factors would exert different effects on the creative and ordinary reappraisals' regulatory function. Our results generally proved that creative reappraisal was more capable of making the "negative-to-positive transformation" than the ordinary reappraisal, regardless of the direct and indirect emotion evaluation ratings as well as the variations in the timing and dose of reappraisal delivery. Moreover, we found that these two kinds of reappraisals could show dissociable dose-dependent effects (but not timing-dependent ones), thus partially implying that creative and ordinary reappraisal might make the "negative-to-positive transformation" through fundamentally different processes or mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ze Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianning Meng
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Ziyi Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yabing Sun
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yue Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Luo
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.,Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China
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Wu X, Gu X, Guo Q, Hao X, Luo J. Neural Correlates of Novelty and Appropriateness Processing In Cognitive Reappraisal. Biol Psychol 2022; 170:108318. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Revised: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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