Neural Predictors of Social Emotion Regulation Training

Prior research has demonstrated that helping others regulate their emotions has benefits for
the support provider. But little is known about the basic brain mechanisms underlying this
ability or how this ability can change with practice. To address these questions, this study
has two parts. In the first, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to gain
insight into the brain systems involved in helping others regulate negative emotions by
comparing them to the brain systems involved in regulating the participants' own negative
emotions. In the second part, participants engage in three weeks of structured practice, or
training, in either socially regulating others' emotions or in self-regulating their own
emotions. The investigators predict that helping others regulate their emotions will involve
many of the same brain regions implicated in regulating one's own emotions, in addition to
regions involved in perspective taking and the reward of helping others. Further, when
relating the brain data from part 1 to the regulation practice data from part 2, the
investigators expect that individuals who in part 1 show greater activity in brain regions
supporting either social or self-regulation may be more likely in part 2 to show
corresponding improvements in regulation performance. The results of these studies are
intended to lay the groundwork for future studies investigating the social regulation of
emotion in older adults and clinical populations for whom social support can be beneficial.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Native English speaker

- Right handed

Exclusion Criteria:

- Current or past history of neurological or psychiatric illness

- Use of psychoactive drugs

- Individuals who have metal devices or implants that cannot be removed from their body
(e.g., piercings, pacemakers, copper intrauterine devices (IUDs))

- Pregnant women