Using joint experience-sampling and fMRI methods to understand how the brain supports differentiated emotional experiences

该奖项是作为NSF的社会，行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在耶鲁大学Dylan Gee博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金支持早期职业科学家研究支持差异化情绪体验的神经过程。虽然情感和临床科学家已经表明，明确识别一个人的情绪的能力（一种称为情绪分化的技能）与心理健康广泛相关，但有两个关键的未回答的问题阻碍了对这种现象的基本理解。首先，什么样的神经机制支持不同的情绪体验，其次，什么样的心理生物学机制解释了为什么情绪分化与更好的幸福感有关？目前的项目旨在使用尖端的神经成像和生态瞬时评估（EMA）方法来解决这两个问题。总的来说，本研究旨在阐明支持差异化情绪体验的神经过程，并将这种神经测量与有效的情绪调节联系起来。因此，它旨在促进对人类情感的基本理解和支持心理健康的多层次机制。目前的项目使用联合功能磁共振成像-生态瞬时评估（fMRI-EMA）的设计，以调查情绪分化的神经基础。成年受试者完成功能磁共振成像任务，在14天的EMA措施之前，他们查看和调节他们对中性，悲伤诱导和恐惧诱导图像的反应。每天四次，参与者报告他们对负面情绪的瞬间体验，他们用来调节情绪的策略，以及这些调节尝试如何成功地减少负面情绪。情绪分化分数计算从他们的EMA报告的情绪体验，和一种新的措施，神经情绪分化计算从功能磁共振成像数据，使用代表性的相似性分析。目的1测试是否EMA措施的情绪分化跟踪神经相异性时，参与者认为悲伤与恐惧刺激。目的2测试是否更大的神经差异的情绪表征解释情绪分化和情绪调节效能的EMA措施之间的关系。总之，这些目标解决了关于（i）大脑如何支持差异化的情绪体验和（ii）将高情绪分化与更好的情绪调节（心理健康的关键组成部分）联系起来的神经生物学途径的开放问题。这项研究的目的是开发研究方法和基本的见解，可以在未来的研究转化为改善心理健康的情绪分化。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Dylan Gee at Yale University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist in examining the neural processes that support differentiated emotional experiences. Although affective and clinical scientists have shown that the ability to specifically identify one’s emotions (a skill called emotion differentiation) is widely associated with mental health, there are two key unanswered questions that that stymie basic understanding of this phenomenon. First, what neural mechanisms support differentiated emotional experiences, and second, what psychobiological mechanisms explain why emotion differentiation is associated with better well-being? The current project aims to address both of these questions using cutting-edge neuroimaging and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods. Overall, this study aims to clarify the neural processes that support differentiated emotional experiences and connect this neural measure to effective emotion regulation. As such, it aims to advance both basic understanding of human emotion and the multilevel mechanisms that support psychological well-being. The current project uses a joint functional magnetic resonance imaging – ecological momentary assessment (fMRI-EMA) design to investigate the neural bases of emotion differentiation. Adult participants complete an fMRI task in which they view and regulate their responses to neutral, sadness-inducing, and fear-inducing images before 14 days of EMA measures. Four times each day, participants report on their momentary experiences of negative emotions, the strategies they use to regulate their emotions, and how successfully those regulation attempts reduce negative affect. Emotion differentiation scores are computed from their EMA reports of emotional experiences, and a novel measure of neural emotion differentiation is computed from fMRI data using representational similarity analyses. Aim 1 tests whether the EMA measure of emotion differentiation tracks neural dissimilarity when participants view sad vs. fear stimuli. Aim 2 tests whether greater neural dissimilarity in emotion representation explains the relationship between the EMA measure of emotion differentiation and emotion regulation efficacy. Together, these aims address open questions about (i) how the brain supports differentiated emotional experiences and (ii) the neurobiological pathways that connect high emotion differentiation with better emotion regulation (a key component of mental health). Together, this study aims to develop research methods and basic insights about emotion differentiation that can be translated in future research to improve psychological well-being.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.