Affect labeling down-regulates amygdala only in a dominant native language

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 123, pp. e2603126123

Abstract

A successful strategy to down-regulate emotions is to simply label them (e.g., saying "I'm sad" when feeling sad). It however remains unresolved which mechanism is responsible for the efficacy of this approach known as affect labeling. Here, we constrain the proposed mechanisms of affect labeling by testing the scope of affect labeling in a new population previously neglected: bilinguals. Specifically, we examined two bilingual groups (Spanish-English, Spanish-Catalan) that varied in language dominance (N = 151). In unbalanced bilinguals, labeling reduced amygdala activity only in the dominant, native language, a pattern reproduced across both bilingual groups. In contrast, and surprisingly, balanced bilinguals showed no amygdala down-regulation in either language. Furthermore, the difference in amygdala activity between languages was larger with a reduced use of the second language. Connectivity analyses paralleled these effects: while the coupling between amygdala-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex was higher during affect labeling in a dominant native language, the relationship reversed in a weak second language. Overall, our findings identify language dominance as a boundary condition on affect labeling and suggest that current theories must incorporate language experience when explaining its neural regulatory effects.

Authors 8

1. Tatiana Davydova

   Universitat Jaume I

   Affiliation as printed

   Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I

2. Lidón Marín-Marín

   Universitat Jaume I

   Affiliation as printed

   Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I

3. Anastasia Cherednichenko

   Universitat Jaume I

   Affiliation as printed

   Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I

4. Alexander Fengler

   Brown University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Brown University

5. Jesús Adrián‐Ventura

   Universidad de Zaragoza

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology and Sociology, Universidad de Zaragoza

6. María‐Ángeles Palomar‐García

   Universidad de Zaragoza

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology and Sociology, Universidad de Zaragoza

7. Marc-Lluís Vives Aachen Institute of Psychology, Social Economic and Organisational Psychology Unit

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Psychology, Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology Unit, Leiden University

8. Víctor Costumero

   Universitat Jaume I

   Affiliation as printed

   Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I