Neural mechanisms underlying decisions to express or suppress emotions

Abstract

Emotional expressions play a central role in social communication. The dominant view assumes that emotional expression is a spontaneous consequence of affect. In everyday social life, however, individuals often suppress internally generated emotions. Here, we investigated the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying decisions about emotional expression, based on the view that emotional expression constitutes a form of decision-making involving evaluation of social context, anticipation of interpersonal consequences, and consideration of social norms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we scanned 40 participants (22 males, 18 females) while they decided whether to express or suppress their emotions in response to emotionally evocative scenarios. We found that decisions to express emotion were positively modulated by perceived valence and arousal. Valence was associated with activity in the inferior frontal cortex and middle temporal gyrus, whereas arousal was associated with activity in the fusiform and parahippocampal gyri. Moreover, decisions to withhold emotional expression were associated with increased activity in regions implicated in mentalizing and cognitive control, including the right temporoparietal junction and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Together, these findings suggest that emotional expression reflects a decision-making process integrating affective and contextual information within neural systems supporting social cognition and cognitive control.