The social regulation of emotion: Inconsistencies suggest no mediation through ventromedial prefrontal cortex

ABSTRACT

Physical touch in the form of holding a loved one’s hand attenuates the neural response to threat. Speculation regarding the neural mediation of this effect points to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which is known to have inhibitory connections with threat responsive brain regions such as the amygdala. Despite the attractiveness of this hypothesis, a link between the vmPFC and diminished threat during handholding has been difficult to demonstrate empirically. Here we report that in a sample of 110 participants no evidence for vmPFC mediation of the handholding effect was obtained. Indeed, results indicated that connectivity patterns between threat responsive salience network structures and the vmPFC were in the opposite direction one would predict if the vmPFC mediated reductions in neural threat-responding caused by partner handholding. Our findings suggest that the vmPFC does not mediate the regulating effect of physical contact on neural threat responses.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion regulation
• handholding
• close relationships
• vmPFC
• threat
• social baseline

Acknowledgments

We thank Joseph P. Allen, Casey Brown, Karen Hasselmo, Erin Maresh, Marlen Gonzalez, Zoe Englander, Alexander Tatum, and Cat Thrasher for their assistance in preparing and conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

This research was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health grant, award Number R01MH080725, to James A. Coan. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health [R01MH80725-2].