Biology subjects

Kraynak, T. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Kraynak, T. E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

From the scanner to daily life: Neural expression of the Picture-Induced Negative Emotion Signature is associated with real-world daily and momentary negative affect in midlife adults

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used to map brain systems that process affective stimuli and predict concurrent affective experiences in the scanner. However, the extent to which affect-related fMRI activity in the scanner predicts affective experiences in daily life remains unclear. This study examined whether a multivariate brain pattern previously validated to predict negative affect to emotional images during fMRI testing (the Picture-Induced Negative Emotion Signature; PINES) associates with daily negative affect measured over 7-10 days via daily diaries and ecological momentary assessment. Among 287 midlife adults, those exhibiting greater PINES pattern expression showed greater daily (end-of-day) and hourly negative affect. These findings were not explained by demographic factors and trait negative affect. A cross-validated whole-brain pattern of negative affect generalizes beyond the fMRI testing context to predict negative affect severity in daily life.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

The elusive neural signature of emotion regulation capabilities: evidence from a large-scale consortium

Cognitive reappraisal is a fundamental emotion regulation strategy for mental and physical well-being, but how its neural mechanisms relate to individual differences remains poorly understood. In a consortium effort analyzing 40 fMRI datasets (N=2,175), we examined the relationship between neural activation during reappraisal tasks and three core individual difference indices of reappraisal capabilities: (1) trait questionnaires, (2) task-based affective ratings, and (3) amygdala down-regulation. Strikingly, there was no shared overlap across these three common indices. Only a very weak correlation emerged between amygdala down-regulation and task-based affective ratings. Whole-brain analyses revealed no reliable neural associations with trait questionnaires, and associations with task-based affective ratings fell outside canonical emotion regulation networks (e.g., prefrontal circuitry). Moreover, amygdala down-regulation, often interpreted as a stable individual marker, was confounded by person-specific whole-brain responses -- a limitation extending to fMRI research beyond the emotion regulation domain. These findings challenge the assumption that an individuals prefrontal activity is a valid indicator of their reappraisal capabilities and suggest that common trait, behavioral, and neural measures might capture distinct facets of emotion regulation. More broadly, our results highlight concrete methodological challenges for fMRI research on individual differences, with implications extending beyond emotion regulation to the neuroscience of personality, psychopathology, and general well-being.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Deconstructing the brain bases of emotion regulation: A systems-identification approach using Bayes factors

Cognitive reappraisal is fundamental to cognitive therapies and everyday emotion regulation. Analyses using Bayes factors and an axiomatic systems-identification approach identified four reappraisal-related components encompassing distributed neural activity patterns across two independent fMRI studies (n=182 and n=176): (1) An anterior prefrontal system selectively involved in cognitive reappraisal; (2) A fronto-parietal-insular system engaged by both reappraisal and emotion generation, demonstrating a general role in appraisal; (3) A largely subcortical system activated during negative emotion generation but unaffected by reappraisal, including amygdala, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray; and (4) a posterior cortical system of negative emotion-related regions down-regulated by reappraisal. These systems covaried with individual differences in reappraisal success and were differentially related to neurotransmitter binding maps, implicating cannabinoid and serotonin systems in reappraisal. These findings challenge limbic-centric models of reappraisal and provide new systems-level targets for assessing and enhancing emotion regulation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Similarity in evoked responses does not imply similarity in macroscopic network states across tasks

There is an ongoing debate as to whether cognitive processes arise from a group of functionally specialized brain modules (modularism) or as the result of distributed nonlinear processes (dynamical systems theory). The former predicts that tasks recruiting similar local brain areas should be equally similar in their network profiles. The latter allows for differential connectivity, even when the areas recruited are largely the same. Here we evaluated both views at the macroscopic level by comparing region-wise activation patterns and functional correlation profiles from a large sample of healthy subjects (N=242) that performed two executive control tasks known to recruit nearly identical brain areas, the color-word Stroop task and the Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT). Using a measure of instantaneous functional correlations, based on edge time series, we estimated the task-related networks that differed between incongruent and congruent conditions. At the group level, the two tasks were much more different in their network profiles than in their evoked activity patterns. This is found even when matching the degrees of freedom of both activation patterns and functional correlation profiles, when considering subject-level differences, after changing brain parcellations, and if employing alternative methods for defining task-related network profiles. Our results are consistent with the perspective of the brain as a dynamical system, suggesting that task representations should be independently evaluated at both node and edge (connectivity) levels. Significant StatementIf the brain is strictly modular at the macroscopic scale, then recruiting the same brain regions should result in the same functional interactions between regions. However, if the brain is a dynamical system, with information represented at both the node and edge levels, then two tasks could have the same pattern of activation, but largely different functional correlation profiles. Here we tested this contrastive prediction using two tasks with overlapping cognitive demands, but different sensory signals. Despite being nearly identical in their activation patterns, we found that the tasks produced largely different functional correlation profiles. These findings reinforce the view of the brain as a dynamical system, with task states represented both within and across regions.

neuroscience↗