Table 1.
Main features of studies included in the meta-analysis.
| Studies | N | Emotion | Stimuli | Experimental Task Instruction | Control Task Instruction | Strategy | Whole brain/ROIs∗ | N Foci |
| Banks et al. (2007) | 14 | Negative | Pictures | “To reinterpret the content of the picture so that it no longer elicited a negative response” (p. 305) | “During the Maintain ask, participants were instructed to attend to, be aware of and experience naturally (without trying to change or alter) the emotional state elicited by the pictures; they were told to maintain the evoked affect for the entire task block” (pp. 304–305) | nc | WB | 9 |
| Domes et al. (2010) | 33 | Negative | Pictures | “To image that the situation was not real or that they were a detached observer” (p. 760) | “Maintain trials required attentive viewing of the pictures without trying to alter the affective reaction” (p. 760) | nc | WB | 17 |
| Eippert et al. (2007) | 24 | Fear | Pictures | “Becoming a detached observer through thinking that the depicted situation is not real, only a picture” (p. 412) | “Subjects should view the picture attentively without trying to alter their emotional reactions” (p.412) | nc | ROIs | 11 |
| Erk et al. (2010) | 17 | Negative | Pictures | “To look at the following picture directly but try to take the position of a detached observer, thinking about the present picture in a neutral way” (p. 15727) | “Look at the following picture directly and permit feeling your emotions” (p. 15727) | RPT | WB/ ROIs | 11 |
| Goldin et al. (2008) | 17 | Disgust | Videos | “Thinking objectively to decrease emotional reactivity to films, for example, by assuming the perspective of a medical professional watching an instructional video or focusing on technical aspects of the film” (p. 578) | No instruction | RPT | WB | 35 |
| Hayes et al. (2010) | 25 | Negative | Pictures | “Place yourself as an observer in the scene, but change the way you think about it by making it not relevant to you or your loved ones” (p. 3) | “Simply look at the picture and let any emotions you’re feeling unfold naturally” (p. 3) | RS | ROIs | 23 |
| Kanske et al. (2011) | 25 | Negative | Pictures | “Decrease any emotional response by reinterpreting the displayed situation, for example, as produced by actors and therefore not real, as meaning something else, or having a different outcome than initially suggested by the picture” (Kanske et al., 2011, p. 1380) | “Participants attended the content of the picture but did not manipulate the emotional response to it” (Kanske et al., 2011, p. 1380) | RS | ROIs | 24 |
| Kim and Hamann (2007) | 10 | Negative | Pictures | “Imagining the scenes as less personally relevant (e.g., dissociating themselves from the main figures), imagining the scenes as unreal, and imagining the scenes as physically farther away from themselves” (pp. 777-778) | “participants were instructed to view the picture in a natural way and not to try to change the emotion elicited by the picture” (p. 777) | RS | WB/ ROIs | 40 |
| Koenigsberg et al. (2010) | 16 | Negative | Pictures | “Relate to the image as though they were not personally connected in any way to the pictured individuals or the context in which they were situated, i.e., as though they were an anthropologist viewing the scene objectively or an emergency room doctor maintaining a detached clinical perspective so that he can function coolly in the situation” (p. 1815) | “(Subject) were to simply allow themselves to experience whatever emotion the picture spontaneously evoked in them” (p. 1815) | RPT | WB | 11 |
| Kross et al. (2009) | 16 | Negative | Sentences | “to recognize that the feelings they experienced during recollection were passing mental events that were psychologically distant from the self and did not control them” (p. 361) | “The first “feel” strategy directed individuals to focus on the specific feelings that naturally flowed through their mind as they thought about their recalled experiences” (p. 361) | nc | WB | 6 |
| Lévesque et al. (2003) | 20 | Sadness | Videos | “Voluntarily decrease the intensity of the sad feelings felt in response to the sad film excerpts. To accomplish that goal, subjects were encouraged to distance themselves from those stimuli (i.e., to become a detached observer)” (p. 503) | “Subjects were instructed to react normally to the sad film excerpts, that is, to allow themselves to become sad in response to these stimuli” (p. 503). | RPT | WB/ ROIs | 11 |
| McRae et al. (2008) | 25 | Negative | Pictures | “Reinterpretations were limited to three categories: (1) It’s not real (e.g., it’s just a scene from a movie, they’re just pretending), (2) Things will improve with time (e.g., whatever is going wrong will resolve over time), (3) Things aren’t as bad as they appear to me (e.g., the situation looks worse than it is, it could be a lot worse, at least it’s not me in that situation)” (p. 148) | No instruction | RS | WB/ROIs | 16 |
| McRae et al. (2010) | 18 | Negative | Pictures | “To reinterpret the situation depicted in the picture in a way that made them feel less negative about it. When reappraising, participants used the instructed strategy of reinterpreting the affects/dispositions, outcomes, and contexts depicted in images” (p. 249) | “Participants were instructed to pay attention and respond naturally to the subsequent stimulus, allowing themselves to have whatever reaction the picture would normally evoke in them” (p. 249) | nc | WB/ROIs | 19 |
| Modinos et al. (2010) | 18 | Negative | Pictures | “To reinterpret its content so that it no longer elicited a negative response” (p. 371) | “Subjects were instructed to attend and naturally experience any feelings elicited by the photo” (p. 371) | nc | WB/ROIs | 10 |
| Ochsner et al. (2002) | 15 | Negative | Pictures | “Participants were instructed to reinterpret the photo so that it no longer elicited a negative response. Reappraisal was commonly accomplished by generating an interpretation of, or a story about, each photo that would explain apparently negative events in a less negative way (e.g., women depicted crying outside of a church could be described as attending a wedding instead of a funeral)” (p. 1225) | “Participants were instructed to attend to and be aware of, but not to try to alter, any feelings elicited by it” (p. 1225) | RS | WB/ROIs | 19 |
| Ochsner et al. (2004) | 24 | Negative | Pictures | “Participants in the self-focus group were instructed to increase their sense of objective distance, viewing pictured events from a detached, third-person perspective. To decrease negative emotion participants could view the sick person from the detached; clinical perspective of one not personally connected in any way to the pictured individual and the context in which she is situated. Participants assigned to the situation-focused group were instructed to reinterpret the emotions, actions, and outcomes of individuals as depicted in their situational context. To decrease negative emotion, participants in the situation-focused group were asked to imagine pictured events getting better” (pp. 484–485) | “Participants were instructed simply to look at the image and let they respond naturally” (p. 485) | RPT | ROIs | 40 |
| Phan et al. (2005) | 14 | Negative | Pictures | “To decrease voluntarily the intensity of their negative affect by using the cognitive strategy of reappraisal which is to reinterpret the content of the picture so that it no longer elicited a negative response […] Two main examples of cognitive reappraisal were provided to facilitate understanding of the strategy: (1) transforming the scenario depicted into positive terms (e.g., women crying outside of a church could be alternatively interpreted as expressing tears of joy from wedding ceremony rather than of sorrow from a funeral) and (2) rationalizing or objectifying the content of the pictures (e.g., a woman with facial bruises could be translated as an actor wearing makeup rather than a victim of domestic abuse)” (p. 211) | “Subjects were instructed to attend to, be aware of, and experience naturally (without trying to change or alter) the emotional state elicited by the pictures; they were told to maintain the evoked affect for the entire block” (p. 211) | RS | ROIs | 18 |
| Schardt et al. (2010) | 37 | Fear Disgust | Pictures | “To look at the picture while detaching yourself from any emotional response which may arise by adopting the position of a detached observer, who is not affected by the scene presented in the picture” (p. 945) | “Participants were instructed to look at the picture and permit you to feel whichever emotional response arises naturally, without trying to alter it” (p. 945) | RPT | WB, ROIs | 22 |
| Urry et al. (2006) | 19 | Negative | Pictures | “To reduce the intensity of their negative affect, for which they were trained to either (1) view the situation as fake or unreal, or (2) imagine that the situation being depicted had a different outcome than the one suggested (e.g., victims of a car accident survived and healed well)” (p. 4416) | “Participants were instructed to maintain their attention to the picture without changing their negative affective experience” (p. 4416) | RS | WB/ROIs | 2 |
| Wager et al. (2008) | 30 | Negative | Pictures | “Participants viewed aversive images, and were asked to reappraise the emotional value of those images so that the emotional impact was less negative. More specifically, they were instructed to generate a positive interpretation of the scene depicted in each picture that reduced the emotional impact” (p. 1048) | “Participants were asked to view the image, understand its content, and allow they to experience/feel any emotional response it might elicit” (p. 1048) | RS | WB/ROIs | 10 |
| Walter et al. (2009) | 20 | Negative | Pictures | “Subjects were instructed to intentionally regulate their emotions by taking the position of a neutral observer. More specifically they were instructed to: “Look at the following picture directly but try to take the position of a Non-involved observer, thinking about the present picture in a neutral way” (p. 2) | “Subjects were instructed to simply watch the pictures and permit all upcoming emotions. More specifically they were instructed to: “Look at the following picture directly and permit feeling your emotions” (p. 2) |
RPT | WB/ROIs | 14 |
nc, not classified; RST, reappraisal via perspective-taking; RS, reappraisal of stimuli; WB, whole brain analyses; ROIs, regions of interest analysis. *In case of Whole brain/ROIs studies, all foci of brain activation have been considered in the meta-analysis.