Cognitive avoidance and the processing of self-threatening information: a neuroimaging study

Abstract

Background: Cognitive avoidant coping is a strategy to cope with stress that aims to shield the organism from stimuli that could threaten the self. It has been associated with adverse health and exaggerated physiological stress responses. However, little is known about respective brain processes that could underlie this coping style. Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural correlates of cognitive avoidant and vigilant coping during the perception of threatening and nonthreatening self-relevant information. A sample of 76 individuals (39 female) received faked expert-feedback on threatening and nonthreatening self-relevant attributes. Prior to this, participants rated the degree to which they agreed/disagreed to self-relevant positive or negative adjectives on a visual analogue scale. Cognitive and vigilant coping was assessed via questionnaire (Mainz Coping Inventory; Krohne et al., 2000). Findings: A positive correlation between cognitive avoidant coping and greater brain activation in the right frontal cortex could be found. There were no significant differences in cortical activation concerning vigilance. Conclusions: Results indicate that frontal brain areas are substantially involved in threat-processing in repressive/avoidant copers, thus indicating increased cognitive resources to regulate negative emotions. Vigilance might be more strongly associated with the processing of ambiguous situations, thus calling for alternative paradigms.