Voxel-based morphometry of disgust sensitivity

BACKGROUND Difficulties with the regulation of negative affect have been extensively studied in neuroimaging research. However, dysregulation of a specific emotion, disgust, has hardly been investigated. In the present study, we used voxel-based morphometry to identify whether gray matter volume (GMV) of frontal regions is correlated with personality traits associated with general and disgust-specific emotion regulation difficulties. METHOD We analyzed T1-weighted images of 49 females (mean age = 22.8 years, SD = 3.2). The women rated their disgust sensitivity (DS) (temporally stable tendency to experience disgust as uncontrollable and extremely aversive) as well as general difficulties with emotion regulation. RESULTS DS and general emotion regulation deficits were positively associated with a heightened GMV of the orbitofrontal cortex. DS additionally showed a negative association with GMV of the medial prefrontal cortex. CONCLUSION The present study revealed shared and distinct contributions of frontal brain regions to disgust-specific and general emotion regulation difficulties.