Studies // Cited work
Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli
Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli.
Level B Experiment doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
What this study supports
Supports the claim that affect labelling was associated with reduced amygdala response and increased right ventrolateral prefrontal activity. Standardised images, not personal events, and no measure of later recovery.
- Who was studied
- fMRI participants viewing emotional facial images under affect-labelling and control encoding conditions.
- Design
- Experiment
- Level of evidence
- Controlled studies: randomised or experimental designs, and syntheses of correlational work.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
EmpiricalLevel BConfidence MODERATE
Labelling the emotion in a facial image was associated with reduced amygdala response and increased right ventrolateral prefrontal activity, consistent with affect labelling acting as implicit regulation.
- Scope
- An fMRI laboratory task with standardised emotional images.
- Caveat
- Personal events and later recovery were not studied; the practical advice to name feelings extrapolates from this mechanism.
Last reviewed · Review due · affect-labelling-regulation