Integrated Neural Circuitry Supporting Emotion Regulation and Decision Making

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has begun to closely examine the relationship between emotion regulation and decision making. Emotion regulation strategies allow people to change their thoughts and feelings during emotional situations and events. Successful regulation can be particularly important for a variety of decisions made in day-to-day life. This is especially true for decisions involving risk and reward, where highly rewarding and desirable outcomes are often paired with uncertainty in the likelihood of those outcomes. In this chapter, we aim to operationalize both emotion regulation and decision making in the context of recent findings across psychology and neuroscience. We use an everyday, real-world example involving risk and reward to highlight the relationship between these processes behaviorally and neurocognitively. After presenting a framework, we layer in relevant findings in cognitive neuroscience to explore how the human brain supports these processes, both individually and in an integrated capacity. Finally, we highlight future research implications and open questions in the space.