Functional reorganization of large-scale brain systems underlies emotion regulation maturation

Abstract

Emotion regulation via cognitive reappraisal is essential for socioemotional development and mental health, yet the organizational logic of its supporting brain systems across youth remains unclear. Using a large multisite cohort, we demonstrate that maturation of reappraisal capacity reflects reorganization of a distributed architecture rather than progressive strengthening of prefrontal control. Reappraisal robustly reduced negative affect, with non-linear gains concentrated between 6 and 10.5 years. Bayesian systems identification resolved this architecture into four functionally distinct systems-reappraisal-specific, common-appraisal, modifiable-emotion, and non-modifiable-emotion components-spanning prefrontal-control, salience, default-mode and dorsal-attention networks. Age-related variation in anterior temporal cortex, emerged as essential hub, statistically accounted for developmental gains in reappraisal success. Multivariate modelling together with intersubject analyses further identified a cross-site-generalizable whole-brain reappraisal signature and revealed an age-dependent shift in brain-behaviour coupling, with neurobehavioural convergence increasing with age. These findings establish distributed network reorganization as a core mechanism of emotion regulation development and provide mechanistic targets for stage-matched interventions.