The role of expectancy and proactive control in stress regulation: A neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation

When confronted with stressful or emotionally arousing situations, regulatory abilities should allow us to adaptively cope. However, depressed individuals often have a low sense of perceived control and are characterized by a negative expectation bias regarding their ability to deal with future stressful events. Low expectancy concerning the ability to deal with future stressful events may result in less initiation of proactive control, a crucial mechanism of cognitive control reflecting sustained and anticipatory maintenance of goal-relevant information in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to optimize cognitive performance. In this theoretical review we integrate a diverse body of literature. We argue that the expectancy of an individual's regulatory abilities prior to the presentation of an arousing event or stressful task will be related to anticipation and proactive up- or downregulation of specific neurocircuits before the actual encounter with the stressful event occurs, in a manner that can be either adaptive or maladaptive. Moreover, we discuss the important role of self-esteem as well as the ability to accept the situation when coping is not possible. Our approach has implications for a broad range of disorders and conditions in which stress regulation plays a role, and can be used to guide the use of recently developed clinical interventions, as well as to fine-tune interventions to facilitate proactive control.