Prior work (SFN abstract Q-31, 2002) has established that the use of cognitive reappraisal to up-regulate, or increase, emotional responses involves largely left prefrontal systems similar to those mediating the cognitive down-regulation of emotion. However, it is not clear how individual differences in factors theoretically related to reappraisal capacity affect reappraisal. We hypothesized that individual differences in how negative information is cognitively represented should influence emotion regulation-related brain activations. Specifically, to elucidate the effect of individual differences in chronic tendencies to appraise negative information on the neural bases of emotion regulation, 23 participants completed individual difference measures of rumination (one’s tendency to continue to think about negative information and increase negative emotion) and then were asked to reappraise, or think about the emotionally arousing events in photos in ways that either increased, or decreased, their negative ...