Use of Multiple Regulation Strategies in Spontaneous Emotion Regulation

EEG microstate analysis of emotion regulation reveals no sequential processing of valence and emotional arousal

In electroencephalography (EEG), microstates are distributions of activity across the scalp that persist for several tens of milliseconds before changing into a different pattern. Microstate analysis is a way of utilizing EEG as both temporal and spatial imaging tool, but has rarely been applied to task-based data. This study aimed to conceptually replicate microstate findings of valence and emotional arousal processing and investigate the effects of emotion regulation on microstates, using data of an EEG paradigm with 107 healthy adults who actively viewed emotional pictures, cognitively detached from them, or suppressed facial reactions. Within the first 600 ms after stimulus onset only the comparison of viewing positive and negative pictures yielded significant results, caused by different electrodes depending on the microstate. Since the microstates associated with more and less emotionally arousing pictures did not differ, sequential processing could not be replicated. When extending the analysis to 2000 ms after stimulus onset, differences were exclusive to the comparison of viewing and detaching from negative pictures. Intriguingly, we observed the novel phenomenon of a microstate difference that could not be attributed to single electrodes. This suggests that microstate analysis can detect differences beyond those detected by event-related potential analysis.

Emotion Regulation and Diurnal Cortisol: A Longitudinal Study of Early Adolescents

Aberrant patterns of diurnal cortisol, a marker of stress reactivity, predict adverse physical and mental health among adolescents. However, the mechanisms underlying aberrant diurnal cortisol production are poorly understood. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate, for the first time, whether the core emotion regulation (ER) strategies of rumination (brooding, reflection), reappraisal, and suppression were prospectively associated with individual differences in diurnal cortisol during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of significant stress. A community sample of 48 early adolescents (M_age=13.45; 60% males) was recruited from British Columbia, Canada. Participants completed ER measures before the pandemic, and diurnal cortisol was assessed by collecting eight saliva samples over two days during the first COVID-19-related lockdown in the region. As expected, brooding predicted elevated waking cortisol and a blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR), whereas reflection predicted lower waking cortisol and suppression predicted a steeper CAR. Unexpectedly, reappraisal was not associated with diurnal cortisol production. Results indicate that ER strategies may represent a mechanism underlying individual differences in biological markers of wellbeing during stress.

Neural activity during cognitive reappraisal in chronic low back pain: a preliminary study

OBJECTIVES

Chronic pain patients often report higher levels of negative emotions, suggesting reduced ability to regulate emotions effectively, however, little is known of the underlying neural cognitive mechanisms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore brain activity and connectivity during cognitive reappraisal in chronic low back pain (CLBP).

METHODS

This study recruited 24 female participants; 12 with CLBP and 12 healthy controls. Participants completed an emotion regulation task that involved cognitive reappraisal of negative images during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The negative affect following each image and perceived success of the task were reported. Region of interest and seed-to-voxel analyses were conducted using key regions involved in cognitive reappraisal (i.e., amygdalae and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) as seed regions.

RESULTS

During the task, there were no group differences in the behavioural measures and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) brain activation in the seed regions. Functional connectivity analysis showed reduced coupling between the amygdalae and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex in the CLBP group compared to controls. Connectivity between the amygdala and inferior parietal cortex positively correlated with the percent of reduced negative affect during reappraisal in the CLBP group.

CONCLUSIONS

These preliminary findings demonstrate that individuals with CLBP exhibit similar emotion regulation abilities to healthy controls at the behavioural and BOLD level. However, altered functional connectivity observed in the CLBP group may reduce effective cognitive reappraisal. These results provide evidence for the potential clinical impact of network changes in CLBP.

Catching the audience in a job interview: Effects of emotion regulation strategies on subjective, physiological, and behavioural responses

In the emotion regulation process more than one strategy is often used, though studies continue to rely on the manipulation of one strategy alone. This study compares the effects of Combined Cognitive Reappraisal (CCR: acceptance and reappraise via perspective-taking) and suppression using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). One hundred participants were randomly assigned to one of the two groups and subjective, physiological, and behavioural data were recorded. Continuous electrocardiography was recorded to measure heart rate variability (HRV) and stress levels. Affective ratings were provided before and after the TSST. Behavioural expressions were videotaped and analysed independently. Trait social anxiety/fear, age and gender entered as covariates. Although no group differences were found on affective ratings, the CCR group presented less physiological stress, higher HRV, their speech was better perceived, displayed more affiliative smile and hand gestures. Results suggested that CCR is more appropriate than suppression for managing social stress situations.

Functional coupling of the orbitofrontal cortex and the basolateral amygdala mediates the association between spontaneous reappraisal and emotional response

Emotional regulation is known to be associated with activity in the amygdala. The amygdala is an emotion-generative region that comprises of structurally and functionally distinct nuclei. However, little is known about the contributions of different frontal-amygdala sub-region pathways to emotion regulation. Here, we investigated how functional couplings between frontal regions and amygdala sub-regions are involved in different spontaneous emotion regulation processes by using an individual-difference approach and a generalized psycho-physiological interaction (gPPI) approach. Specifically, 50 healthy participants reported their dispositional use of spontaneous cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in daily life and their actual use of these two strategies during the performance of an emotional-picture watching task. Results showed that functional coupling between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) was associated with higher scores of both dispositional and actual uses of reappraisal. Similarly, functional coupling between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the centromedial amygdala (CMA) was associated with higher scores of both dispositional and actual uses of suppression. Mediation analyses indicated that functional coupling of the right OFC-BLA partially mediated the association between reappraisal and emotional response, irrespective of whether reappraisal was measured by dispositional use (indirect effect(SE)=-0.2021 (0.0811), 95%CI_(BC)= [-0.3851, -0.0655]) or actual use (indirect effect(SE)=-0.1951 (0.0796), 95%CI_(BC)= [-0.3654, -0.0518])). These findings suggest that spontaneous reappraisal and suppression involve distinct frontal- amygdala functional couplings, and the modulation of BLA activity from OFC may be necessary for changing emotional response during spontaneous reappraisal.

The simultaneous use of Emotional suppression and Situation selection to regulate emotions incrementally favors physiological responses

Background

Emotion regulation alters the trajectories of emotional responses and, when effective, transforms the emotional responses to help individuals adapt to their environment. Previous research has mainly focused on the efficiency of regulation strategies performed individually at a given time. Yet, in daily life, it is likely that several strategies are often combined. Thus, we question in this study the combinatorial efficiency of two emotion regulation strategies, Situation selection and Emotional suppression.

Methods

In a within-subject design, sixty-five participants were asked to implement either no strategy, Situation selection only, Emotional suppression only, or both strategies together (four conditions) while looking at various emotionally charged images. Experience, expressivity, and physiological arousal were recorded throughout the viewing. Repeated-measures ANOVAs and corrected post-hoc tests were used for analyzing the data.

Results

The results of the combined strategies showed that Emotional suppression canceled the beneficial impact of Situation selection on negative experience, while significantly increasing the impact on cardiac activity. The use of both strategies together had a greater effect on respiratory function with an enhanced decrease in respiratory rate and amplitude.

Conclusions

The combinatorial effect of emotion regulation strategies is different according to the emotional response that the individual needs to regulate. The simultaneous use of Situation selection and Emotional suppression could be particularly beneficial to relieve physiological symptoms.

Flexible Emotionsregulation: Theoretische Modelle und Empirische Befunde

Zusammenfassung. Emotionsregulationsstrategien werden häufig unabhängig von dem Kontext der Verwendung in adaptiv und maladaptiv klassifiziert. Aktuelle empirische Studien und theoretische Modelle der flexiblen Emotionsregulation hinterfragen diese Kategorisierung und versuchen, die Adaptivität von regulatorischen Strategien stärker kontextbezogen zu untersuchen. In dem vorliegenden Artikel geben wir eine selektive Übersicht über dieses Forschungsgebiet und gehen dabei auf folgende zwei Fragestellungen ein: (1) Welche Rolle spielen Kontextfaktoren bei der Adaptivität von Emotionsregulationsstrategien? (2) Wie kann flexible Emotionsregulation konzeptualisiert und erfasst werden? Aus den vorgestellten empirischen Befunden und theoretischen Modellen leiten wir Implikationen für zukünftige ambulatorische und experimentelle Untersuchungen flexibler Emotionsregulation ab.