The following is a summary of “Rapid effects of acute stress on cognitive emotion regulation,” published in the May 2023 issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology by Langer et al.
It has been shown that acute stress can either improve or impede emotion regulation (ER) performances. In addition to sex, strategy use, and stimulus intensity, the timing of the ER task relative to stress exposure appears to be a moderating factor. While it has been demonstrated that somewhat delayed increases in the stress hormone cortisol enhance ER performance, rapid sympathetic nervous system (SNS) actions may oppose these effects via cognitive regulatory impairments. Here, the researchers investigated the rapid effects of acute stress on reappraisal and distraction, two ER strategies.
About N = 80 healthy participants (40 men and 40 women) were exposed to the Socially Evaluated Cold-Pressor Test or a control condition just before an ER paradigm that required them to downregulate emotional responses to high-intensity negative images deliberately. Subjective ratings and pupil dilation served as outcome measures for the emergency room. Increases in salivary cortisol and cardiovascular activity (an indicator of SNS activation) indicate that acute stress has been successfully induced. Unexpectedly, stress decreased men’s subjective emotional arousal when distracted by negative images, suggesting regulatory enhancements.
However, this beneficial effect was most pronounced in the second half of the ER paradigm and was entirely mediated by cortisol levels that were already increasing. In women, however, cardiovascular responses to stress were associated with diminished subjective regulatory performances of reappraisal and distraction. However, stress had no negative effects on ER at the group level. Nevertheless, their results provide preliminary evidence for rapid, opposing effects of the two stress systems on the cognitive control of negative emotions, which are significantly moderated by sex.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645302300032X
