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. 2020 Jul 14;10(1):11571.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68137-5.

Acute stress improves the effectivity of cognitive emotion regulation in men

Katja Langer  1 , Bianca Hagedorn  1 , Lisa-Marie Stock  1 , Tobias Otto  1 , Oliver T Wolf  1 , Valerie L Jentsch  2
Affiliations

Acute stress improves the effectivity of cognitive emotion regulation in men

Katja Langer et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Emotion regulation is crucial for coping with stressors but in turn can also be influenced by stress. Initial studies provided mixed evidence showing either beneficial or impairing stress effects on cognitive emotion regulation depending on stress timing, sex or the regulatory strategy. Here, we investigated the impact of acute stress on different emotion regulation strategies in men and women. N = 118 healthy participants were subjected to the Trier Social Stress Test or a control condition after which they completed an emotion regulation paradigm, requiring them to regulate their emotions in response to negative pictures using reappraisal or distraction. Cortisol levels were repeatedly measured to quantify changes in HPA axis activity. Affective ratings and pupil dilation served to measure emotion regulation success and the cognitive effort to regulate emotions. Stress reduced arousal and increased valence and success ratings for reappraisal in men, whereas no significant stress effects were found in women. Moreover, stressed men displayed a significant expansion of pupil diameter during reappraisal suggesting enhanced cognitive regulatory engagement, which ultimately may have led to better emotion regulation outcomes. Cortisol secretion positively correlated with subjective reappraisal success in men, suggesting a glucocorticoid-driven mechanism that may promote emotion regulatory performance in the aftermath of stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Physiological stress response. Mean (± SEM) salivary cortisol concentrations (a) and mean (± SEM) salivary alpha-amylase concentrations (b) as a function of stress (stress vs. control). For illustration purposes, raw data is displayed. Time point of the stress manipulation (TSST/P-TSST) and the emotion regulation paradigm (EmoReg) are represented by shaded areas. Significant effects after Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc t-tests are marked as follows: ***p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Affective ratings and pupil dilations in the different emotion regulation conditions. Mean (± SEM) subjective arousal (a), valence (b), and success ratings (c), as well as mean (± SEM) pupil diameter (d) expressed as the area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) for the different emotion regulation conditions. In the view condition, participants rated negative pictures as significantly less pleasant (b) and more arousing (a) than negative pictures. Moreover, participants showed increased pupil sizes (d) after viewing negative than neutral pictures. When downregulating negative emotions via reappraisal or upregulating via intensify, participants exhibited increased pupil dilations (d) and rated negative pictures as less arousing (a) and more pleasant (b) as compared to simply viewing them. Significant effects after Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc t-tests are marked as follows: ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Stress effects on emotion regulation outcome in men. Mean (± SEM) subjective arousal (a) and valence ratings (b) as well as Ln-transformed mean (± SEM) changes in pupil diameter (c) as indexed by the area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) of male participants as a function of emotion regulation condition for the stress (TSST) and control (Placebo-TSST) group. Panel (d) depicts the relationship between cortisol increase (∆ cortisol) and success ratings of reappraisal in men. Stressed males exhibited significantly reduced arousal and increased valence ratings as well as pupil dilations after downregulating their emotional response via reappraisal. Delta cortisol values were significantly correlated to success ratings of reappraisal in men. Significant effects after Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc t-tests are marked as follows: *p < 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Experimental procedure and emotion regulation paradigm. Participants provided four saliva samples and three affective ratings throughout the experiment (sampling time points for saliva and DAS are highlighted by dashed boxes: baseline, + 2, + 15, + 45 min and baseline, + 2, + 45 min after TSST/Placebo-TSST offset, respectively). In the emotion regulation paradigm, participants were asked to regulate their upcoming emotions towards negative pictures using one of three different emotion regulation strategies or to simply view negative or neutral pictures, which were taken from the Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS).
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