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Implicit, But Not Explicit, Emotion Regulation Relieves Unpleasant Neural Responses Evoked by High-Intensity Negative Images

Neuroscience Bulletin (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Evidence suggests that explicit reappraisal has limited regulatory effects on high-intensity emotions, mainly due to the depletion of cognitive resources occupied by the high-intensity emotional stimulus itself. The implicit form of reappraisal has proved to be resource-saving and therefore might be an ideal strategy to achieve the desired regulatory effect in high-intensity situations. In this study, we explored the regulatory effect of explicit and implicit reappraisal when participants encountered low- and high-intensity negative images. The subjective emotional rating indicated that both explicit and implicit reappraisal down-regulated negative experiences, irrespective of intensity. However, the amplitude of the parietal late positive potential (LPP; a neural index of experienced emotional intensity) showed that only implicit reappraisal had significant regulatory effects in the high-intensity context, though both explicit and implicit reappraisal successfully reduced the emotional neural responses elicited by low-intensity negative images. Meanwhile, implicit reappraisal led to a smaller frontal LPP amplitude (an index of cognitive cost) compared to explicit reappraisal, indicating that the implementation of implicit reappraisal consumes limited cognitive control resources. Furthermore, we found a prolonged effect of implicit emotion regulation introduced by training procedures. Taken together, these findings not only reveal that implicit reappraisal is suitable to relieve high-intensity negative experiences as well as neural responses, but also highlight the potential benefit of trained implicit regulation in clinical populations whose frontal control resources are limited.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271102, 31970980, and 31920103009), the Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation (20&ZD153), the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science (2022SHIBS0003), and the Guangdong Key Project (2018B030335001).

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Author notes

  1. Yueyao Zhang and Sijin Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610066, China

    Yueyao Zhang, Yiwei Li, Jiajin Yuan & Dandan Zhang

  2. School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Sijin Li & Kexiang Gao

  3. Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Dandan Zhang

  4. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Dandan Zhang

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  1. Yueyao Zhang
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Zhang, Y., Li, S., Gao, K. et al. Implicit, But Not Explicit, Emotion Regulation Relieves Unpleasant Neural Responses Evoked by High-Intensity Negative Images. Neurosci. Bull. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-023-01036-7

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Keywords

  • Cognitive reappraisal
  • Implicit emotion regulation
  • Training
  • Emotional intensity
  • Late positive potential