The cognitive up- and down-regulation of positive emotion: Evidence from behavior, electrophysiology, and neuroimaging

Abstract

Although numerous studies have investigated emotion regulation, the physiological responses and neural substrates of positive emotion regulation remain unclear. To address this question, we explored the effect of reappraisal on subjective experience, zygomatic electromyography (zEMG) response, and blood oxygen level response, using the same materials across three independent experiments. Behaviorally, up-regulating positive emotion increased the valence, arousal, and zEMG response, whereas down-regulating positive emotion decreased the valence, but not arousal or the zEMG response. The neuroimaging results indicate that reappraisal-related prefrontal and cingulate regions were recruited in both the up- and down-regulation conditions, while the bilateral occipital lobe was more active in the up-regulation than in the down-regulation. The psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that the prefrontal-subcortical (amygdala and ventral striatal) connections were primarily recruited during up-regulation. This study expands the research on emotion regulation and enhances the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the cognitive regulation of positive emotion.