Abstract
Although the regulatory role of cognitive reappraisal in negative emotional responses is widely recognized, this reappraisal's effect on acute saliva secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), as well as the relationships among affective, immunological, and event-related potential (ERP) changes, remains unclear. In this study, we selected only people with low positive coping scores (PCSs) as measured by the Trait Coping Style Questionnaire to avoid confounding by intrinsic coping styles. First, we found that the acute stress of viewing unpleasant pictures consistently decreased SIgA concentration and secretion rate, increased perceptions of unpleasantness and amplitude of late positive potentials (LPPs) between 200–300 ms and 400–1000 ms. After participants used cognitive reappraisal, their SIgA concentration and secretion rate significantly increased and their unpleasantness and LPP amplitudes significantly decreased compared with a control condition. Second, we found a significantly positive correlation between the increases in SIgA and the decreases in unpleasantness and a significantly negative correlation between the increases in SIgA and the increases in LPP across the two groups. This study is the first to demonstrate that cognitive reappraisal reverses the decrease of SIgA. In addition, it revealed strong correlations among affective, SIgA and electrophysiological changes with convergent multilevel evidence.
Highlights
Cognitive reappraisal refers to interpreting a situation’s meaning in a way that alters its emotional impact
Event-related potential (ERP) studies found that cognitive reappraisal with decreasing unpleasant or pleasant emotional responses both attenuated the amplitude of late positive potentials (LPPs) by approximately 400–1000 ms during affective picture viewing [6,9,10]
If increases in secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) immunity were significantly correlated with other reappraisal-induced changes, such as decreased subjective unpleasantness and LPPs, we can more convincingly infer that the reason that cognitive reappraisal removes stress-related immune dysregulation is related to the function of cognitive reappraisal in reducing one’s negative emotional arousal during stress, as indexed by one’s unpleasantness level and emotion-related LPPs
Summary
Cognitive reappraisal refers to interpreting a situation’s meaning in a way that alters its emotional impact. If increases in SIgA immunity were significantly correlated with other reappraisal-induced changes, such as decreased subjective unpleasantness and LPPs, we can more convincingly infer that the reason that cognitive reappraisal removes stress-related immune dysregulation is related to the function of cognitive reappraisal in reducing one’s negative emotional arousal during stress, as indexed by one’s unpleasantness level and emotion-related LPPs. As stated by some investigators, multilevel models that link measures of behavioral, experiential, and physiological responses and their neural substrates provide a richer and deeper account of a phenomenon of interest than a single-level model by simultaneously drawing upon all levels of analysis [12,37]. Based on the aforementioned considerations, the present study illustrates the acute protective effect of cognitive reappraisal on stress-related immunity and examines the relationship among the affective, immunological, and ERP changes
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