Timing characteristics of reactive and proactive emotion regulation

Abstract

The dual mechanisms of control (DMC) framework is important for portraying two temporally distinct modes of cognitive control. In parallel with this model, understanding emotion regulation (ER) from a dual-mechanism perspective becomes plausible since cognitive control is a crucial element of ER. The present study characterized reactive and proactive ER based on a dual mechanisms framework to identify their distinct temporal dynamics using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. The reappraisal cue, compared with the watch-cue and no-cue conditions, evoked a larger fronto-central P3a magnitude, suggesting that participants could adaptively distribute their attention resources to prepare for strategy use. To track the cognitive effort that supports the ER process, we measured the frontal late positive potential (LPP). The results indicated that the reactive group, compared with the proactive group, used more effort to complete the reappraisal task when participants were subjected to decreased negative-emotional experiences to the same degree. Furthermore, decoding analysis showed that proactive ER starts earlier than reactive ER. These findings highlight the advantages of proactive ER. Further understanding of the modes of ER will help elucidate the control mechanisms underlying ER, which can then be applied to a variety of conditions, such as alcoholism, gambling, and drug addiction, to avert self-regulation failures caused by negative emotions.