Journal of Shanghai University(Natural Science Edition) ›› 2019, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (1): 35-44.doi: 10.12066/j.issn.1007-2861.1900

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

ERPs on situation modification and cognitive reappraisal strategy

GUO Cheng1,2, LI Yingjie1,2()   

  1. 1. School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
    2. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai University,Shanghai 200444, China
  • Received:2017-04-03 Online:2019-02-28 Published:2019-02-26
  • Contact: LI Yingjie E-mail:liyj@shu.edu.cn

Abstract:

In this study, event-related potential was used to investigate different modulation effects of the strategies of situation modification and cognitive reappraisal on the processing of negative emotional stimuli. Twenty female under graduate participants were instructed to perform four tasks: viewing neutral pictures, viewing negative pictures, modification of negative pictures and reappraisal of negative pictures. Scene pictures from an international affective picture system were used as stimulus materials. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 32 scalp electrodes in the whole process. The late positive potential (LPP) grand average waveforms were analyzed off-line. The following observations were made. 1) Negative emotional experiences were significantly reduced after situation modification and cognitive reappraisal. 2) The modulation effect of situation modification on LPP appeared earlier than viewing of negative pictures. A significant decrease in LPP started at about 800 ms after stimulus onset. 3) Reappraisal began to modulate LPP on 1 600---3 200 ms. These results suggest that situation modification strategy is an effective way to modulate negative emotion. It is inferred that modification strategy intervenes in the emotion-generative trajectory earlier than the reappraisal demonstrated by the earlier modulation of LPP. This study enriches the dynamic model of emotion regulation, and provides evidence for emotional regulation strategy.

Key words: emotion regulation, situation modification, cognitive reappraisal, late positive potential

CLC Number: