Positive emotion up-regulation in the wake of a cognitively demanding task: An event-related potential study

Although positive emotion up-regulation via reappraisal increases electrocortical and subjective response to pictures, little is known about how situational factors may moderate its success. For instance, emotion regulation must at times be performed shortly after a cognitively demanding event. Here, we set out to determine whether positive emotion up-regulation would be compromised if performed after a difficult math task (hard math; n = 39) versus after an easy math task (easy math; n = 39). After randomly assigning participants to groups, we assessed reappraisal's effectiveness using the late positive potential (LPP) as a measure of picture salience and picture ratings. Results showed that positive emotion up-regulation via reappraisal was unaffected by math difficulty. Nonetheless, participants who had just completed a hard math task showed smaller LPPs overall, compared to those who had completed the easy math task. In contrast to prior work, across both math groups, reappraisal was only effective for neutral and not positive pictures. Therefore, recent prior cognitive demand does not appear to compromise reappraisal of neutral pictures, yet it remains possible that any recent demanding task (i.e., either high or low load) may compromise up-regulation for stimuli that are closer to ceiling - i.e., positive stimuli. Results are discussed in the context of a situation-specific approach to emotion regulation and the utility of positive emotion up-regulation in everyday life. Findings also suggest possible a mechanism underlying blunted response to stimuli, as has been observed in some forms of internalizing psychopathology.