The effects of implicit evaluation of emotion regulation on electrical brain activity

Implicit evaluation of emotion regulation (IE-ER) refers to an implicit representation of individuals’ attitudes about whether emotion should be regulated, and comprises positive (PIE-ER) and negative (NIE-ER) emotion regulation components. In this study we used the picture position decision task to investigate participants’ electrical brain responses to both types of IE-ER. Electroencephalogram data were recorded simultaneously. Analysis of variance results show that the PIE-ER (vs. NIE-ER) group had significantly higher N1 amplitudes, shorter N1 latencies, and lower P1 amplitudes. The P1 amplitude in the left (vs. right) frontal brain region was significantly higher in both groups. In addition, as the PIE-ER (vs. NIE-ER) group had a greater ability to orient themselves to emotional stimuli, the cognitive resources they allocated to processing emotional stimuli decreased: Processing depth gradually became shallow, and emotion regulation elicited left frontal electrical asymmetry. Our findings provide a new understanding of unconscious emotion regulation, which may impact on physical and psychological intervention for the treatment of individuals’ emotional problems and mental health, and well-being promotion.