The impact of stress on cognitive emotion regulation processes: Characterizing the temporal development and the presence of sex differences

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The ability to cognitively regulate our emotions is of vital importance for us humans. Ineffective emotion regulation or a complete lack thereof is regarded as an important trigger for the development of mental disorders. Acute psychosocial stress is associated with an increase in negative emotions. The body reacts with the release of stress hormones (e.g. cortisol) which influence brain function. An efficient emotion regulation is critical during and after exposure to stress. At the same time, the stress response presumably has a major influence on the capacity to regulate emotions. The goal of the proposed project is the investigation of the impact of acute stress (study I) or a pharmacological administration of the stress hormone cortisol (study II) on the efficacy of emotion regulation using different strategies. Three strategies differing according to their application with respect to the time course of the emotional response (attentional modulation, reappraisal, suppression) will be tested. The emotional response will be assessed using self-report measures as well as physiological markers (pupil dilation and electrodermal activity). As an additional factor, the temporal dynamics of the effects will be examined in order to assess rapid non-genomic and delayed genomic effects of cortisol. Furthermore, the impact of sex and/or the usage of hormonal contraceptives will be explored. We expect the strategy of attentional modulation in particular to be impaired by stress. In contrast, based on previous work, we expect the other two strategies to be enhanced. A better understanding of the impact of stress on cognitive emotion regulation is of relevance for both basic research and applied psychology.