Executive functions and the down-regulation and up-regulation of emotion
Open accessAbstract
This study examined the relationship between individual differences in executive functions (EF; assessed by measures of working memory, Stroop, trail making, and verbal fluency) and ability to down-regulate and up-regulate responses to emotionally evocative film clips. To ensure a wide range of EF, 48 participants with diverse neurodegenerative disorders and 21 older neurologically normal ageing participants were included. Participants were exposed to three different movie clips that were designed to elicit a mix of disgust and amusement. While watching the films they were either instructed to watch, down-regulate, and up-regulate their visible emotional responses. Heart rate and facial behaviours were monitored throughout. Emotion regulatory ability was operationalised as changes in heart rate and facial behaviour in the down- and up-regulation conditions, controlling for responses in the watch condition. Results indicated that higher verbal fluency scores were related to greater ability to regulate emotion in both the down-regulation and up-regulation conditions. This finding remained significant even after controlling for age and general cognitive functioning. No relationships were found between emotion regulation and the other EF measures. We believe these results derive from differences among EF measures, with verbal-fluency performance best capturing the complex sequence of controlled planning, activation, and monitoring required for successful emotion regulation. These findings contribute to our understanding of emotion-cognition interaction, suggesting a link between emotion-regulatory abilities and individual differences in complex executive functions.
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Adult studies have shown that executive functions, such as greater verbal fluency, are associated with greater ability to down- and up-regulate emotions.
“Accordingly, adult studies have shown that executive functions, such as greater verbal fluency, are associated with greater ability to down-and up-regulate emotions (Gyurak et al., 2009, Gyurak et al., 2012).”
From Neurocognitive bases of emotion regulation development in adolescence (2015) · cites this paper as Gyurak et al., 2012
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- Authors
- Gyurak, A., Goodkind, M. S., Kramer, J. H., Miller, B. L., & Levenson, R. W.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Levenson, Robert W.
- Venue
- Cognition & Emotion
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-01
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 103-118
- ISSN
- 0269-9931 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0600
- PMC
- PMC3155745
- OpenAlex
- W2136364456
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 4.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Cognition & Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5t32mh020006-19)
- National Institute on Aging (R37AG017766, R01AG041762, R01AG022983, AG017766-01A1, AG019724-050003, AG019724-01A1, P01AG019724)
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH020006))
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical and Modern Theater Studies
- Keywords
- executive function, emotion regulation, verbal fluency, individual differences, emotion-cognition interaction, heart rate, facial expressions, disgust, amusements, neurodegenerative diseases, older adults, working memory, Stroop task, Trail Making Test
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Individuality, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Middle Aged, Photic Stimulation, Social Control, Informal, Trail Making Test, Verbal Behavior, Case-Control Studies, Executive Function, Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Stroop Test
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