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Individuals who are socially avoidant actively remove themselves from opportunities for social interaction and have a strong desire for solitude. Although social avoidance is associated with a host of adjustment difficulties, its neural substrates remain under-explored. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study to compare electroencephalography (EEG) frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) scores during processing emotional facial stimuli in socially avoidant and non-withdrawn comparison individuals. From an original sample of N = 384 undergraduate students, 25 avoidant and 27 comparison individuals were identified. For this subset of participants, EEG modulations and self-reported experience ratings during a picture processing task were assessed. Among the results, the socially avoidant group's ratings of positive stimuli were significantly lower than the non-withdrawn comparison group. The socially avoidant group also had significantly lower FAA scores in response to positive stimuli than the comparison group. Further, asymmetry scores of the comparison group in the positive conditions were higher than in the negative and neutral conditions. However, there were no significant differences between these three conditions in the socially avoidant group. Our results suggest that socially avoidant individuals may eschew interpersonal relationships because of a relatively greater right hemisphere cortical activity, which may contribute to a withdrawal motivation when confronted with negative emotional stimuli in social contexts., Competing Interests: Declarations of interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The interaction between parent and adolescent is more challenging than in other age periods. Family cohesion seriously impacts parent-adolescent emotional interactions. However, the underlying neural mechanism has not been fully examined. This study examined the differences in the neural synchrony in response to emotional film clips between high and low family cohesion adolescent-parent dyads by using the electroencephalograph (EEG) hyperscanning., Results: Simultaneously electroencephalograph (EEG) was recorded while 15 low family cohesion parent-adolescent dyads (LFCs)and 14 high family cohesion parent-adolescent dyads (HFCs)received different emotional induction when viewing film clips. Interbrain phase-locking-value (PLV) in gamma band was used to calculate parent-adolescent dyads' interbrain synchrony. Results showed that higher gamma interbrain synchrony was observed in the HFCs than the LFCs in the positive conditions. However, there was no significant difference between the HFCs and LFCs in other conditions. Also, the HFCs had significantly higher gamma interbrain synchrony in the positive conditions than in the negative conditions., Conclusion: Interbrain synchrony may represent an underlying neural mechanism of the parent-adolescent emotional bonding, which is the core of family cohesion., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Mindfulness has been shown to improve mental health through adaptive responses during emotional processing. Although the benefits of mindfulness and the corresponding neural correlates have been demonstrated in adults, little is known about the impact of mindfulness on pre-adolescent children. The present study examined the influence of mindfulness induction on electrocortical responses during emotional processing in pre-adolescent children. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 35 pre-adolescent children; 18 children (M age  = 10.44 years) were randomly assigned to a mindfulness induction group and 17 children were randomly assigned to a control group (M age  = 9.88 years). Group differences in event-related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with the processing of positive, negative and neutral stimuli were analysed. The P1, N2 and late positive potentials (LPPs) were compared between the mindfulness induction group and the control group. The amplitude of the P1 was smaller in the mindfulness induction group compared to the control group under both the negative and neutral conditions. For both groups, the amplitude of the N2 was larger during the presentation of negative stimuli compared to both positive and neutral stimuli. Additionally, the LPP 600-1000 and LPP 1000-1500 were smaller in the mindfulness induction group than in the control group. The presented findings suggest that the impacts of mindfulness during emotional processing are reflected by both bottom-up (evidenced by the early ERP components) and top-down (evidenced by the later ERP components) processes. These results indicate that mindfulness modulates emotional responses in pre-adolescent children and thus has important implications in training and clinical practices., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

As a multi-ethnic country that is comprised of diverse cultural systems, there has been little research on the subcultural differences in emotional preferences in China. Also, little attention has been paid to examine how explicit and implicit attitudes towards emotions influence emotional preferences interactively. In this study, we manipulated explicit attitudes towards emotions among Han (N = 62) and Mongolian Chinese individuals (N = 70). We assessed participants' implicit attitudes towards emotions to explore their contributions to emotional preferences. (a) Han Chinese had lower preferences for pleasant emotions than Mongolian Chinese after inducing contra-hedonic attitudes towards emotions, and (b) after priming contra-hedonic attitudes towards emotions, the more Han Chinese participants evaluated pleasant emotions as negative implicitly, the less they preferred to engage in pleasant emotional activities. These findings contribute to the growing literature of subcultural differences and demonstrate that explicit and implicit attitudes towards emotions interactively influence individuals' emotional preferences between different subculture groups., (© 2018 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Growing interest in emotion regulation is reflected in the studies of cognitive and social development. However, the extant studies mainly highlight how emotion regulation develops based on a western value system. This study utilised a longitudinal design to examine the development of emotion regulation and explored the contributions of different regulatory strategies to emotion experience regarding the early adolescent development period in a Chinese population. A total of 303 Chinese adolescents (age range = 10-14 years) were followed up in a three-phase longitudinal study for 3 years. In each phase of the study, participants completed Adolescents Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Daily Emotion Scale. Results of hierarchical linear regressions revealed that Chinese adolescents reported more down-regulation. Down-regulation is more effective than up-regulation in enhancing desirable emotion experience and reducing undesirable emotion experience during adolescents' development. Also, the adaptive functions of emotional regulatory strategies in Chinese background were discussed., (© 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.)

The present study examined Chinese adolescents' emotion regulatory tendency and its effect, using an Experience Sampling Method. Participants comprised 72 Chinese adolescents (M age = 15.2 yr., SD = 1.7; 36 girls). Momentary emotional experience and regulation was assessed up to 5 or 6 times each day for two weeks. Results showed that participants tended to use up-regulation when they experienced positive emotion and habitually regulated their negative emotion by down-regulation. Also, adolescents who utilized down-regulation in a certain sampling moment reported higher positive emotion at the subsequent sampling moment. Moreover, adolescents who utilized down-regulation more frequently reported higher positive emotion at the subsequent sampling moment. Overall, down-regulation seemed to be a more adaptive regulatory strategy than up-regulation in Chinese adolescents' emotional lives.

Cultural differences in desirable emotions powerfully impact brain activation and responses to specific stimuli. However, how people from different cultures process emotions in social contexts similarly and differently have not been adequately studied. Therefore, the present study examined cross-cultural differences in emotional processing of positive emotions in social contexts by using event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavior measurements. A total of 29 Chinese and 23 white Caucasians participants were recruited. A 2 (culture) X 2 (stimuli type) ANOVA was employed for both the neuro and behavioral data. The results showed P2 amplitudes were larger for Chinese than for Caucasians in the positive emotion in the social context condition. There were no significant differences in P2 amplitudes when processing positive emotion and neutral stimuli. For Chinese, the amplitudes of LPP 600–1000 of Chinese positive emotion in the social context stimuli were larger than positive emotion stimuli. For Caucasians, there was no significant difference among different stimuli. The higher P2 and LPP 600–1000 amplitudes suggested the salience and significance of positive emotions in social contexts for Chinese. Findings indicated that neural activation occurring during the processing of different positive emotions is moderated by participants' own cultural background. Further implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little neurological evidence linking sensation seeking and emotion regulation in adolescence, which is characterised as an emotionally fluctuant period. The present study examined the relationship between sensation seeking and emotion regulation in adolescents. Electroencephalograms were recorded from 22 high sensation‐seeking adolescents (HSSs, Mage = 12.36) and 24 low sensation‐seeking adolescents (LSSs, Mage = 12.84) during the reactivity and regulation‐image task. Group differences in event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with the regulation of negative and neutral stimuli were analysed. The results showed that (a) the P2 of HSSs were larger than LSSs during emotion regulation; (b) in down‐regulation conditions, the LPP in all time windows were smaller than no‐regulation in LSSs. However, there was no significant difference in HSSs; (c) the LPP 300–600 and LPP 1000–1500 of down‐regulation were smaller in LSSs than HSSs; (d) for LPP 600–1000, HSSs induced larger LPP than LSSs in the negative down‐regulation and negative no‐regulation conditions. The results provide neurological evidence that higher sensation seeking is related to the high reactivity to emotional stimuli and poor cognitive control during the regulation of emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have suggested that academic stress has negative impact on adolescents’ psychological function, few of those studies, however, considered whether and how the impact of stress on adolescents’ emotional states is moderated by corresponding regulation. This study aimed to examine the fluctuation of emotional states before and after the mid-term examination and the influence of different emotional regulatory strategies. In the present study, 72 adolescents aged 12–18 reported their emotional states and corresponding regulation before and after mid-term examination up to six times over a period of two weeks. Results showed that: (a) On the sampling day, the participants reported increasingly emotional states as time went by. Improvement of adolescents’ daily emotional states was more significant after the mid-term examination. Participants reported decreasingly positive emotional states and increasingly negative ones as time went by before mid-term examination. (b) Adolescents who used down-regulation at a certain sampling moment reported more pleasant emotional states at the subsequent sampling moment than those who used up-regulation. Adolescents who used more up-regulation in a negative emotional event reported more negative emotional states at the subsequent sampling moment after the mid-term examination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Culture has a strong influence on how people evaluate and regulate their emotions. Previous findings suggest that Easterners tend to prefer controlling their emotions more than do Westerners. However, there is still little evidence on the prevalence of cultural differences in implicit attitudes towards emotion regulation. The goal of the present study is to investigate cross-cultural differences in the implicit and explicit attitudes towards emotion regulation to help bridge this gap in the literature. The sample consisted of 61 Chinese and 54 European Americans. Emotion Regulation Implicit Association Test (ER-IAT) was used to examine the implicit attitudes towards emotion regulation. Results showed that (1) Chinese implicitly evaluated emotional expression as more negative than European Americans; (2) Similarly, Chinese explicitly valued emotional expression as less important than European Americans. Further implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research on emotion regulation has shown that cognitive reappraisal is a healthier and more effective emotion regulation strategy than expressive suppression. However, there are few studies in this field that combine real-time emotion regulation with the use of habitual emotion regulation strategies to observe the patterns of brain activity, and fewer studies focusing on adolescents. Frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry reflects the difference between brain activation in left and right frontal areas and is widely viewed as an effective biomarker of emotional reactivity and regulation. The present study investigated the asymmetry of the frontal EEG activity during adolescents' emotional regulation, and explored its relationship with adolescents' habitual use of emotional regulation strategies. Habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression was measured with the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ). EEG was recorded from 54 adolescents (24 boys & 30 girls, M age = 12.59), during the Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task. Results showed that adolescents who used cognitive reappraisal strategies more habitually exhibited greater left frontal asymmetry during real-time enhancement or reduction of negative emotions. In contrast, no significant correlation was found between habitual use of suppression and frontal alpha asymmetry. The results provide neurological evidence that, for adolescents, the use of habitual emotion regulation strategies may affect real-time emotion regulation, adolescents who use cognitive reappraisal more frequently are more capable or more prone to recruit appropriate brain regions in situations that need to regulate negative emotions. This reinforces the importance of the formation and use of correct emotion regulation habits for adolescents. • Cognitive reappraisal is a healthy and effective emotion regulation strategy. • Frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry is an effective biomarker of emotional reactivity and regulation. • Adolescents' habitual use of emotion regulation strategies affects their frontal EEG asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Frontal EEG asymmetry is a reliable index of effective emotion regulation. • High mindfulness adolescents exhibit greater left asymmetry during emotion regulation. • Adolescents showed greater right asymmetry when up-regulating negative emotions. • High trait mindfulness is associated with greater regulatory capacity. The present study examined the differences in frontal EEG asymmetry during emotion regulation between participants who had different levels of trait mindfulness. EEG recordings were taken from 23 high mindfulness adolescents (M age = 12.34) and 22 low mindfulness adolescents (M age = 12.53) during the Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task. The results showed that (1) high mindfulness adolescents had greater left (relative to right) asymmetry than low mindfulness adolescents in down-regulation and up-regulation conditions; however, there was no significant difference in the non-regulation condition; (2) In the up-regulating condition, adolescents showed greater right (relative to left) asymmetry for negative stimuli compared to neutral stimuli; however, there was no significant difference in down-regulation and non-regulation conditions. The results provide neurological evidence that trait mindfulness was highly related to the regulation of emotions and affects how emotions are processed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]