No abstract

Increased attention among the research community in exploring underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation has prompted a growth of experimental works in this field. Empirical studies have mainly focused on self‐reports, brain imaging, and electrophysiological measures, with only a few works exploring peripheral physiology. Additionally, most of such studies have not considered the specific stimuli content, even though prior literature has shown relevant differences in psychophysiological and subjective responses depending on picture categories. The current study assessed several peripheral correlates (startle amplitude, electrodermal changes, heart rate) of emotion regulation processes in a sample of 122 healthy participants. The task consisted of voluntary reappraisal of negative emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures (threat to others and victims), compared to a nonregulation control condition (looking at exemplars of the same categories and household objects). Results showed an effect of emotion regulation instructions in all psychophysiological and subjective measures. In peripheral physiology, greater responses were observed specifically when increasing negative emotions, concurring with previous research. Regarding specific content, our findings evidence a similar emotion regulation pattern, independently of the unpleasant category, suggesting a plausible effect of cognitive variables (such as cognitive effort) during voluntary reappraisal for both categories.

Arterial hypertension (AH) among adults is known to be associated with worse cognitive outcomes. Similarly, children and adolescents with AH could be expected to underperform during neuropsychological evaluations when compared with healthy peers. Our aims were to review the existing literature on cognitive functioning among children and adolescents with primary AH and to identify what additional evidence may be needed to substantiate the impact of hypertension on poor cognitive outcomes in this population. We conducted a systematic review of articles in PubMed and Web of Science published before 17 January 2022, reporting on cognitive testing among children and adolescents with primary AH. From 1,316 records, 13 were included in the review—7 used battery-testing while other employed indirect measures of cognitive functions. Most of the studies reported worse results among individuals with AH. Results of two prospective trials suggested that cognitive functioning may improve after starting antihypertensive treatment. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was shown to be more strongly related to cognitive testing results than office measures of blood pressure. Significant confounders, namely obesity and sleep apnea, were identified throughout the studies. Our review indicates that evidence relating AH with poor cognitive functioning among youth is usually based on indirect measures of executive functions (e.g., questionnaires) rather than objective neuropsychological tests. Future prospective trials set to test different cognitive domains in children and adolescents undergoing treatment for AH are endorsed and should consider using standardized neuropsychological batteries as well as adjust the assessing results for obesity and sleep disorders.