Emotion regulation of others’ positive and negative emotions is related to distinct patterns of heart rate variability and situational empathy

Abstract

Although emotion regulation has been proposed to be crucial for empathy, investigations on emotion regulation have been primarily limited to intrapersonal processes, leaving the interpersonal processes of self-regulation rather unexplored. Moreover, studies showed that emotion regulation and empathy are related with increased autonomic activation. How emotion regulation and empathy are related at the autonomic level, and more specifically during differently valenced social situations remains an open question. Healthy adults viewed a series of short videos illustrating a target who was expressing positive, negative, or no emotions during a social situation (Positive, Negative, or Neutral Social Scenes). Prior to each video, participants were instructed to reappraise their own emotions (Up-regulation, Down-regulation, or No-regulation). To assess autonomic activation, RR intervals (RRI), high frequency (HF) components of heart rate variability (HRV), and electrodermal activity phasic responses (EDRs) were calculated. Situational empathy was measured through a visual analogue scale. Participants rated how empathic they felt for a specific target. Up- and Down-regulation were related to an increase and a decrease in situational empathy and an increase in RRI and HF, respectively, compared to the control condition (No-regulation). This suggests increased activity of the parasympathetic branch during emotion regulation of situational empathic responses. Positive compared to Negative Social Scenes were associated with decreased situational empathy, in addition to a slightly but non-significantly increased HF. Altogether, this study demonstrates that emotion regulation may be associated with changes in situational empathy and autonomic responses, preferentially dominated by the parasympathetic branch and possibly reflecting an increase of regulatory processes. Furthermore, the current study provides evidence that empathy for different emotional valences is associated with distinct changes in situational empathy and autonomic responses.

Eplerian Philosophy for a New Way of Life

“…Applying the Eplerian philosophy means that people need to learn to bypass the anger and self-thinking regions. For anger, this is accomplished by using empathy from the heart (Jauniaux et al, 2020). Over time, this will become an automatic response.…”

“…As people can only think from one region at a time, this led to clarification of the "know-thyself" concept, which is too general to be more specific by adding, "moment by moment" (Epler, 2020). Additional new science shows neuro tissue capable of decisions and feelings in the heart (Lin et al, 2018;Alshami, 2019;Jauniaux et al, 2020) and gastrointestinal complex (Hannan, 2016;Ochoa-Reparaz et al, 2020;Gopal & Calderon-Larranaga, 2021) creating two additional sources of thought. The mind (McKee et al, 2019, Henriksen et al, 2020, Chou et al, 2020, which is outside the body, creates the fourth place.…”

Impact of a Virtual Reality-Based Simulation on Empathy and Attitudes Toward Schizophrenia

“…Also, it is believed that emotional regulation is linked to empathy, since high emotion regulation capacities have been related with mild levels of empathic concern. Changes in both heart rate and galvanic skin response are the responsibility of the autonomic nervous system; thus, some studies argue that emotion regulation may be associated with changes in situational empathy and autonomic response ( Jauniaux et al, 2020 ; Sassenrath et al, 2021 ).…”

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