The Cost of Emotion Regulation: A Study of Electomyographic and Cardiac Markers

Our study aimed to examine the peripheral markers of emotion regulation while participants viewed one-minute negative videos, comparing them to the natural viewing of neutral and negative videos. We analyzed facial electromyography and cardiac activity during the suppression and reappraisal of emotions in response to negative videos, as well as during the simple viewing of neutral or negative videos. We found that corrugator activity was higher in all negative conditions. Additionally, suppression led to a reduction in negative emotions compared to the “watch” condition. Interestingly, the activation of the zygomaticus major muscle was higher during the neutral condition compared to all negative conditions. Surprisingly, this muscle was also less activated during suppression compared to the “watch” and “reappraise” conditions. In other words, participants not only suppressed their negative expressions but also their positive expressions. Finally, we observed a greater deceleration of heart rate during suppression compared to the neutral condition, which reflects the cost of emotion regulation. Our findings demonstrate that one-minute naturalistic videos are effective stimuli for studying emotion regulation.