Zhu Tongtong, Zhang Xiaoxuan, Jin Luyao, Wang Linzi, Wang Yanmei
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China; Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, 200335, China; Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence Intervention, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, China.
Neuroimage. 2025 Feb 15;307:121042. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121042. Epub 2025 Jan 21.
Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) refers to the dynamic process where a regulator employs specific strategies to alleviate a target's distress. It remains unclear whether successful IER could facilitate interpersonal relationship closeness (IRC). The present study aimed to explore whether successful IER, based on two typical strategies-cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES)-for down-regulating the target's negative emotions, could enhance IRC among friend dyads, and to identify the underlying neural correlates of this process using functional near-infrared spectroscopy system. Seventy-four female dyads (friends) were randomly assigned to one of two strategy groups (CR vs. ES), with one participant as the target and the other as the regulator. Our findings revealed that both strategies have down-regulated the target's negative emotions, however, CR strategy was associated with more successful IER outcomes (more improvement of the targets' negative emotions; higher IRC) than ES strategy. IER recruited the enhanced interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) of the prefrontal and temporal areas among friend dyads. CR strategy recruited higher IBS of the above-mentioned brain networks than ES strategy in down-regulating the target's sadness, and the reversed IBS pattern was found in down-regulating the target's anger, inferring that CR was more successive in IER of sadness, and ES was more effective in IER of anger. The increased IBS pattern of these brain regions played a mediational role between the effectiveness of down-regulating targets' negative emotions and the increment of IRC. Our findings revealed a neural coupling mechanism through which successful IER fostered supportive social bonds.
人际情绪调节（IER）是指调节者运用特定策略减轻目标对象痛苦的动态过程。目前尚不清楚成功的人际情绪调节是否能够促进人际关系亲密度（IRC）。本研究旨在探讨基于两种典型策略——认知重评（CR）和表达抑制（ES）——来下调目标对象负面情绪的成功人际情绪调节，是否能够增强朋友二元组之间的人际关系亲密度，并使用功能近红外光谱系统确定这一过程潜在的神经关联。74对女性二元组（朋友）被随机分配到两个策略组之一（认知重评组与表达抑制组），其中一名参与者作为目标对象，另一名作为调节者。我们的研究结果显示，两种策略均下调了目标对象的负面情绪，然而，与表达抑制策略相比，认知重评策略与更成功的人际情绪调节结果相关（目标对象负面情绪改善更多；人际关系亲密度更高）。人际情绪调节在朋友二元组中引发了前额叶和颞叶区域增强的人际大脑同步（IBS）。在下调目标对象的悲伤情绪时，认知重评策略引发上述脑网络的人际大脑同步高于表达抑制策略，而在下调目标对象的愤怒情绪时则发现了相反的人际大脑同步模式，这表明认知重评在悲伤情绪的人际情绪调节中更具连续性，而表达抑制在愤怒情绪的人际情绪调节中更有效。这些脑区人际大脑同步的增加模式在下调目标对象负面情绪的有效性与人际关系亲密度的增加之间起到了中介作用。我们的研究结果揭示了一种神经耦合机制，通过该机制成功的人际情绪调节促进了支持性的社会联系。
