Implicit reappraisal as an emotional buffer: Reappraisal-related neural activity moderates the relationship between inattention and perceived stress during exposure to negative stimuli

Emotion regulation often is an adaptive option in the face of elevated perceived stress. Perceived stress has been shown to have negative consequences for physical and mental health, including cognitive deficits and difficulties controlling attention. Cognitive reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that involves changing one’s cognitive construal of an emotionally evocative stimulus to alter its emotional impact. Reappraisal can be implemented explicitly or implicitly (i.e., with or without conscious awareness). The objective of the present study was to examine whether implicit cognitive reappraisal during exposure to negative stimuli moderates the relationship between inattention and perceived stress. We found, as expected, that inattention problems are associated with increased perceived stress, but also found that one’s spontaneous propensity to engage in cognitive reappraisal—as indexed by correspondence with a reliable thresholded whole-brain pattern of reappraisal implementation—moderated the relationship between inattention and perceived stress. Overall, the current study provides evidence that spontaneous reappraisal recruitment has a buffering effect on the relationship between inattention and perceived stress.