The emotion regulation strategies: cross-modal, lifespan, and cross-cultural approaches – STREEM

One part of our experiments is based on past researches in which participants are presented with emotion-eliciting stimuli under different condition of regulations. In our experiments, participants process different kinds of emotional stimuli (i.e., humorous cartoons, musical excerpts, odors) under instructions to down or up regulate their emotion. The other part of experiments uses emotional stimuli (i.e., humorous cartoons, pleasant odors) as extrinsic and incidental sources of emotion regulation to test to which extend they can reduce negative feeling previously induced by visual scenes.

In accordance with the work schedule, we are currently analyzing the data collected until now. Preliminary data taken from limited sample size suggest that, compared to young adults, older adults are spared in their amusing responses and show equal physiological reactivity. Similarly, the abilities to enhance and suppress facial expression do not differ between age groups, suggesting that older adults are spared in their emotion regulation skill. Such results do not corroborate the hypothesis that emotion regulation capacities were better in the elderly.

As mentioned in the Streem project, literature on aging suggests that older adults are more motivated to regulate their emotions and would be more effective at doing so compared to young adults. On the reasoning that older adults would chronically activate emotion-regulatory goals due to long-term experience and practice, it has also been assumed that emotion regulation should be less effortful for older adults than for their younger counterpart. From this point of view, motivation for maintaining well-being would compensate for cognitive and structural brain decline in aging. Nevertheless, to date, this hypothesis has not received direct experimental verification. Thus, future researches had to test the cognitive consequences of emotion regulation in young and older adults to highlight this important issue.

Up to now :
Billot, P. E., Andrieu, P., Comte, A., Tatu, L., Vieillard, S., Moulin, T., Millot, J.-L. (en révision). Neural Bases of Emotion Regulation in Response to Odours. Frontiers in Human Neurosciences.
Billot P.E., Comte A., Andrieu P., Tatu L., Moulin T., Vieillard S. Millot J.L. (2013). Regulation of emotion induced by odorant stimulations: an fMRI study. Communication affichée, Colloque International : Alpine Brain Imaging Meeting. Champéry, Suisse.
Vieillard, S., & Harm, J. (In press). La Régulation des Emotions au Cours du Vieillissement Normal : Revue Critique. Année Psychologique.
Harm, J., Wanham-Henry, C., Vieillard, S. (2012). Amplifier et supprimer son amusement. Quel effet du vieillissement ? Communication affichée présentée au premier congrès des MSH, 6 et 7 décembre 2012 à Caen.
Harm, J., Wanham-Henry, C. & Vieillard, S. (2012). Effet du vieillissement sur la régulation des réactions d’amusement suscitées par l’humour. Poster présenté au 54ème congrès de la Société Française de Psychologie, Montpellier.
Billot P.E. (2012) Perception olfactive en IRMf. Communication orale, 9ème forum annuel de l’association AromAgri. Clermont-Ferrand.
Billot P.E. (2013) Etude de la régulation des émotions induites par des odeurs: étude en IRMf. Communication orale, 19ème Forum des Jeunes Chercheurs, Ecole Doctorale Homme Environnement-Santé PRES UB & UFC . Dijon
Vieillard, S. (2011). Effet du vieillissement sur la perception des émotions musicales et olfactives. Communication orale présentée à l’occasion des 10 ans de la MSHE, 2 décembre 2011 à Besançon.
Millot, J.-L., Billot PE. « Odeurs, saveurs et cerveau » Conférence dans le cadre de la « Semaine du Cerveau » Montbéliard (25)

While it constitutes a key issue for the quality of life and mental health of aging population, the influence of age on the emotion regulation abilities remains relatively unexplored. The current research program aims to examine the intrinsic and extrinsic emotion regulation abilities in young, middle-aged, and old adults, in lifespan, cross modal (i.e., humorous cartoons, music, and smells) and cross-cultural perspectives. To this end, the studies will be based on subjective, behavioral and physiological measures (collected in France and in the United States) that will be linked with differential (e.g., personality traits, emotion regulation strategies), emotional (e.g., anxiety, depression) and cognitive (e.g., executive functions) variables. Data should enable us to confront several theoretical frameworks related to the age effect on emotion regulation processing (i.e., SST, DIT, and SAVI models) and yield better understanding of cognition-emotion interactions with advanced age for the exploration of new intervention (e.g., psychological, environmental) and prevention in mental health.