Emotion regulation training reduces stress and changes brain function

The experiment involved college students: over the course of five weeks, they mastered two techniques for regulating emotions twice a week. The first was directed attention: participants were taught to focus not on emotionally charged details, but on the neutral background of the scene. For example, when viewing a photo of an accident, they were encouraged to focus on trees, intact cars, or the blue sky, rather than on the incident itself. Studies using eye‑tracking technology confirm that reducing fixation on emotionally intense elements helps to better control one’s experiences.

The second technique is cognitive reappraisal: participants learned to interpret negative situations in a new way, finding potentially positive aspects in them. This applied both to scenes in photos and to their own memories. At the same time, the subjects were asked to apply these techniques in everyday life.

Before and after the course, students completed questionnaires about their mood, level of anxiety, worry, and possible symptoms of PTSD. Some participants also underwent neuroimaging — in a state of rest, without performing any tasks. This approach allows us to assess spontaneous functional connectivity: That is, the basic level of interaction between different areas of the brain.

The results showed that after five weeks of training, students experienced less emotional stress when viewing negative images and when thinking about difficult episodes from their own lives. Compared to the control group, they were less likely to linger on emotionally charged parts of the pictures. At the same time, over time, the participants increasingly used the technique of directed attention and resorted to cognitive reappraisal less often, which indicates the development of more automated response strategies.

Brain scans revealed significant changes in the functioning of neural networks. After the training, connectivity in the prefrontal cortex increased, while the sensitivity of areas associated with negative emotions decreased. In addition, the brain showed an increase in the proportion of top‑down information processing compared to bottom‑up processing.

Top‑down processing relies on the prefrontal cortex and allows for consciously directing attention and responses in accordance with goals. Bottom‑up processing involves the limbic system (including the amygdala) and is responsible for the rapid detection and response to important stimuli. For adaptive behavior, it is important for the brain to flexibly balance between these modes. The training helped participants manage this balance more effectively: their brain became better at regulating emotional responses due to enhanced control from the control regions.

The study builds on earlier work from 2021 with veterans, where the same techniques also reduced emotional discomfort and changed information processing patterns in the brain. This time, the scientists adapted the approach for young adults — a group that faces chronic low‑level stress due to academic workload, social changes, and the challenges of the growing‑up period. At the same time, the brain systems responsible for self‑regulation are still developing in young people, so emotional flexibility skills are especially important here.

According to Professor Sandra Dolcos, the key element of resilience is not avoiding negative emotions or trying to feel good all the time, but the ability to flexibly choose a way of responding depending on the situation. The data obtained show that emotional resilience can indeed be trained, as evidenced by both changes in behavior and objective shifts in brain function.

Currently, researchers are conducting additional analysis to study in more detail how the training affected the participants’ written descriptions of their painful memories and how these changes relate to the dynamics of brain activity.