Background: Emotion regulation, the process by which individuals manage and modify their emotional experiences, expressions, and responses to adaptively navigate and cope with various situations, plays a crucial role in daily life. Our study investigates the variations in emotion regulation strategies among individuals with different attachment styles (AS). Specifically, we examine how individuals with secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful attachment styles effectively utilize cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate their emotions. Methods: A total of n = 98 adults were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in an experimental emotion regulation task. After completing the task, participants rated the valence and arousal elicited by the images. Attachment styles were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire and then categorized into four AS. Results: Our study revealed that individuals with secure AS (n = 39) effectively reduced displeasure through cognitive reappraisal but experienced levels of displeasure with expressive suppression. Anxious AS (n = 16) individuals successfully reduced displeasure using cognitive reappraisal but struggled to regulate arousal and effectively use expressive suppression. Avoidant AS (n = 24) individuals could reduce displeasure with both strategies but experienced high arousal during suppression attempts. Fearful AS (n = 19) individuals effectively regulated both displeasure and arousal using either strategy. However, Secure AS individuals showed superior reappraisal efficacy, significantly reducing arousal levels compared to the Fearful AS group. Both Secure and Avoidant AS groups experienced higher valence during reappraisal relative to a baseline, indicating a decrease in displeasure. Conclusions: Individuals with different AS exhibit variations in the effectiveness of their use of emotion regulation strategies. Our findings reinforce the significance of AS in shaping emotion regulation processes and emphasize the need for tailored approaches to support individuals with different attachment orientations.

Emotion Regulation (ER) refers to the processes by which individuals influence their own emotions. It is a crucial aspect of human behavior, affecting everything from interpersonal relationships to mental health. The relationship between ER and Attachment Theory (AT) is pivotal. AT suggests that early bonds with primary caregivers influence future relationship expectations and behaviors. These initial experiences shape internal models of self and others, affecting how individuals regulate their emotions. Understanding the interplay between ER and AT is essential for comprehending the human affective system. In this study, we explored the neural underpinnings of ER, focusing on two distinct strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we examined changes in neural oscillations from 52 adults during an ER task. Specifically, we observed increased frontal theta activity (3-6Hz) during reappraisal compared to suppression strategies. This frontal theta activity suggests enhanced cognitive control engagement. Conversely, during suppression, we noted a decrease in beta frequency (15-30Hz) activity from central electrodes, indicative of differing neural processes. Further integrating psychological theories, we explored the relationship between these neural markers and dimensions of human attachment. Employing the Experiences in Close Relationships-12 scale (ECR-12), we identified a negative correlation between attachment anxiety and frontal theta activity. Lower levels of attachment anxiety were associated with increased theta activity, reflecting potentially more effective emotion regulation. Additionally, we found that higher theta activity corresponded with fewer difficulties in emotional control measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Regarding central beta activity, our findings revealed an interesting correlation with Emotional Inattention, a concept tied to Attachment Avoidance. This suggests that central beta activity may serve as a neural marker for specific attachment-related ER processing. These results highlight the distinct neural pathways involved in different ER strategies and their relationship with the AT and neural responses during emotional processing.

While neurofeedback represents a promising tool for neuroscience and a brain self-regulation approach to psychological rehabilitation, the field faces several problems and challenges. Current research has shown great variability and even failure among human participants in learning to self-regulate target features of brain activity with neurofeedback. A better understanding of cognitive mechanisms, psychological factors and neural substrates underlying self-regulation might help improve neurofeedback’s scientific and clinical practices. This article reviews the current understanding of the neural mechanisms of brain self-regulation by drawing on findings from human and animal studies in neurofeedback, brain–computer/machine interfaces and neuroprosthetics. In this article, we look closer at the following topics: cognitive processes and psychophysiological factors affecting self-regulation, theoretical models and neural substrates underlying self-regulation, and finally, we provide an outlook on the outstanding gaps in knowledge and technical challenges. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Neurofeedback: new territories and neurocognitive mechanisms of endogenous neuromodulation’.

Attachment theory posits that early relationships shape emotional development through Internal Working Models of self and others, reflected in attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance). These dimensions influence emotion regulation (ER) and the strategies used to manage emotions, with physiological manifestations, such as pupil dilation. This study investigates how attachment anxiety and avoidance interact with perceived ER success (PERCS) and emotional arousal to influence pupil size during cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Eighty-five adults (ages 18-58) viewed emotional images from the International Affective Picture System, including both negative and neutral stimuli, while implementing these two ER strategies. Pupil diameter was recorded continuously from stimulus onset (0 ms) to 4,000 ms. Linear mixed-effects modelling revealed that reappraisal, compared to suppression, elicited greater pupil dilation, particularly between 500 and 4,000 ms post-stimulus. Attachment anxiety exhibited increased pupil dilation during reappraisal, reflecting heightened cognitive effort and hypervigilance, while attachment avoidance showed the opposite pattern, with reduced pupil dilation. Emotional arousal significantly predicted larger pupil size across conditions. Additionally, higher PERCS were associated with smaller pupil dilation during reappraisal. These findings emphasize the role of attachment dimensions in shaping physiological responses during emotional challenges.

Long-term memories are formed by repeated reactivation of newly encoded information during sleep. This process can be enhanced by using memory-associated reminder cues like sounds and odors. While auditory cueing has been researched extensively, few electrophysiological studies have exploited the various benefits of olfactory cueing. We used high-density electroencephalography in an odor-cueing paradigm that was designed to isolate the neural responses specific to the cueing of declarative memories. We show widespread cueing-induced increases in the duration and rate of sleep spindles. Higher spindle rates were most prominent over centro-parietal areas and largely overlapping with a concurrent increase in the amplitude of slow oscillations (SOs). Interestingly, greater SO amplitudes were linked to a higher likelihood of coupling a spindle and coupled spindles expressed during cueing were more numerous in particular around SO up states. We thus identify temporally and spatially coordinated enhancements of sleep spindles and slow oscillations as a candidate mechanism behind cueing-induced memory processing. Our results further demonstrate the feasibility of studying neural activity patterns linked to such processing using olfactory cueing during sleep.