Emotion regulation strategies affect the experience and processing of emotions and emotional stimuli. Chronotype has also been shown to influence the processing of emotional stimuli, with late chronotypes showing a bias towards better processing of negative stimuli. Additionally, greater eveningness has been associated with increased difficulties in emotion regulation and preferential use of expressive suppression strategies. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand the interplay between chronotype and emotion regulation on the recognition of dynamic facial expressions of emotion. To that end, 287 participants answered self-report measures and performed an online facial emotion recognition task from short video clips where a neutral face gradually morphed into a full-emotion expression (one of the six basic emotions). Participants should press the spacebar to stop each video as soon as they could recognize the emotional expression, and then identify it from six provided labels/emotions. Greater eveningness was associated with shorter response times (RT) in the identification of sadness, disgust and happiness. Higher scores of expressive suppression were associated with longer RT in identifying sadness, disgust, anger and surprise. Expressive suppression significantly moderated the relationship between chronotype and the recognition of sadness and anger, with chronotype being a significant predictor of emotion recognition times only at higher levels of expressive suppression. No significant effects were observed for cognitive reappraisal. These results are consistent with a negative bias in emotion processing in late chronotypes and increased difficulty in anger and sadness recognition for expressive suppressor morning-types.

Sleep has a major impact on a variety of human biological and cognitive functions. In particular, its impact on memory has attracted extensive research and has been amply demonstrated. However, it is still unclear whether sleep, or lack thereof, affects the ability to recognize faces. To clarify this, we conducted a scoping review on studies that included a face recognition memory task and any kind of sleep manipulation in adults without any sleep pathology. A systematic search and synthesis of peer-reviewed journal articles identified through the electronic databases Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, and PubMed was performed. A final sample of 18 articles, corresponding to 19 studies, met the eligibility criteria. The results of 13 articles suggested that sleep benefited face recognition ability, whereas two articles indicated a detrimental effect of sleep on performance, and four articles found no significant effects. This review highlights the high methodological variability between studies, in terms of sleep manipulation, retention interval, tasks used to probe face recognition, and other variables. In sum, although around one third of the studies show a beneficial effect of sleep on memory for faces, we suggest that future research should invest in replicating these findings with a stricter control of potentially confounding variables to allow stronger conclusions to be drawn.

Cognitive difficulties are highly prevalent and negatively impact cancer survivors’ quality of life. The UCLA Cognitive Rehabilitation Intervention Program (in short, UCLA program) is an evidence-based intervention developed and tested in the US to address the cognitive complaints of cancer survivors. Since there are no cognitive rehabilitation programs available for Portuguese cancer-related settings, this study aimed to culturally adapt the UCLA program to Portugal. Nine steps were implemented for this cultural adaptation: needs assessment, initial contacts, translation, cultural adaptation, independent review by a panel of experts (n = 6), focus group discussions with cancer survivors (n = 11), systematization of inputs and improvement of the final materials, fidelity check, and preliminary acceptability assessment. The findings suggested that changes to the original materials were needed. A Portuguese name, “CanCOG^®—Reabilitação Cognitiva no Cancro” (in English “CanCOG^®—Cognitive Rehabilitation in Cancer”), and a logo were created to make it more memorable and appealing for the Portuguese population. The language was adjusted to ensure content accessibility and semantic and conceptual equivalence. Finally, references to several cultural aspects, such as habits, customs, and traditions, were adapted to fit the new cultural context. The UCLA program may be a promising tool to help alleviate the cognitive difficulties reported by cancer survivors in different cultural contexts. Future research is needed to confirm the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of its Portuguese version, “CanCOG^®—Reabilitação Cognitiva no Cancro”.

Although face recognition is a pervasive and important ability in daily life, recognition of unfamiliar faces is difficult and highly error prone. The present study aimed to understand how chronotype and time-of-day (TOD) influence early electrophysiological activity associated with the recognition of faces. Twenty-seven participants (15 morning-types and 12 evening-types) performed two modified sequential versions of the Glasgow Face Matching Task at their peak and non-peak times (7:30 am and 7:30 pm), while their EEG was recorded. The task consisted in the presentation of 80 sequential pairs of faces, and participants were required to indicate whether the second face of each pair was the same or different from the first face. Results indicated a significant chronotype x TOD interaction on the P100 component, with morning-types registering higher amplitudes in the evening session, compared to the morning session. A non-significant opposite pattern was observed in evening types. Response accuracy was strongly positively correlated with P100 amplitudes. No significant differences were observed for the N170 component, nor on behavioural performance. These results suggest an early visual attentional asynchrony effect.