The Electrocortical Effects of Repurposing and Reconstrual on the Regulation of Disgust

Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal serves as a pivotal strategy in emotion regulation, encompassing techniques such as repurposing and reconstrual. However, the behavioral and temporal disparities between these two reappraisal subtypes remain underexplored. This study aims to delineate these differences by comparing the psychophysiological impacts of repurposing versus reconstrual on disgust emotion regulation, employing event-related potentials (ERPs) as the primary neurophysiological indicator. Behavioral data revealed that both strategies evoked significantly greater pleasure and less disgust compared to negative description conditions. Notably, repurposing elicited a more pronounced positive emotional shift. Electroencephalographic (EEG) findings indicated that repurposing led to a lower late positive potential (LPP) amplitude (1000–3000 ms) in frontal and parietal regions compared to reconstrual or negative descriptions. Furthermore, both strategies elicited larger left negativity component (LNC) amplitude (500–1000 ms) than negative descriptions, with repurposing demonstrating a prolonged LNC effect (1000–1500 ms) compared to reconstrual. This investigation confirms that although repurposing requires extended semantic processing resources, it exhibits superior efficacy in mitigating disgust responses. By providing direct empirical comparisons between these reappraisal modalities, the research advances our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive emotion regulation.