id_825. EMOTION REGULATION IN HEALTHY YOUNG MALES IS MODERATED BY CORTISOL AND TESTOSTERONE-TO-CORTISOL RATIO
Erik Ilkevič1, Ingrida Zelionkaitė1, Eglė Mazgelytė2, Violeta Cimalanskaitė-Kazlauskienė3, Ramunė Grikšienė1
1 Institute of Biosciences, Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
2 Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
3 Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
INTRODUCTION: Emotion regulation refers to the processes through which individuals modify their emotional states using various strategies. One widely studied strategy is cognitive reappraisal, involving reinterpretation of emotional stimuli to alter emotional responses. Evidence suggests that cortisol is related to more effective cognitive reappraisal, whereas the links with testosterone remain unclear. Because cortisol and testosterone mutually inhibit each other‘s activity, understanding how they interact would provide a broader understanding of how they may be related to emotional behavior.
AIM(S): The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the interplay between testosterone and cortisol is associated with cognitive reappraisal performance.
METHOD(S): 140 males completed an emotion regulation task, where they either passively viewed or reappraised emotional visual stimuli. After each stimulus, participants reported their emotional negativity. The reduction in self-reported negativity from the viewing to the reappraisal condition served as an index of the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal. Participants also completed a questionnaire assessing habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and provided saliva samples to assess basal (i.e., before the task) cortisol and testosterone concentrations.
RESULTS: Higher habitual use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with greater reductions in self-reported negativity when basal cortisol levels were high and the testosterone-to-cortisol ratio was low (indicating lower testosterone and higher cortisol levels). Furthermore, the testosterone-to-cortisol ratio showed a stronger relationship with emotion regulation performance than cortisol alone.
CONCLUSIONS: Higher basal cortisol levels were associated with more effective cognitive reappraisal, with testosterone potentially attenuating this relationship. Study results highlight the importance of considering an individual’s hormonal profile and hormonal interactions when examining vulnerabilities related to emotion regulation.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT: This work was supported by Vilnius University Research Promotion Fund (project code: MSF-JM-12/2024).