title: Stress-induced cortisol is associated with generation of non-negative interpretations during cognitive reappraisal.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Enhanced processing of emotional stimuli after stress exposure is reported to be associated with stress-induced cortisol. Because enhanced emotional information processing could make cognitive emotion regulation more difficult, it was hypothesized that stress-induced cortisol would be associated with non-negative interpretation generation associated with the cognitive reappraisal processes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 36 participants (Mean age = 21.3 years, SD = 1.8) watched video clips of depression-related stressful situations before and after the administration of a stress induction task. They were then asked to generate as many non-negative interpretations as possible to reduce the depressive mood. Saliva samples were obtained before and after the stress induction task to measure change in the cortisol level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants were allocated post-hoc to either a responder (n = 19) or non-responder group (n = 17) based on the cortisol response to the stress induction task. The number of non-negative interpretations generated following the stress induction task was reduced only in the cortisol responders. The number of post-stress non-negative interpretations was fewer in the responder group when compared by sex, baseline cortisol level, and the number of pre-stress non-negative interpretations, statistically controlled.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although baseline cortisol and sex may have impacted the results, the results suggest that stress-induced cortisol is associated with difficulty in non-negative interpretation generation during the cognitive reappraisal process.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo-shi, Shimane 693-8501 Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsumura
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15-101-321 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1192 Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sensaki
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15-101-321, Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1192 Japan.
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimada
keywords: Cognitive reappraisal; Cortisol; Depressive mood; Interpretation; Stress