Abstract: Gross suggested that emotion regulation is generated in emotion process. There are two commonly used emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. This review compares the two strategies with respect to their effects on emotional responses and their neural underpinnings. Moreover, the impacts of the two strategies on other cognition processes are discussed. Cognitive reappraisal not only reduces subjective emotion experience but also decreases the sympathetic responses and deactivates the emotion-related brain, while it will not impair other cognition process. Despite its usefulness in reducing subjective emotional experience, expressive suppression leads to sympathetic and amygdala activations. In particular, it will disrupt other cognitive processes. Therefore, cognitive reappraisal is more effective than expressive suppression, and is better for people’s physical and mental health.

Key words: emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, neural mechanism