Panasiti MS, Ponsi G, Monachesi B, Lorenzini L, Grano C. "Autonomic correlates of emotion regulation in patients with psoriasis: a facial thermal imaging study" AIP - Sezione Clinica e dinamica XIX, Symposium Session, 5, 2 A, Suppl. 2017

Psoriasis is a chronic debilitating disease which is frequently associated with strong psychological distress and psychological conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety). Although some studies have indicated a relationship between this condition and difficulties in emotion regulation (as they are self-reported by the patients), behavioral and physiological evidence about this link are scarce. Here, we measured emotion regulation abilities of patients with psoriasis (N=16) and a control group (N=17) by examining the impact of distracting emotional (positive, negative or neutral) images during the performance on a working memory task (“Emotional n-back”) which could present high (1 back) or low (2 back) cognitive workload. Moreover, we used Functional Infrared Thermal Imaging to record participants’ facial temperature in order to obtain a measure of the activation of the autonomic system during the task. In particular, temperature over the peri-orbital areas and the tip of the nose are believed to reflect the activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system, respectively. Patients scored significantly higher than controls on the “Lack of emotional clarity” subscale of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Compared to the control group, patients showed to improve their performance when the cognitive workload was higher (and then it was easier not to pay attention to the distracting stimuli) but only when the distracting image was neutral. Consistently with this behavioral pattern, patients showed a lower temperature of periorbital areas and a higher temperature of the tip of the nose (especially in the neutral blocks) during the high vs low cognitive load condition. These results suggest that patients with difficulties in understanding their emotions might benefit more than controls from the distracting power of cognitive load. However, this advantage seems to extinguish when the distractors are emotionally charged.