Banca de DEFESA: TAINÁ CARLA FREITAS DE MACEDO

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : TAINÁ CARLA FREITAS DE MACEDO
DATE: 13/10/2025
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: https://meet.google.com/seu-gsam-wbk
TITLE:

EFFECTS OF DREAM RECALL ON EMOTIONAL REGULATION OF STIMULI WITH NEGATIVE VALENCY

 

KEY WORDS:

emotional regulation; dreams; prefrontal cortex; fNIRS;

PAGES: 100
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Fisiologia
SUMMARY:

Given that dreams could play an important role in emotional regulation, we sought to investigate whether increased dream recall could influence this process. To investigate this association, 41 individuals (19 women) aged between 18 and 35 years old were recruited and agreed to participate in the study. Participants were then divided into two groups and completed the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Experiment (CERT) forms twice. After the first exposure to CERT, the experimental group (G1, n = 21) completed a dream diary for 14 days to encourage increased dream recall frequency (DRF). The control group (G2, n = 20) completed a sleep diary. After this stage, participants underwent the CERT again. During the two moments of CERT, to assess emotional regulation based on exposure to negative and neutral images from the IAPS (International Affective Pictures System, 1979), the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) instrument was used and the oxygenation of areas of the cerebral cortex was monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Participants also completed questionnaires on sociodemographic, clinical, and dream conditions. Statistical analysis used the Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests, with p-values < 0.05. The results showed that the use of the Dream Diary was not effective in increasing DRF in G1 compared to G2, as both groups showed increased DRF. It was also observed that G1 presented statistically significant lower activity in the anterior region of the Prefrontal Cortex post-intervention, as evidenced by fNIRS. This difference was restricted to the Negative_View condition of the CERT, indicating that the changes recorded in G1's brain activity are likely related to implicit, but not explicit, emotional regulation. It is unclear, however, whether these changes are related to increased DRF, or even to better emotional regulation. Analysis of SAM and RGP, for example, did not reveal significant differences between groups regarding variation in emotional response between experiments. However, analyzing each group separately, G2 showed a decrease in both measures (regarding arousal) in the NegVis condition. Furthermore, SAM indices indicated that, for participants in both groups, the negatively valenced images did not achieve scores similar to those reported in the literature, which may have contributed to the lack of significant behavioral differences between the groups. Furthermore, the intensity of the RGP suggests that the conditions tend to differ in terms of instruction (Reevaluate vs.Visualize), but not in terms of image valence (Negative vs. Neutral). Given the observed results, the findings of this study are insufficient to support the hypothesis that increased DRF positively modulates emotional regulation. It is recommended that future research on this topic include a passive control group, that is, one that does not perform any task during the intervention period. It is also proposed that studies previously evaluate the possibilities of using stimuli that are more effective in causing emotional impact and that they also add positively valenced images to balance the emotional contexts.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa à Instituição - CAROLINA VIRGINIA MACEDO DE AZEVEDO - UFRN
Externo à Instituição - EDGARD MORYA - IIN-ELS
Presidente - 6346130 - MARIA BERNARDETE CORDEIRO DE SOUSA