Cognitive reappraisal of conditioned fear: A systematic review

Cognitive reappraisal is a cognitive emotion regulation strategy that involves reinterpreting the meaning associated with a situation. It has been shown to alter emotional responses. In recent years, the human capability of voluntary regulation of emotion has been employed to regulate conditioned fear responses. The aim of the current systematic review is to provide a review of studies investigating the effect of reappraisal on the attenuation of conditioned fear responses in healthy participants. Following the PRISMA guideline for reporting, two digital databases, PubMed and Scopus, were used to search for relevant published articles. A total of eleven studies and twelve separate experiments fulfilled the selection criteria of the analysis. This systematic review discusses experimental studies assessing the effect of cognitive reappraisal on attenuation of conditioned fear responses, its effect on different phases of conditioning, its underlying neural mechanisms, and factors that influence successful reappraisal outcome. The current review also highlights the need for standardized cognitive reappraisal practice. Although the studies differ and have limitations in their methodology, the results suggest a positive effect of cognitive reappraisal.