PSYC23H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Pituitary Gland, Frontal Lobe
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Processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions (reducing negative affect) Important to underscore the distinction between emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. We can begin to ask what are the emotional and cognitive changes that are involved in this emerging pattern of emotion regulation. Infant cortisol rapidly habituates to a discharge exam but behavioral responses are stable. Something in them is saying ok maybe i"m cool with this , so their cortisol levels are lower the second day even though the behaviour stays the same. What if the stressor is more severe than the. Infants become quickly habituated to repeated stressors like a discharge exam. Newborn infants receiving the same discharge exam on two consecutive days had similar behavioral responses but significantly lower cortisol levels on the second day relative to the first day (gunnar, This shows that there is much learning in infants that affects the regulation of their hpa-axis.
