The Role of Executive Functions in Emotional Coregulation: Insights from an Adaptive Network Model

Although the role of executive functions in individual emotion regulation is well documented, their influence on emotional coregulation—where emotions are dynamically regulated across people—remains unexplored. This study investigates the role of attention and executive functioning in emotional coregulation during dyadic interactions, using simulations of pairings with varying executive function (EF) levels: high-high, low-high, and low-low. The effects of executive functions on coregulation were assessed through emotional arousal and synchrony. High-high EF pairs showed strong coregulation early on, but resource depletion led to a breakdown under sustained emotional demands. In the low-high pairing, the high EF agent had a stabilizing effect on the interaction despite the low EF agent’s emotional instability. In the low-low pairings, both agents failed to downregulate emotions but remained synchronized at high emotional arousal, illustrating that synchrony might not guarantee effective regulation. These findings emphasize the importance of attention in emotional regulation and suggest further empirical research is needed, particularly in populations with executive functioning differences.