Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-mx8w7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-05T20:10:58.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of frontal activation in the regulation and dysregulation of social behavior during the preschool years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Nathan A. Fox ,
Louis A. Schmidt ,
Susan D. Calkins ,
Kenneth H. Rubin  and
Robert J. Coplan
Nathan A. Fox*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Louis A. Schmidt
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Susan D. Calkins
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Kenneth H. Rubin
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
Robert J. Coplan
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
*
Nathan A. Fox, Institute for Child Study, Benjamin Building, Room 3304, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, E-mail: NF4@MAIL.UMD.EDU.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We examined whether the interaction of resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry and social behavior during peer play was related to the occurrence of maladaptive behavior in preschoolers. Two independent cohorts of children were observed interacting in same-age and -gender play quartets at 4 years of age. Each child was also seen individually for a psychophysiology session during which time measures of EEG activity were recorded. We found that highly sociable children who exhibited greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry were more likely to exhibit externalizing problems than sociable children who exhibited greater relative left frontal EEG asymmetry. We also found that shy children who exhibited greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry were more likely to exhibit internalizing problems than shy children who exhibited left frontal EEG asymmetry. These findings suggest that the pattern of frontal EEG asymmetry in combination with social behavioral style is a significant predictor of maladaptive behavior problems during the preschool period.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 8 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Regulatory Process , Winter 1996 , pp. 89 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1981). Behavioral problems and competencies reported by parents of normal and disturbed children aged four through sixteen. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 1–82). 46 (1, Serial No. 188).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Booth, C. L., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Rubin, K. H. (1991). Relating preschoolers' social competence and their mothers' parenting behaviors to early attachment security and high risk status. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 363–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borod, J. C. (1992). Interhemispheric and intrahemispheric control of emotion: A focus on unilateral brain damage. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 60, 339–348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buss, A. H., & Plomin, R. (1984). Temperament: Early developing personality traits. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., & Fox, N. A. (1992). The relations between infant temperament, security of attachment and behavioral inhibition at 24 months. Child Development, 63, 1456–1472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calkins, S. D., Fox, N. A., & Marshall, T. R. (in press). Behavioral and physiological antecedents of inhibition in infancy. Child Development.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., & Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to understanding the development of emotion regulation. In Garber, J. & Dodge, K. A. (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 15–48). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coplan, R. J., Rubin, K. H., Fox, N. A., Calkins, S. D., & Stewart, S. L. (1994). Being alone, playing alone, and acting alone: Distinguishing among reticence and passive and active solitude in young children. Child Development, 65, 129–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, R. J., & Tomarken, (1989). Laterality and emotion: An electrophysiological approach. In Boller, F. & Grafman, J. (Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychology (pp. 419–441). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Fox, N. A. (1991). If it's not left, it's right: Electroencephalogram asymmetry and the development of emotion. American Psychologist, 46, 863–872.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, N. A. (1994). Dynamic cerebral processes underlying emotion regulation. In N. A. Fox (Ed.), The development of emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 152–166). 59 (2–3, Serial No. 240).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, N. A., Bell, M. A., & Jones, N. A. (1992). Individual differences in response to stress and cerebral asymmetry. Developmental Neuropsychology, 8, 165–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, N. A., Calkins, S. D., & Bell, M. A. (1994). Neural plasticity and development in the first two years of life: Evidence from cognitive and socioemotional domains of research. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 677–696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, N. A., Calkins, S. D., & Schmidt, L. A. (1995, 03). Putting humpty dumpty together: Or in search of a unified field theory to explain temperamental inhibition. In Gunnar, M. R. (Chair), Physiological stress reactivity and behavioral inhibition: Are we all talking about the same thing? Symposium conducted at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.Google Scholar
Fox, N. A., & Davidson, R. J. (1984). Hemispheric substrates of affect: A developmental model. In Fox, N. A. & Davidson, R. J. (Eds.), The psychobiology of affective development (pp. 353–382). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fox, N. A., Rubin, K. H., Calkins, S. D., Marshall, T. R., Coplan, R. J., Porges, S. W., Long, J. M., & Stewart, S. (in press). Frontal activation asymmetry and social competence at four years of age. Child Development.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H., & Campos, J. (1982). Toward a theory of infant temperament. In Emde, R. N. & Harmon, R. F. (Eds.), The development of attachment and affiliative systems (pp. 161–193). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henriques, J. B., & Davidson, R. J. (1991). Left frontal hypoactivation in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 535–545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howes, C. (1988). Patterns of friendship. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 53 (Serial No. 217).Google Scholar
Jasper, H. H. (1958). The ten-twenty electrode system of the International Federation. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 10, 371–375.Google Scholar
Jones, N. A., & Fox, N. A. (1992). Electroencephalogram asymmetry during emotionally evocative films and its relation to positive and negative affectivity. Brain and Cognition, 20, 280–299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kagan, J., Reznick, J. S., & Snidman, N. (1987). The physiology and psychology of behavioral inhibition in children. Child Development, 58, 1459–1473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kagan, J., Reznick, J. S., & Snidman, N. (1988). Biological basis of childhood shyness. Science, 240, 167–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. (1991a). Temperamental factors in human development. American Psychologist, 46, 856–862.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. (1991b). Infant predictors of inhibited and uninhibited profiles. Psychological Science, 2, 40–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinsbourne, M., & Bemporad, B. (1984). Lateralization of emotion: A model and the evidence. In Fox, N. A. & Davidson, R. J. (Eds.), The psychobiology of affective development (pp. 259–291). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kusche, C. A., Cook, E. T., & Greenberg, M. T. (in press). Neuropsychological and cognitive functioning in children with anxiety, externalizing, and comorbid psychopathology. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology.Google Scholar
Lafreniere, P., & Dumas, J. (1992). A transactional analysis of early childhood anxiety and social withdrawal. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). The neuropsychology of conduct disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 135–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., & Henry, B. (1989). Neuropsychological assessment of executive functions in self-reported delinquents. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 105–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1988). Self-reported delinquency, neuropsychological deficit, and history of attention deficit disorder. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 553–569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, J., Rubin, K. H., Price, J., & DeRosier, M. (1995). Peer relationships, child development, and adjustment: A developmental psychopathology perspective. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. (Eds.), Developmental Psychopathology, Vol. 2, Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation (pp. 96–161). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Pepler, D. J., & Rubin, K. H. (1991). The development and treatment of childhood aggression. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Perria, L., Rosadini, G., & Rossi, G. F. (1961). Determination of side of cerebral dominance with amobarbital. Archives of Neurology, 4, 173–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, R. G., Kubos, K. L., Starr, L. B., Rao, K., & Price, T. R. (1984). Mood disorders in stroke patients. Brain, 107, 81–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, R. G., & Szetela, B. (1981). Mood change following left hemisphere brain injury. Annals of Neurology, 9, 447–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Derryberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. In Lamb, M. E. & Brown, A. L. (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 38–85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rowe, D. C, & Plomin, R. (1977). Temperament in early childhood. Journal of Personality Assessment, 41, 150–156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, K. H. (1989). The Play Observation Scale (POS). University of Waterloo. Available from author.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Coplan, R. J., Fox, N. A., & Calkins, S. D. (1995). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers' social adaptation. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Hymel, S., Mills, R. S. L., & Rose-Krasnor, L. (1991). Conceptualizing different pathways to and from social isolation in childhood. In Cicchetti, D. & Toth, S. (Eds.), The Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology Vol 2, Internalizing and externalizing expressions of dysfunction (pp. 91–122). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., LeMare, L. J., & Lollis, S. (1990). Social withdrawal in childhood. Developmental pathways to rejection. In Asher, S. R. & Coie, J. D. (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 217–249). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rubin, K. H., & Rose-Krasnor, L. (1992). Interpersonal problem solving and social competence in children. In van Hasselt, V. B. and Hersen, M. (Eds.), Handbook of social development: A lifespan perspective (pp. 283–323). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, K. H., Stewart, S. L., & Coplan, R. J. (1995). Social withdrawal in childhood: Conceptual and empirical perspectives. In Ollendick, T. & Prinz, R. (Eds.), Advances in Clinical Child Psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 157–196). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (1994). Patterns of cortical electrophysiology and autonomic activity in adults' shyness and sociability. Biological Psychology, 38, 183–198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmidt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (1995). Fear-potentiated startle responses in temperamentally different human infants. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Schulkin, J., McEwen, B. S., & Gold, P. W. (1994). Allostasis, amygdala, and anticipatory angst. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 18, 385–396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serafetinides, E. A., Hoare, R. D., & Driver, M. V. (1965). Intracarotid sodium amylobarbitone and cerebral dominance for speech and consciousness. Brain, 68, 107–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silberman, E. K., & Weingartner, H. (1986). Hemispheric lateralization of functions related to emotion. Brain and Cognition, 5, 322–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A., (1983). Infant-caregiver attachment and patterns of adaptation in preschool: The roots of maladaptation. In Perlmutter, M. (Ed.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 16, pp. 41–83). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stifter, C. A., & Fox, N. A. (1990). Infant reactivity: Physiological correlates of newborn and 5-month temperament. Developmental Psychology, 26, 582–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terrazian, H. (1964). Behavioral and EEG effects of intracarotid sodium amytal injection. Acta Neurochirica, 12, 230–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotion regulation: A theme in search of a definition. In Fox, N. A. (Ed.), The development of emotion regulation: Behavioral and biological considerations. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development (pp. 25–52). 59 (2–3, Serial No. 240).Google Scholar