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Changes in the neural bases of emotion regulation associated with clinical improvement in children with behavior problems
- Marc D. Lewis, Isabela Granic, Connie Lamm, Philip David Zelazo, Jim Stieben, Rebecca M. Todd, Ida Moadab, Debra Pepler
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 20 / Issue 3 / Summer 2008
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 July 2008, pp. 913-939
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Children's behavior problems may stem from ineffective cortical mechanisms for regulating negative emotions, and the success of interventions may depend on their impact on such mechanisms. We examined neurophysiological markers associated with emotion regulation in children comorbid for externalizing and internalizing problems before and after treatment. We hypothesized that treatment success would correspond with reduced ventral prefrontal activation, and increased dorsomedial prefrontal activation, at the time point of an event-related potential (ERP) associated with inhibitory control. Twenty-seven 8- to 12-year-old children (with usable data) were tested before and after a 14-week community-based treatment program and assessed as to improvement status. Fifteen 8- to 12-year-olds from the normal population (with usable data) were tested over the same interval. All children completed an emotion-induction go/no-go task while fitted with a 128-channel electrode net at each test session. ERP amplitudes, and estimates of cortical activation in prefrontal regions of interest, were measured at the peak of the “inhibitory” N2 and compared between improvers, nonimprovers, and nonclinical children. ERP amplitudes showed no group differences. However, improvers showed an overall reduction in ventral prefrontal activation from pretreatment to posttreatment, bringing them in line with nonclinical children, whereas ventral activation remained high for nonimprovers. Both improvers and nonimprovers showed high dorsal activation relative to nonclinical children. Supplementary analyses indicated that only ventral prefrontal regions, and only within the N2 time window, showed decreased activity from pre- to posttreatment, suggesting changes in regulatory processes rather than in overall emotional arousal. These cortically mediated changes may permit a reduction in the overengaged, rigid style of emotion regulation characteristic of children with behavior problems.
Neurophysiological mechanisms of emotion regulation for subtypes of externalizing children
- JIM STIEBEN, MARC D. LEWIS, ISABELA GRANIC, PHILIP DAVID ZELAZO, SIDNEY SEGALOWITZ, DEBRA PEPLER
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 19 / Issue 2 / April 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 April 2007, pp. 455-480
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Children referred for externalizing behavior problems may not represent a homogeneous population. Our objective was to assess neural mechanisms of emotion regulation that might distinguish subtypes of externalizing children from each other and from their normal age mates. Children with pure externalizing (EXT) problems were compared with children comorbid for externalizing and internalizing (MIXED) problems and with age-matched controls. Only boys were included in the analysis because so few girls were referred for treatment. We used a go/no-go task with a negative emotion induction, and we examined dense-array EEG data together with behavioral measures of performance. We investigated two event-related potential (ERP) components tapping inhibitory control or self-monitoring—the inhibitory N2 and error-related negativity (ERN)—and we constructed source models estimating their cortical generators. The MIXED children's N2s increased in response to the emotion induction, resulting in greater amplitudes than EXT children in the following trial block. ERN amplitudes were greatest for control children and smallest for EXT children with MIXED children in between, but only prior to the emotion induction. These results were paralleled by behavioral differences in response time and performance monitoring. ERP activity was localized to cortical sources suggestive of the dorsal anterior cingulate for control children, posterior cingulate areas for the EXT children, and both posterior cingulate and ventral cingulate/prefrontal regions for the MIXED children. These findings highlight different mechanisms of self-regulation underlying externalizing subtypes and point toward distinct developmental pathways and treatment strategies.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by Grant 1 R21 MH67357-01 from the Developmental Psychopathology and Prevention Research branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), as well as support from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). We are also grateful for support provided (to P.D.Z.) by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.