Neurophysiological evidence for distinct biases in emotional face processing associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children

Cognitive Event-Related Potentials in Young Adults With Cerebral Palsy: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a movement and posture disorder often accompanied by cognitive difficulties which can be assessed using event-related potentials (ERPs), an often-overlooked tool in this population. Here we describe our assessment protocol, examine its feasibility, and validate the use of single-subject ERP analyses in adolescents and young adults with CP, an analysis approach which recognizes the heterogeneity of the clinical population. This study involved a final sample of 9 adolescents/young adults with CP participating in the "MyStory" study (age range 16-29 years, Mage = 25.0 years; 6 female; Gross Motor Function Classification System level I [n = 4], II [n = 2], III [n = 1], IV [n = 1], and V [n = 1]). ERP components were elicited over medial prefrontal and central cortex (error- and correct-related negativities [ERN/CRN], error-positivity [Pe], N100, P200, N200, P300), as well as those generated over occipital cortex (P100, N170). Group and single-subject ERP statistics were computed for ERPs recorded over both areas. Using recently developed data analysis methods (independent components analysis and robust bootstrapped single-subject statistics), we measured the number of participants demonstrating significant condition differences at the timing of each ERP component of interest. We demonstrate good validity for ERPs recorded during 2 of our 3 tasks eliciting frontal activation (eg, 4 of 6 participants with usable data showed a significant single-subject medial frontal negativity condition difference in a context-switching task) and good validity for ERPs derived from a task engaging occipital regions (eg, 8 of 9 participants each showed a significant N170 face-object condition effect).

A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Introduction to the Special Issue

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including child maltreatment and other adversities in the home context and beyond (e.g., witnessing domestic violence; parental mental illness; parental separation; living in a disadvantaged neighborhood) are prevalent in the population and often covary together. Research based on the construct of ACEs has transformed the field of adult mental health, yet child and adolescent mental health has often been overlooked in this work. This special issue of Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology focuses on the developmental science of ACEs and child psychopathology. The research presented here draws on the extensive evidence base that now exists regarding the co-occurrence of common childhood adversities, while informing the integration of theory and research on ACEs with that of developmental psychopathology at large. This Introduction provides an overview of ACEs and child mental health from a developmental psychopathology perspective, with an emphasis on key concepts and recent progress spanning the prenatal period through to adolescence and intergenerational pathways. Models of ACEs that emphasize the multi-dimensional nature of adversity and the importance of developmental timing to risk and protective pathways, have played a driving role in this progress. Methodological innovations in this work are highlighted, along with implications for prevention and intervention.

Behavioural inhibition and early neural processing of happy and angry faces interact to predict anxiety: a longitudinal ERP study

Limited prospective research has examined whether attention biases to emotion moderate associations between Behavioural Inhibition (BI) and anxiety in preschool-aged children. Furthermore, there has been an over-reliance on behavioral measures in previous studies. Accordingly, we assessed anxiety in a sample of preschool-aged children (3-4 years) at baseline, and again approximately 6 and 11 months later, after they started school. At baseline, children completed an assessment of BI and an EEG task where they were presented with angry, happy, and neutral faces. EEG analyses focused on ERPs (P1, P2, N2) associated with specific stages of attention allocation. Interactions between BI and emotion bias (ERP amplitude for emotional versus neutral faces) were found for N2 and P1. For N2, BI was significantly associated with higher overall anxiety when an angry bias was present. Interestingly for P1, BI was associated with higher overall anxiety when a happy bias was absent. Finally, interactions were found between linear time and happy and angry bias for P1, with a greater linear decrease in anxiety over time when biases were high. These results suggest that attention to emotional stimuli moderates the BI-anxiety relationship across early development.

Increased likelihood of distressing and functionally impairing psychotic-like experiences among children with co-occurring internalising and externalising problems

Among children with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), the presence of co-occurring psychopathology may distinguish children's self-report of clinically significant experiences (i.e., PLEs that are distressing and/or impairing of daily functioning) from reports of more benign experiences. The aim of this study was to examine whether the likelihood of distressing or impairing PLEs differed according to type of co-occurring psychopathology symptoms. A community sample of 5268 children aged 9-12 years were recruited from Greater London, UK. Participants completed the Psychotic-Like Experiences Questionnaire for Children, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to measure internalising and externalising problems. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to determine the likelihood of PLEs being distressing and/or impairing (vs. not) among children with different co-occurring symptom profiles (PLEs only; PLEs with internalising problems only - PLE-I; PLEs with externalising problems only - PLE-E; and PLEs with both internalising and externalising problems - PLE-IE). Children with co-occurring internalising and/or externalising problems had greater odds of distressing and/or impairing PLEs compared to children without co-occurring psychopathology (PLEs only). These associations were moderate for PLE-E and strong for PLE-I and PLE-IE, with the greatest odds of distressing and impairing PLEs evident in the presence of internalising plus externalising comorbidities (odds ratios [with 99 % confidence intervals] for PLE-IE relative to PLE-I = 2.00 [1.34-2.99]; PLE-IE relative to PLE-E = 5.46 [3.78-7.90]). These results affirm the importance of screening for the presence and type of co-occurring psychopathology among children with PLEs to demarcate potentially different treatment needs.

Common and separable behavioral and neural mechanisms underlie the generalization of fear and disgust

Generalization represents the transfer of a conditioned responses to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus (CS). Previous studies on generalization of defensive avoidance responses have primarily focused on fear and have neglected disgust generalization, which represents a key pathological mechanism in some anxiety disorders. In the present study we examined common and distinct mechanisms of fear and disgust generalization by means of a fear or disgust multi-CS conditioning and generalization paradigm with concomitant event-related potential (ERPs) acquisition in n = 62 subjects. We demonstrate that compared to fear, disgust-relevant generalized stimuli (GS) elicited larger expectancy ratings and longer reaction times (RTs) reflecting stronger ratings of 'risk'. On the electrophysiological level, increased P2 amplitudes were found in response to conditioned CS+ versus CS- across both domains, possibly reflecting higher motivational and attentional salience of aversive conditioned stimuli per se. Contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude was significantly larger for disgust-CS+ than disgust-CS-, reflecting a stronger preparation of the disgust US. Additionally, we found that the contingent negative variation (CNV) fear generalization gradient, and CNV amplitude were increased with similarity to CS+. In contrast the CNV to disgust-GS did not differ and did not reflect disgust generalization. Together this may indicate that the CNV represents a highly fear-specific index for generalization learning. This study provides the first neurobiological evidence for common and distinct generalization learning in fear versus disgust suggesting that dysregulations in separable defensive avoidance mechanisms may underly different anxiety disorder subtypes.

The Relation Between Belief in a Just World and Early Processing of Deserved and Undeserved Outcomes: An ERP Study

We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how quickly people in general, and certain people in particular, process deservingness-relevant information. Female university students completed individual difference measures, including individual differences in the belief in a just world (BJW), a belief that people get what they deserve. They then read stories in which an outcome was deserved, undeserved, or neither deserved nor undeserved (i.e., "neutral") while their ERPs were recorded with scalp electrodes. We found no overall differentiation between early ERP responses (< 300 ms post stimulus onset) to deserved, undeserved, and neutral outcomes. However, BJW correlated with the difference between early ERP responses to these forms of information (rs from |.44| to |.61|; ps from .018 to < .001). The early nature of our effects (e.g., 96 ms after stimulus onset) suggests individual differences in socially-relevant information processing that begins before conscious evaluation of the stimuli. Potential underlying processes include automatic attention to schema-relevant information and to unexpected (and therefore salient) information and automatic processing of belief-consistent information. Our research underscores the importance of the concept of deservingness in human information processing as well as the utility of ERP technology and robust statistical analyses in investigations of complex social stimuli.

Developmental changes in external and internal performance monitoring across middle childhood: An ERP study

Performance monitoring is critical for learning and behavioral adaption and is supported by both externally and internally sourced information. Cross-sectional studies indicate an increase in internal error processing across childhood, suggesting a potential developmental transition from reliance on external information to reliance on internally developed models. However, little research has examined the association between these constructs longitudinally. Data from 339 children assessed annually from kindergarten to 2nd grade were examined to determine the developmental trajectory of ERP indices of performance monitoring, and whether the association between these indices changes across time. EEG data were recorded during an incentivized Go/No-Go task and ERP component amplitudes were extracted as peak measures at Fz. Despite small increases in magnitude, no significant changes were observed in any of the ERPs. Multi-level regression analyses indicated that in kindergarten a more negative feedback-related negativity (FRN) was associated with a more negative error-related negativity (ERN) and a more negative error positivity (Pe). Further, the association between the FRN and Pe changed over time, such that in 2nd grade the FRN and Pe decoupled from one another and were no longer associated. These results suggest that the development of performance monitoring through middle childhood may be a phasic process. More specifically, matured external feedback monitoring processes may first facilitate the development of conscious error recognition, and then the development of internal error monitoring processes. Once internal models of error monitoring are well-established, children may then reduce their utilization of external feedback.

The reliability of visual ERP components in children across the first year of school

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are increasingly used as neurophysiological markers of perceptual and cognitive processes conveying risk for psychopathology. However, little is known about the reliability of ERP components during childhood, a time of substantial brain maturation. In the present study, we examine the early visual ERP components (P1, N170, VPP), frequently examined as indicators of attentional bias, for 110 children at kindergarten (T1) and first grade (T2). Children performed a Go/Nogo task at both time points, with exact stimuli changed to reduce habituation. All components showed increases in absolute amplitude and the P1 and VPP also showed decreases in latency. Retest reliability across time was good to very good for amplitude measures (Pearson rs ranging from .54 for N170 to .69 for P1) and low to very good for latencies (rs from .34 for P1 to .60 for N170), despite the change in visual stimuli. Although there was some evidence of moderation by sex, early visual ERP components appear to be a reliable measure of individual differences in attention processing in middle childhood. This has implications for the use of early visual ERP components as trait-like markers for individual differences in perceptual processes in developmental research.