Delta-beta coupling is associated with paternal caregiving behaviors during preschool

Age-related differences in delta-beta phase-amplitude coupling in autistic individuals

OBJECTIVE

We aim to investigate the relationship between the core symptoms of autism, anxiety levels, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) traits, and a non-autism-specific, neurophysiological metric, the Delta-Beta phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), extracted from the resting-state EEG for autistic and non-autistic populations across three different age groups (children, adolescents, and adults).

METHODS

We analyze the eyes-open resting-state EEG of 371 individuals. We applied a phase de-biasing PAC algorithm expected to result in a more accurate PAC estimate than other PAC methodologies available in the literature.

RESULTS

In the adult group, we found a significant increase of the delta-beta PAC in the autistic subgroup who met the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADR-R) ADOS-2/ADI-R threshold compared to non-autistic individuals. The differences seem age-specific since we found no statistically significant differences in the children and adolescent populations. Moreover, we found a significant positive correlation with the restricted and repetitive behaviours score of the ADOS-2 diagnostic instrument and with ADHD hyperactivity/impulsivity in the entire autistic cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

The neurophysiological differences we found only in the autistic individuals that meet the thresholds also point out the need for future studies that look for autistic neurodiverse subgroups beyond age.

SIGNIFICANCE

The delta-beta debiasing PAC (dPAC) may potentially serve as a severity biomarker in the autistic population.

Delta-Beta Coupling in Adolescents with Depression: A Preliminary Examination of Associations with Age, Symptoms, and Treatment Outcomes

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in treating adolescent depressive symptoms but with variable treatment response. Heterogeneity in treatment outcome may be due in part to individual differences in cognitive and emotional processes in depressed adolescents, and there is a need to identify biomarkers associated with symptoms and treatment outcomes. There has been growing interest in leveraging electroencephalography (EEG) data to examine correspondence between multiple frequency bands, and delta-beta coupling in particular is thought to underlie emotion regulation and offers a promising biomarker in adolescent depression. In the present study, clinically depressed adolescents aged 14-18 years old (N=54) completed 6-minutes of EEG at rest before and after a 16-session group CBT program. Analyses were focused on associations of pre- and post-treatment delta-beta coupling power with age, depressive symptoms and clinician-rated severity at baseline and the end of treatment, and clinician-rated improvement. Results indicated that older adolescents showed lower delta-beta coupling than younger adolescents and girls showed higher coupling post-treatment. Greater delta-beta coupling before and after treatment was associated with greater clinician-rated severity. Surprisingly, greater pre-treatment delta-beta coupling was associated with lower self-reported depressive symptoms with treatment. These results suggest that elevated delta-beta coupling, potentially reflecting more difficulty regulating emotions, is associated with gender and age in adolescents with depression and may be related to greater severity and poorer treatment outcomes, but replication in larger samples is needed.

Prenatal maternal depression predicts neural maturation and negative emotion in infants

Despite widespread acceptance that prenatal symptoms of depression in mothers are detrimental to infants' long-term emotional and cognitive development, little is known about the mechanisms that may integrate outcomes across these domains. Rooted in the integrative perspective that emotional development is grounded in developing cognitive processes, we hypothesized that prenatal symptoms of depression in mothers would be associated with delays in neural maturation that support sociocognitive function in infants, leading to more problematic behaviors. We used a prospective longitudinal study of mothers (N = 92) and their infants to test whether self-reported symptoms of depression in mothers during the second and third trimesters were associated with neural development and infant outcomes at 4 months of age. While controlling for postpartum symptoms of depression, more prenatal symptoms of depression in mothers predicted less neural maturation in the parietal region of 4-month-old infants. Less neural maturation, in turn, was associated with greater infant negativity, suggesting neural maturation as a putative mechanism linking maternal symptoms of depression with infant outcomes. Differences in neural regions and developmental timing are also discussed.

Abnormal Cross Frequency Coupling of Brain Electroencephalographic Oscillations Related to Visual Oddball Task in Parkinson's Disease with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a movement disorder caused by degeneration in dopaminergic neurons. During the disease course, most of PD patients develop mild cognitive impairment (PDMCI) and dementia, especially affecting frontal executive functions. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that PDMCI patients may be characterized by abnormal neurophysiological oscillatory mechanisms coupling frontal and posterior cortical areas during cognitive information processing. To test this hypothesis, event-related EEG oscillations (EROs) during counting visual target (rare) stimuli in an oddball task were recorded in healthy controls (HC; N = 51), cognitively unimpaired PD patients (N = 48), and PDMCI patients (N = 53). Hilbert transform served to estimate instantaneous phase and amplitude of EROs from delta to gamma frequency bands, while modulation index computed ERO phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) at electrode pairs. As compared to the HC and PD groups, the PDMCI group was characterized by (1) more posterior topography of the delta-theta PAC and (2) reversed delta-low frequency alpha PAC direction, ie, posterior-to-anterior rather than anterior-to-posterior. These results suggest that during cognitive demands, PDMCI patients are characterized by abnormal neurophysiological oscillatory mechanisms mainly led by delta frequencies underpinning functional connectivity from frontal to parietal cortical areas.

Children's shyness and frontal electroencephalogram delta-beta correlation in the pediatric surgical setting

The prospect of surgery is a unique psychologically threatening context for children, often leading to experiences of preoperative anxiety. Recent research suggests that individual differences in children's temperament may influence responses to the surgical setting. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in shyness were related to differences in frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) delta-beta correlation, a proposed neural correlate of emotion regulation and dysregulation, among children anticipating surgery. Seventy-one children (36 boys, M_age  = 10.3 years, SD_age  = 1.7 years) undergoing elective surgery self-reported on their own shyness, and their parents also reported on their child's shyness. Using a mobile, dry sensor EEG headband, frontal EEG measures were collected and self- and observer-reported measures of state anxiety were obtained at the children's preoperative visit (Time 1) and on the day of surgery (Time 2). A latent cluster analysis derived classes of low shy (n = 37) and high shy (n = 34) children using the child- and parent-reported shyness measures. We then compared the two classes on frontal EEG delta-beta correlation using between- and within-subjects analyses. Although children classified as high versus low in shyness had higher self- and observer-reported state anxiety across both time periods, frontal EEG delta-beta correlation increased from T1 to T2 only among low shy children using a between-subjects delta-beta correlation measure. We discuss the interpretation of a relatively higher delta-beta correlation as a correlate of emotion regulatory versus dysregulatory strategies for some children in a "real-world," surgical context.

Deriving within-person estimates of delta-beta coupling: A novel measure for identifying individual differences in emotion and neural function in childhood

Delta-beta coupling is increasingly used to understand early emotional development. However, little is known about the development of the coupling, limiting its utility for identifying normative or aberrant functioning. We used a prospective longitudinal sample (N = 122) to compare measures of within-person and between-person coupling between ages 3 and 5, track the developmental trajectory of coupling, identify individual differences in patterns of development, and explore emotion-related predictors and outcomes of discrete developmental patterns. Within-person measures, limited in overall utility, were most useful when (1) statistical approaches produced more homogenous groups within the overall sample (extreme groups or latent classes) or (2) the full developmental course was considered. We found two trajectories of change in frontal coupling and three trajectories of change in parietal coupling. Coupling trajectories were predicted by observed fear and approach/avoidance at age 3. In addition, high levels of frontal coupling at age 3 that declined and then levelled out through age 5 were associated with lower levels of internalizing by age 5. This work provides a foundation for understanding normative change in delta-beta coupling across the preschool years and useful insight for the use of this metric in future work.

Positive Shyness in the Brain: Frontal Electroencephalogram Alpha Asymmetry and Delta-Beta Correlation in Children

Positive shyness is thought to be an approach-dominant form of shyness, whereas non-positive shyness is thought to be an avoidance-dominant form of shyness. This study examined electrocortical and behavioral correlates of motivation and emotion in relation to these shy subtypes in 67 children (M_age  = 10.41 years, SD = 3.23). Using resting state electroencephalography, findings revealed that positive shy and low shy children had greater relative left frontal alpha asymmetry compared to non-positive shy children, and positive shy children had a higher frontal delta-beta correlation compared to other groups. Non-positive shy children scored highest on parent-reported school avoidance. These findings converge with previous work reporting distinct correlates in positive and non-positive shyness, extending this to two brain measures of motivation and emotion.

Review of EEG, ERP, and Brain Connectivity Estimators as Predictive Biomarkers of Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by a fear of negative evaluation, negative self-belief and extreme avoidance of social situations. These recurrent symptoms are thought to maintain the severity and substantial impairment in social and cognitive thoughts. SAD is associated with a disruption in neuronal networks implicated in emotional regulation, perceptual stimulus functions, and emotion processing, suggesting a network system to delineate the electrocortical endophenotypes of SAD. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive review of the most frequently studied electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral coupling, event-related potential (ERP), visual-event potential (VEP), and other connectivity estimators in social anxiety during rest, anticipation, stimulus processing, and recovery states. A search on Web of Science provided 97 studies that document electrocortical biomarkers and relevant constructs pertaining to individuals with SAD. This study aims to identify SAD neuronal biomarkers and provide insight into the differences in these biomarkers based on EEG, ERPs, VEP, and brain connectivity networks in SAD patients and healthy controls (HC). Furthermore, we proposed recommendations to improve methods of delineating the electrocortical endophenotypes of SAD, e.g., a fusion of EEG with other modalities such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalograms (MEG), to realize better effectiveness than EEG alone, in order to ultimately evolve the treatment selection process, and to review the possibility of using electrocortical measures in the early diagnosis and endophenotype examination of SAD.

Behavioral inhibition and EEG delta-beta correlation in early childhood: Comparing a between-subjects and within-subjects approach

Heightened delta-beta correlation has been conceptualized as reflecting exaggerated neural regulation and has been implicated in anxiety. Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized by wariness to novelty and is a robust predictor of anxiety, but delta-beta correlation has not been investigated in relation to childhood BI. We examined the relation between BI and between-subjects (i.e., across participants) and within-subjects (i.e., across data epochs) measures of baseline EEG delta-beta correlation in 118 children. Using a between-subjects measure, children scoring high on BI had higher delta-beta correlation relative to low BI children at frontal and central, and marginally higher in parietal, brain regions. Using a within-subjects measure, continuous BI scores were positively correlated with central and parietal delta-beta correlation. Delta-beta correlation may be a neural correlate of BI in childhood that displays differences in region specificity, correlation strength, and variability of correlation values when comparing between- and within-subjects measures.

Frontal brain delta-beta correlation, salivary cortisol, and social anxiety in children

BACKGROUND

Correlated activity of slow-wave (e.g. delta) and fast-wave (e.g. beta) frontal brain oscillations is thought to be an electrophysiological correlate of individual differences in neuroendocrine activity and anxiety in adult samples. We know, however, relatively little about the physiological and functional correlates of delta-beta coupling in children.

METHOD

We examined whether longitudinal patterns of children's basal salivary cortisol and social anxiety across two visits separated by 1 year were associated with frontal brain delta-beta correlation in children (M_age  = 7.59 years, SD = 1.70). At Time 1 (T1), resting baseline electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were collected from the children and delta and beta power was measured, and at both T1 and Time 2 (T2), basal salivary cortisol was measured, and parents reported on children's symptoms of social anxiety.

RESULTS

Using latent class growth curve analysis, we found that children's salivary cortisol across visits was characterized by a high, stable class (53%), and a low, unstable class (47%), and children's social anxiety was characterized by a high, stable class (50%) and a low, stable class (50%). Using Fisher's r-to-z transformation, we found that frontal EEG delta-beta correlation was significantly stronger among children with high, stable salivary cortisol levels (compared to the low, unstable class; z = 2.11, p = .02), and among children with high, stable social anxiety levels (compared to the low, stable class; z = 1.72, p = .04).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that longitudinal patterns of neuroendocrine stress activity and social anxiety may be associated with the correlation of EEG power in slow and fast frontal brain oscillations as early as childhood.

Maternal Behavior and Socioeconomic Status Predict Longitudinal Changes in Error-Related Negativity in Preschoolers

The development self-regulation has been called a primary task of childhood. One system of self-regulation, self-monitoring, is indexed at the level of neural activity as early as preschool as the error-related negativity (ERN). However, how context elicits developmental changes in neural processes of self-monitoring like the ERN is not well understood. Here, socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting were tested as environmental influences on ERN development between ages 3 and 4 (N = 119). Results showed the expected increases in ERN between ages 3 and 4 only when both maternal sensitivity and SES were high. This work demonstrates the importance of considering the early environment in order to understand the development of a neural process supporting self-regulation in young children.