Biobehavioral Markers of Attention Bias Modification in Temperamental Risk for Anxiety: A Randomized Control Trial

Trait anxiety is associated with attentional brain networks

Trait anxiety is a well-established risk factor for anxiety and depressive disorders, yet its neural correlates are not clearly understood. In this study, we investigated the neural correlates of trait anxiety in a large sample (n = 179) of individuals who completed the trait and state versions of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used independent component analysis to characterize individual resting-state networks (RSNs), and multiple regression analyses to assess the relationship between trait anxiety and intrinsic connectivity. Trait anxiety was significantly associated with intrinsic connectivity in different regions of three RSNs (dorsal attention network, default mode network, and auditory network) when controlling for state anxiety. These RSNs primarily support attentional processes. Notably, when state anxiety was not controlled for, a different pattern of results emerged, highlighting the importance of considering this factor in assessing the neural correlates of trait anxiety. Our findings suggest that trait anxiety is uniquely associated with resting-state brain connectivity in networks mainly supporting attentional processes. Moreover, controlling for state anxiety is crucial when assessing the neural correlates of trait anxiety. These insights may help refine current neurobiological models of anxiety and identify potential targets for neurobiologically-based interventions.

Assessing Temperament Risk Factors in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Development and Validation of the Integrative Late Childhood Temperament Inventory

Childhood temperament has a well-documented influence on later life outcomes, notably behavior problems, quality of interpersonal relationships, and academic achievement. However, there is at present a lack of brief measures that assess temperament characteristics which are represented across models of temperament in the late childhood and early adolescence period. To redress this gap, the aim of the current study was to develop and validate a short questionnaire that extends an earlier integrative measure of temperament, the Integrative Child Temperament Inventory (ICTI) to the late childhood period. The new measure (named Integrative Late Childhood Temperament Inventory, ILCTI) includes all five components of the ICTI (frustration, behavioral inhibition, attention/persistence, activity level, sensory sensitivity), plus affiliation. German- or English-speaking parents rated a total of 525 children, aged 8 to 14 years. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the predicted structure of the new measure. Examination of fit indices and psychometric analyses showed that 24 items are sufficient to capture all six dimensions reliably. Next to convergent validity with established measures of temperament and personality, we also present analyses of associations with measures of externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and school failure all of which support the instrument's clinical utility. Thus, despite its brevity, the ILCTI is a reliable and valid measure of late childhood temperament that can be helpful in assessing risk of developing behavior problems or school failure.

Interactions among stress, behavioral inhibition, and delta-beta coupling predict adolescent anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes and uncertainty to the daily lives of youth. The range of adjustment in light of a near-universal experience of COVID restrictions highlights the importance of identifying factors that may render some individuals more susceptible to heightened levels of anxiety during stressful life events than others. Two risk factors to consider are temperamental behavioral inhibition (BI) and difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). As such, the current paper focused on BI examined prior to COVID, because of its developmental link to anxiety and ER, as difficulties may be associated with differences in anxiety. We examined a neurocognitive marker of ER processes, delta-beta coupling (DBC). The current paper had two goals: (1) to examine BI in relation to COVID-related worry and social anxiety experienced during the pandemic, and (2) to explore the role of individual differences in early DBC in the relationship between BI and anxiety outcomes 6 months apart during COVID-19 (n = 86; T1 Mage  = 15.95, SD = 1.73; T6 Mage  = 16.43, SD = 1.73). We found support for the moderating role of DBC in the relationship between BI levels and social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptom severity during the pandemic. Here, high BI was predictive of increased SAD symptom levels in adolescents with stronger DBC.

Social versus non-social behavioral inhibition: Differential prediction from early childhood of long-term psychosocial outcomes

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperamental style characterized by cautious and fearful behaviors in novel situations. The present multi-method, longitudinal study examined whether young children's observed and parent-reported BI in social versus non-social contexts predicts different long-term psychosocial outcomes. Participants (N = 279) were drawn from a longitudinal study of socioemotional development. BI in social contexts ("social BI") was measured via children's observed wariness toward unfamiliar adults and peers at 24 and 36 months and parents' reports of children's social fear/shyness at 24, 36, and 48 months. BI in non-social contexts ("non-social BI") was measured via children's observed fearful responses to masks and novel toys, and parents' reports of children's distress to non-social novelty at 9 months and non-social fear at 48 months. At 15 years, anxiety was assessed via adolescent- and parent-reports, and global internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed via parent-reports. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor model fit the BI data significantly better than a single-factor model, providing evidence for the dissociation of BI in social versus non-social contexts. Social BI was uniquely associated with adolescent social anxiety, whereas non-social BI was specifically associated with adolescent separation anxiety. Neither social BI nor non-social BI predicted global internalizing and externalizing problems, providing evidence for the specific relations between BI and anxiety problems. Together, these results suggest that young children's inhibited responses in social versus non-social situations predict different subtypes of anxiety problems in adolescence, highlighting the multifaceted nature of BI and the divergent trajectories of different anxiety problems.

Novel mechanism-based treatments for pediatric anxiety and depressive disorders

Pediatric anxiety and depressive disorders are common, can be highly impairing, and can persist despite the best available treatments. Here, we review research into novel treatments for childhood anxiety and depressive disorders designed to target underlying cognitive, emotional, and neural circuit mechanisms. We highlight three novel treatments lying along a continuum relating to clinical impact of the disorder and the intensity of clinical management required. We review cognitive training, which involves the lowest risk and may be applicable for problems with mild to moderate impact; psychotherapy, which includes a higher level of clinical involvement and may be sufficient for problems with moderate impact; and brain stimulation, which has the highest potential risks and is therefore most appropriate for problems with high impact. For each treatment, we review the specific underlying cognitive, emotional, and brain circuit mechanisms that are being targeted, whether treatments modify those underlying mechanisms, and efficacy in reducing symptoms. We conclude by highlighting future directions, including the importance of work that leverages developmental windows of high brain plasticity to time interventions to the specific epochs in childhood that have the largest and most enduring life-long impact.

The development of depressogenic self-schemas: Associations with children's regional grey matter volume in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex

Cognitive theories of depression contend that biased cognitive information processing plays a causal role in the development of depression. Extensive research shows that deeper processing of negative and/or shallower processing of positive self-descriptors (i.e., negative and positive self-schemas) predicts current and future depression in adults and children. However, the neural correlates of the development of self-referent encoding are poorly understood. We examined children's self-referential processing using the self-referent encoding task (SRET) collected from 74 children at ages 6, 9, and 12; around age 10, these children also contributed structural magnetic resonance imaging data. From age 6 to age 12, both positive and negative self-referential processing showed mean-level growth, with positive self-schemas increasing relatively faster than negative ones. Further, voxel-based morphometry showed that slower growth in positive self-schemas was associated with lower regional gray matter volume (GMV) in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Our results suggest that smaller regional GMV within vlPFC, a critical region for regulatory control in affective processing and emotion development, may have implications for the development of depressogenic self-referential processing in mid-to-late childhood.

Attention Training as a Low-Intensity Treatment for Concerning Anxiety in Clinic-Referred Youth

Although youth anxiety treatment research has focused largely on severe and impairing anxiety levels, even milder anxiety levels, including levels that do not meet full criteria for a diagnosis, can be impairing and cause for concern. There is a need to develop and test viable treatments for these concerning anxiety levels to improve functioning and reduce distress. We present findings from a randomized controlled efficacy trial of attention bias modification treatment (ABMT) and attention control training (ACT) for youths with concerning anxiety levels. Fifty-three clinic-referred youths (29 boys, M age = 9.3 years, SD age = 2.6) were randomized to either ABMT or ACT. ABMT and ACT consisted of attention-training trials in a dot-probe task presenting angry and neutral faces; probes appeared in the location of neutral faces in 100% of ABMT trials and 50% of ACT trials. Independent evaluators provided youth anxiety severity ratings; youths and parents provided youth anxiety severity and global impairment ratings; and youths completed measures of attention bias to threat and attention control at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 2-month follow-up. In both arms, anxiety severity and global impairment were significantly reduced at posttreatment and follow-up. At follow-up, anxiety severity and global impairment were significantly lower in ACT compared with ABMT. Attention control, but not attention bias to threat, was significantly improved at follow-up in both arms. Changes in attention control and attention focusing were significantly associated with changes in anxiety severity. Findings support the viability of attention training as a low-intensity treatment for youths with concerning anxiety levels, including levels that do not meet full criteria for a diagnosis. Superior anxiety reduction effects in ACT highlight the critical need for mechanistic research on attention training in this population.

Attentional biases in human anxiety

Across clinical and subclinical samples, anxiety has been associated with increased attentional capture by cues signaling danger. Various cognitive models attribute the onset and maintenance of anxiety symptoms to maladaptive selective information processing. In this brief review, we 1) describe the evidence for the relations between anxiety and attention bias toward threat, 2) discuss the neurobiology of anxiety-related differences in threat bias, 3) summarize work investigating the developmental origins of attention bias toward threat, and 4) examine efforts to translate threat bias research into clinical intervention. Future directions in each area are discussed, including the use of novel analytic approaches improving characterization of threat-processing-related brain networks, clarifying the role of cognitive control in the development of attention bias toward threat, and the need for larger, well-controlled randomized clinical trials examining moderators and mediators of treatment response. Ultimately, this work has important implications for understanding the etiology of and for intervening on anxiety difficulties among children and adults.

Spectral parameterization for studying neurodevelopment: How and why

A growing body of literature suggests that the explicit parameterization of neural power spectra is important for the appropriate physiological interpretation of periodic and aperiodic electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. In this paper, we discuss why parameterization is an imperative step for developmental cognitive neuroscientists interested in cognition and behavior across the lifespan, as well as how parameterization can be readily accomplished with an automated spectral parameterization ("specparam") algorithm (Donoghue et al., 2020a). We provide annotated code for power spectral parameterization, via specparam, in Jupyter Notebook and R Studio. We then apply this algorithm to EEG data in childhood (N = 60; Mage = 9.97, SD = 0.95) to illustrate its utility for developmental cognitive neuroscientists. Ultimately, the explicit parameterization of EEG power spectra may help us refine our understanding of how dynamic neural communication contributes to normative and aberrant cognition across the lifespan. Data and annotated analysis code for this manuscript are available on GitHub as a supplement to the open-access specparam toolbox.

Longitudinal investigation of shyness and physiological vulnerability: Moderating influences of attention biases to threat and safety

Shyness has long been identified as a vulnerability factor to developing psychosocial problems, but there is heterogeneity in these observed outcomes. One potential factor underlying these relations is individual differences in threat sensitivity. Using a longitudinal design, we examined whether attentional biases toward social threat and safety measured during adulthood moderated the association between shyness measured in emerging adulthood (N = 83, n_female = 48; M_age = 23.56 years, SD_age = 1.09 years) and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry at rest, a physiological index of vulnerability to psychopathology, measured nearly a decade later in adulthood (M_age = 31.68 years, SD_age = 2.27 years). We found that only biases to threat moderated the association between shyness and resting frontal EEG asymmetry longitudinally. In individuals who displayed relative vigilance to social threat, shyness was associated with greater relative right frontal EEG activity at rest (i.e., increased physiological vulnerability). These findings suggest that attentional biases to threat may play a role in understanding the relation between shyness and some known physiological vulnerabilities to psychopathology in adults.

Fearful Temperament and the Risk for Child and Adolescent Anxiety: The Role of Attention Biases and Effortful Control

Fearful temperament represents one of the most robust predictors of child and adolescent anxiety; however, not all children with fearful temperament unvaryingly develop anxiety. Diverse processes resulting from the interplay between automatic processing (i.e., attention bias) and controlled processing (i.e., effortful control) drive the trajectories toward more adaptive or maladaptive directions. In this review, we examine the associations between fearful temperament, attention bias, and anxiety, as well as the moderating effect of effortful control. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose a two-mechanism developmental model of attention bias that underlies the association between fearful temperament and anxiety. We propose that the sub-components of effortful control (i.e., attentional control and inhibitory control) play different roles depending on individuals' temperaments, initial automatic biases, and goal priorities. Our model may help resolve some of the mixed findings and conflicts in the current literature. It may also advance our knowledge regarding the cognitive mechanisms linking fearful temperament and anxiety, as well as facilitate the continuing efforts in identifying and intervening with children who are at risk. Finally, we conclude the review with a discussion on the existing limitations and then propose questions for future research.

Effects of visual search task on attentional bias and stress response under pressure

BACKGROUND

it has always been a problem for athletes that their performance is out of order due to pressure in major competitions. The change of attention pattern and the emergence of stress response (SR) caused by negative affect (NA) are the direct reasons for the greater impact on the performance of athletes. It is a hot topic to explore how to improve attention bias (AB) and SR of athletes in stressful situations.

OBJECTIVE

the study aimed to analyze the improvement effect of visual search task (VST) training on AB and SR of athletes under pressure situations.

METHODS

62 male basketball players with national level 2 or above of Shenyang sports institute were divided into experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). Visual search task training program was used in the EG (happy, sad, disgusted, neutral faces) and sham training program was used in the CG (all faces with neutral expression) for two months. Under the stress situation, attention behavior of all subjects before and after training was tested. Physiological coherence and autonomic balance system were used to record heart rate variability synchronously. Parallel frequency domain analysis was divided into very low frequency band (VLF), low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and total spectrum (TP). The normalized treatment obtained indexes such as HFnorm, LFnorm, and LF/HF. The e-prime 2.0 software was adopted to obtain the attention bias score. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and the self-rating stress scale were adopted for evaluation before and after training.

RESULTS

the self-rating pressure in the two groups was lower than that before the training, and the pressure in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). After training, the positive emotion of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group, and the EG was lower than that of the CG (P < 0.05). After training, the score of attention bias of happy and neutral faces in the EG was higher than that of theCG, while the score of attention bias of sad and disgusted faces was lower than that of the CG (P < 0.05). After training, LF/HF and LFnorm in the EG were lower than those in the CG, and HFnorm was higher than those in the CG (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

the training of visual search task can effectively improve the athletes' PA and AB of positive information, reduce the attention bias of negative information and psychological pressure, and relieve theSR.

Individual dynamics of delta-beta coupling: using a multilevel framework to examine inter- and intraindividual differences in relation to social anxiety and behavioral inhibition

BACKGROUND

Variation in EEG-derived delta-beta coupling has recently emerged as a potential neural marker of emotion regulation, providing a novel and noninvasive method for assessing a risk factor for anxiety. However, our understanding of delta-beta coupling has been limited to group-level comparisons, which provide limited information about an individual's neural dynamics.

METHODS

The present study used multilevel modeling to map second-by-second coupling patterns between delta and beta power. Specifically, we examined how inter- and intraindividual delta-beta coupling patterns changed as a function of social anxiety symptoms and temperamental behavioral inhibition (BI).

RESULTS

We found that stronger inter- and intraindividual delta-beta coupling were both associated with social anxiety. In contrast, the high-BI group showed weaker coupling relative to the non-BI group, a pattern that did not emerge when analyzing continuous scores of BI.

CONCLUSIONS

In characterizing inter- and intraindividual coupling across the sample, we illustrate the utility of examining neural processes across levels of analysis in relation to psychopathology to create multilevel assessments of functioning and risk.

Covariation between spontaneous neural activity in the insula and affective temperaments is related to sleep disturbance in individuals with major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

Affective temperaments have been considered antecedents of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about how the covariation between alterations in brain activity and distinct affective temperaments work collaboratively to contribute to MDD. Here, we focus on the insular cortex, a critical hub for the integration of subjective feelings, emotions, and motivations, to examine the neural correlates of affective temperaments and their relationship to depressive symptom dimensions.

METHODS

Twenty-nine medication-free patients with MDD and 58 healthy controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging scanning and completed the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (TEMPS). Patients also received assessments of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). We used multivariate analyses of partial least squares regression and partial correlation analyses to explore the associations among the insular activity, affective temperaments, and depressive symptom dimensions.

RESULTS

A profile (linear combination) of increased fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) of the anterior insular subregions (left dorsal agranular-dysgranular insula and right ventral agranuar insula) was positively associated with an affective-temperament (depressive, irritable, anxious, and less hyperthymic) profile. The covariation between the insula-fALFF profile and the affective-temperament profile was significantly correlated with the sleep disturbance dimension (especially the middle and late insomnia scores) in the medication-free MDD patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The resting-state spontaneous activity of the anterior insula and affective temperaments collaboratively contribute to sleep disturbances in medication-free MDD patients. The approach used in this study provides a practical way to explore the relationship of multivariate measures in investigating the etiology of mental disorders.

Dyadic behavioral synchrony between behaviorally inhibited and non-inhibited peers is associated with concordance in EEG frontal Alpha asymmetry and Delta-Beta coupling

Behavioral synchrony during social interactions is foundational for the development of social relationships. Behavioral inhibition (BI), characterized by wariness to social novelty and increased anxiety, may influence how children engage in moment-to-moment behavioral synchrony. EEG-derived frontal Alpha asymmetry and Delta-Beta coupling reflect approach-avoidance behavior and emotion regulation, respectively. We examined the relation between intradyadic behavioral synchrony in energy levels and peer gaze, BI, and EEG measures (N = 136, 68 dyads, Mean_Age = 10.90 years) during unstructured and structured interactions. Energy levels were negatively synchronized when both children exhibited right Alpha asymmetry. If either child exhibited left Alpha asymmetry, the dyad exhibited more positive synchrony. Peer gaze was less synchronized during the unstructured task with left Alpha asymmetry. Greater positive Delta-Beta coupling in BI children was associated with more peer gaze synchrony. Peer gaze was asynchronous when BI children exhibited negative Delta-Beta coupling and their partner exhibited positive coupling.

Early Detection of Temperament Risk Factors: A Comparison of Clinically Referred and General Population Children

Despite an extensive literature on associations between early childhood temperament and behavior problems, most of this evidence is based on general population samples. Hence, relatively little is known about the temperament characteristics of children who have been referred for in- or outpatient treatment of emotional and/or behavioral problems. Whether temperament-to-behavior problems identified in community samples would also be found in samples of clinically referred children is poorly understood. To redress this limitation, we compared temperament attributes of a predominantly preschool-aged sample of children referred for treatment of emotional and/or behavioral disorders (N = 87) with those from a similarly-aged general population sample (N = 85) by using the Integrative Child Temperament Screener (ICTS)-a new nine-item scale to identify clinically significant temperament attributes. Behavioral symptoms in the clinical sample were assessed through diagnostic interviews in combination with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), which was also administered to the general population children. Compared with general population children, referred children exhibited substantially higher scores on all ICTS subscales except behavioral inhibition. Furthermore, areas under the curve analyses showed that discrimination of both groups based on CBCL scales could be improved by adding the ICTS. Overall, the findings fill a long-standing gap in evidence regarding temperament characteristics of children with serious emotional and/or behavioral symptoms and suggest a useful role for the ICTS in assessment, screening, and prevention.

Sensory processing and cortisol at age 4 years: Procedural pain-related stress in children born very preterm

Children born preterm display altered sensory processing, which may manifest as hyper- and/or hypo-sensitivity to sensory information. In this vulnerable population, exposure to neonatal pain-related stress is associated with altered stress regulation, as indexed by alterations in cortisol levels. It is unknown whether sensory processing behaviors are also affected by early life adversity, and whether dysregulated cortisol is related to sensory processing problems in preterm children. We examined relationships between neonatal pain-related stress, sensory processing profiles and cortisol levels at age 4 years, and whether pathways were sex-specific. In a longitudinal prospective cohort study, N = 146 infants born 24-32 weeks gestational age were recruited from BC Women's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; neonatal factors were collected from daily chart review. At age 4 years, saliva to assay cortisol was collected three times across cognitive assessment (pre-test, during, end) and parents completed the Short Sensory Profile questionnaire. Using generalized linear modeling, independent of other neonatal factors, higher number of invasive procedures (pain/stress) was associated with more sensory processing problems (total, hypo- and hyper-sensitivity) for girls only. After accounting for neonatal factors, greater cortisol output across the assessment was associated with more total sensory processing problems in girls only, and hypersensitivity to sensory input in both boys and girls. Findings suggest that in children born very preterm, how a child responds to sensory input and cortisol reactivity to stress are related but may have different precursors. Girls may be somewhat more susceptible to neonatal pain-related stress exposure in relation to sensory processing at preschool age.

Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents

Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths' positive self-schemas were associated with greater regional GMV within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while negative self-schemas were associated with smaller regional GMV within vlPFC and PCC, areas important to emotion regulation and self-referential processing. These associations remained significant after controlling for youths' concurrent depressive symptoms. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that adolescents' depressogenic self-schemas may mediate associations between GMV and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that the observed GMV variations within vlPFC and PCC may serve as neurobiological markers of depressogenic self-schemas during preadolescence.

Brief, Non-Pharmacological, Interventions for Pediatric Anxiety: Meta-Analysis and Evidence Base Status

In 1998, Ost published [One-session treatment of specific phobias-a rapid and effective method] [in Swedish] giving rise to the idea that brief, intensive, and concentrated psychosocial interventions could exhibit public health impact. At this juncture, and per criteria of the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, there are data supporting that brief, non-pharmacological intervention [prescriptions] for pediatric anxiety can be considered well-established or probably efficacious. In addition, data from 76 randomized controlled trials (N = 17,203 youth) yield an overall mean effect size of 0.19 on pediatric anxiety outcomes (pre-post). Note, however, that effect sizes vary significantly. These data point to the capacity for clinical change coming from in-vivo exposures for specific phobias (~3 h, one session), CBT with social skills training (~3 h, six sessions for indicated prevention and early intervention), and CBT-based parent training (~6 h, eight digital modules with clinician support). Given such evidence, we recommend efforts be made to establish ways to position such treatment innovations for rapid deployment facilitated by high-quality training, monitoring, technical assistance, and ongoing disclosures.

Attention shifting in the context of emotional faces: Disentangling neural mechanisms of irritability from anxiety

BACKGROUND

Irritability predicts concurrent and prospective psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. Anxiety commonly co-occurs with irritability, and such comorbidity complicates care. Understanding the mechanisms of comorbid traits is necessary to inform treatment decisions. This study aimed to disentangle neural mechanisms of irritability from anxiety in the context of attentional shifting toward and away from emotional faces in youths from treatment-seeking families.

METHODS

Youths (N = 45), mean age = 14.01 years (standard deviation = 1.89) completed a dot-probe task during functional magnetic resonance imaging acquisition. Whole-brain activation analyses evaluated the effect of irritability on neural reactivity in the context of varying attentional shifting toward and away from emotional faces, both depending on and above and beyond anxiety (i.e., with anxiety as [a] a moderator and [b] a covariate, respectively).

RESULTS

Higher irritability levels related to distinct task-related patterns of cuneus activation, depending on comorbid anxiety levels. Increased irritability also related to distinct task-related patterns of parietal, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar activation, controlling for anxiety. Overall, youths with higher levels of irritability evinced more pronounced fluctuations in neural reactivity across task conditions.

CONCLUSION

The present study contributes to a literature delineating the unique and shared neural mechanisms of overlapping symptom dimensions, which will be necessary to ultimately build a brain- and behavior-based nosology that forms the basis for more targeted and effective treatments.

Identifying child temperament risk factors from 2 to 8 years of age: validation of a brief temperament screening tool in the US, Europe, and China

Despite ample evidence linking particular child temperament characteristics to behavior disorders later in life, there is currently a lack of temperament measures that can be used early, easily, and widely for screening purposes. To redress this gap, the current research aimed at developing a very brief scale of child temperament characteristics that have been found to predict behavior problems over the long term, are represented across models of temperament, and have the potential to exhibit measurement invariance over different countries and childhood periods. The new scale was derived from the Integrative Child Temperament Inventory, a 30-item measure to assess five well-established temperament dimensions, and examined in three studies with samples of children aged between 2 and 8 years across five countries: The United States, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, and Spain (N = 13,425; boys 55.96%). The studies included tests of measurements invariance, of convergent validity with established measures of temperament, and of criterion validity with measures of behavior problems. The scale exhibited full metric invariance and partial scalar invariance across age groups (toddlerhood, preschool, school age) and countries. Test-retest reliability, interrater reliability across teachers, and convergent and criterion validity were adequate. Preliminary data on the measure's clinical utility suggest a favorable balance between brevity and screening accuracy. Altogether, this study suggests that early childhood temperament characteristics placing children at risk for developing behavior problems much later in life can be quickly, effectively, and commensurably assessed across different countries and age groups.

Neural Activity During Self-referential Processing in Children at Risk for Depression

BACKGROUND

According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to self-referential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history.

METHODS

A total of 87 never-depressed 10-12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a self-referential encoding task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, in which they were presented a series of positive and negative trait adjectives and endorsed whether each word was self-descriptive. Small volume correction analyses were conducted within 7 regions of interest that are important for self-referential and emotion-related processes.

RESULTS

Analyses of small volume correction indicated that high-risk children showed greater activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the positive-word self-referential encoding task condition than low-risk children. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the association between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms only when children had lower positive self-schemas, indicating that more positive self-schemas may protect at-risk children from developing depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Cortical midline and prefrontal regions are important to self-, emotion-, and regulation-related processes. Heightened activation within these regions in never-depressed high-risk children indicates that these neurobiological substrates may mediate early vulnerability to depression in the context of cognitive processes relevant to self-concepts.

Stationary and ambulatory attention patterns are differentially associated with early temperamental risk for socioemotional problems: Preliminary evidence from a multimodal eye-tracking investigation

Behavioral Inhibition (BI) is a temperament type that predicts social withdrawal in childhood and anxiety disorders later in life. However, not all BI children develop anxiety. Attention bias (AB) may enhance the vulnerability for anxiety in BI children, and interfere with their development of effective emotion regulation. In order to fully probe attention patterns, we used traditional measures of reaction time (RT), stationary eye-tracking, and recently emerging mobile eye-tracking measures of attention in a sample of 5- to 7-year-olds characterized as BI (N = 23) or non-BI (N = 58) using parent reports. There were no BI-related differences in RT or stationary eye-tracking indices of AB in a dot-probe task. However, findings in a subsample from whom eye-tracking data were collected during a live social interaction indicated that BI children (N = 12) directed fewer gaze shifts to the stranger than non-BI children (N = 25). Moreover, the frequency of gazes toward the stranger was positively associated with stationary AB only in BI, but not in non-BI, children. Hence, BI was characterized by a consistent pattern of attention across stationary and ambulatory measures. We demonstrate the utility of mobile eye-tracking as an effective tool to extend the assessment of attention and regulation to social interactive contexts.

Limbic and prefrontal neural volume modulate social anxiety in children at temperamental risk

BACKGROUND

Clinical levels of a social anxiety disorder (SAD) often appear during childhood and rise to a peak during late adolescence. The temperament trait behavioral inhibition (BI), evident early in childhood, has been linked to increased risk for SAD. Functional and structural variations in brain regions associated with the identification of, and response to, fear may support the BI-SAD relation. Whereas relevant functional studies are emerging, the few extant structural studies have focused on adult samples with mixed findings.

METHODS

A moderated-mediation model was used to examine the relations between BI, SAD symptoms, and brain-volume individual differences in a sample of children at risk for anxiety (ages 9-12; N = 130, 52 BI).

RESULTS

Our findings indicate that at higher levels of BI, children with smaller anterior insula volumes showed stronger correlations between BI and SAD. In addition, larger ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) volumes were associated with fewer SAD symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support previous reports linking SAD levels with variations in volume and reactivity in both limbic (insula) and prefrontal (vlPFC) regions. These findings set the foundation for further examination of networks of neural structures that influence the transition from BI to SAD across development, helping further clarify mechanisms of risk and resilience.

Dispositional negativity, cognition, and anxiety disorders: An integrative translational neuroscience framework

When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the underlying mechanisms have only recently begun to come into focus. Here, we review new insights into the nature and biological bases of dispositional negativity, a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and a prominent risk factor for the development of pediatric and adult anxiety disorders. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurobiological, and mechanistic evidence suggest that dispositional negativity increases the likelihood of psychopathology via specific neurocognitive mechanisms, including attentional biases to threat and deficits in executive control. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative translational framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.

Threat-related Attention Bias in Socioemotional Development: A Critical Review and Methodological Considerations

Cross-sectional evidence suggests that attention bias to threat is linked to anxiety disorders and anxiety vulnerability in both children and adults. However, there is a lack of developmental evidence regarding the causal mechanisms through which attention bias to threat might convey risks for socioemotional problems, such as anxiety. Gaining insights into this question demands longitudinal research to track the complex interplay between threat-related attention and socioemotional functioning. Developing and implementing reliable and valid assessments tools is essential to this line of work. This review presents theoretical accounts and empirical evidence from behavioral, eye-tracking, and neural assessments of attention to discuss our current understanding of the development of normative threat-related attention in infancy, as well as maladaptive threat-related attention patterns that may be associated with the development of anxiety. This review highlights the importance of measuring threat-related attention using multiple attention paradigms at multiple levels of analysis. In order to understand if and how threat-related attention bias in real-life, social interactive contexts can predict socioemotional development outcomes, this review proposes that future research cannot solely rely on screen-based paradigms but needs to extend the assessment of threat-related attention to naturalistic settings. Mobile eye-tracking technology provides an effective tool for capturing threat-related attention processes in vivo as children navigate fear-eliciting environments and may help us uncover more proximal bio-psycho-behavioral markers of anxiety.

Integrating high-density ERP and fMRI measures of face-elicited brain activity in 9-12-year-old children: An ERP source localization study

Social information processing is a critical mechanism underlying children's socio-emotional development. Central to this process are patterns of activation associated with one of our most salient socioemotional cues, the face. In this study, we obtained fMRI activation and high-density ERP source data evoked by parallel face dot-probe tasks from 9-to-12-year-old children. We then integrated the two modalities of data to explore the neural spatial-temporal dynamics of children's face processing. Our results showed that the tomography of the ERP sources broadly corresponded with the fMRI activation evoked by the same facial stimuli. Further, we combined complementary information from fMRI and ERP by defining fMRI activation as functional ROIs and applying them to the ERP source data. Indices of ERP source activity were extracted from these ROIs at three a priori ERP peak latencies critical for face processing. We found distinct temporal patterns among the three time points across ROIs. The observed spatial-temporal profiles converge with a dual-system neural network model for face processing: a core system (including the occipito-temporal and parietal ROIs) supports the early visual analysis of facial features, and an extended system (including the paracentral, limbic, and prefrontal ROIs) processes the socio-emotional meaning gleaned and relayed by the core system. Our results for the first time illustrate the spatial validity of high-density source localization of ERP dot-probe data in children. By directly combining the two modalities of data, our findings provide a novel approach to understanding the spatial-temporal dynamics of face processing. This approach can be applied in future research to investigate different research questions in various study populations.

Neural correlates of attention bias to masked facial threat cues: Examining children at-risk for social anxiety disorder

Background

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early-appearing temperament trait and a robust predictor of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Both BI and anxiety may have distinct patterns of emotion processing marked by heightened neural responses to threat cues. BI and anxious children display similar frontolimbic patterns when completing an emotion-face attention bias task with supraliminal presentation. Anxious children also show a distinct neural response to the same task with subliminal face presentations, probing stimulus-driven attention networks. We do not have parallel data available for BI children, limiting our understanding of underlying affective mechanisms potentially linking early BI to the later emergence of anxiety.

Method

We examined the neural response to subliminal threat presentation during an emotion-face masked dot-probe task in children oversampled for BI (N = 67; 30 BI, 9–12 yrs).

Results

Non-BI children displayed greater activation versus BI children in several regions in response to threat faces versus neutral faces, including striatum, prefrontal and temporal lobes. When comparing congruent and incongruent trials, which require attention disengagement, BI children showed greater activation than non-BI children in the cerebellum, which is implicated in rapidly coordinating information processing, aversive conditioning, and learning the precise timing of anticipatory responses.

Conclusions

Non-BI children may more readily engage rapid coordinated frontolimbic circuitry to salient stimuli, whereas BI children may preferentially engage subcortical circuitry, in response to limbic “alarms” triggered by subliminal threat cues. These data help reveal the extent to which temperamental risk shares similar neurocircuitry previously documented in anxious adolescents and young adults in response to masked threat.

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All children displayed amygdala activation in response to brief threat cues.

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Non-BI children displayed activation in striatum, PFC and temporal lobes.

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BI children showed greater activation in the cerebellum.