Sympathetic recovery from anger is associated with emotion regulation

Non-suicidal Self-injury History Moderates the Association Between Maternal Emotional Support and Adolescent Affect During Conflict

Onset of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is most frequent during adolescence. Etiological models indicate that abnormal affective reactivity and regulation within interpersonal contexts is related to heightened NSSI risk. The current study examined the effects of maternal emotional support on adolescent sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity and observed anger during a conflict discussion among 56 mother-daughter dyads consisting of healthy adolescents and adolescents with a history of self-injury. During the conflict discussion task, maternal emotional support and adolescent anger were coded from behavior, and cardiovascular pre-ejection period was used to index SNS responding. Results demonstrated that maternal emotional support was negatively associated with adolescent anger and SNS activity during the conflict. However, these associations were not significant among adolescents with heightened NSSI history. Maternal emotional support may serve as an interpersonal mechanism for adolescent physiological and behavioral regulation, yet may function differently among adolescents with more frequent NSSI.

How it ends: A review of behavioral and psychological phenomena, physiological processes and neural circuits in the termination of aggression in other animals and anger in people

More is known about aggression initiation and persistence in other animals, and anger in people, than about their cessation. This review summarizes knowledge of relevant factors in aggression, mostly in vertebrates, and anger termination in people. The latency, probability and intensity of offensive aggression in mice is controlled by activity in a neuronal subpopulation in ventromedial hypothalamus [VMH]. This activity instantiates an aggressive state termed angriffsbereitschaft ["attack-readiness"]. Fighting in many species is broken into bouts with interbout breaks due to fatigue and/or signals from dorsal raphe to VMH. Eventually, losers decide durations and outcomes of fighting by transitioning to submission or flight. Factors reducing angriffsbereitschaft and triggering these defeat behaviors could include metabolic costs, e.g., lactate accumulation and glucose depletion detected by the hypothalamus, central fatigue perhaps sensed by the Salience Network [insula and anterior cingulate gyrus] and pain of injuries, the latter insufficiently blunted by opioid and non-opioid stress analgesia and transduced by anterior VMH neurons. Winners' angriffsbereitschaft continue for awhile, as indicated by post-victory attacks and, perhaps, triumph displays of some species, including humans. In longer term situations, sensory and/or response habituation of aggression may explain the "Dear enemy" tolerance of competitive neighbors. Prolonged satiation of predatory behavior could involve habenula-regulated reduction of dopaminergic reward in nucleus accumbens. Termination of human anger involves at least three processes, metaphorically termed decay, quenching and catharsis. Hypothesized neural mechanisms include anger diminution by negative feedback from accumbens to anterior cingulate and/or activity in the Salience Network that controls anger's "accumulation/offset" phase.

An experimental task to measure preschool children's frustration induced by having to wait unexpectedly: The role of sensitivity to delay and culture

The ability to manage frustration induced by having to wait for valued outcomes emerges across childhood and is an important marker of self-regulatory capacity. However, approaches to measure this capacity in preschool children are lacking. In this study, we introduced a new task, the Preschool Delay Frustration Task (P-DeFT), designed specifically to identify children's behavioral and emotional markers of waiting-induced frustration during the imposed wait period and after the release from waiting. We then explored how waiting-induced frustration relates to individual differences in delay sensitivity and whether it differs between two cultural groups thought to have different attitudes toward children's conduct and performance: Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK). A total of 112 preschool children (mean age = 46.22 months) completed the P-DeFT in a quiet laboratory. Each trial had two stages; first, a button press elicited a Go signal; second, this Go signal allowed children to go to a "supermarket" to pick a target toy. On most trials, the Go signal occurred immediately on the first press. On 6 trials, an unexpected/unsignaled 5- or 10-s pre-Go-signal period was imposed. Frustration was indexed by performance (button presses and press duration), behavioral agitation, and negative affect during the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal shopping task. Parents rated their children's delay sensitivity. Waiting-related frustration expressed during both the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal task varied with (a) the length of wait and (b) individual differences in parent-rated delay sensitivity. UK children displayed more negative affect during delay than their HK counterparts, although the relationship between delay sensitivity and frustration was culturally invariant.

The Effects of a Prenatal Mindfulness Intervention on Infant Autonomic and Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation

OBJECTIVE

Maternal health and wellness during pregnancy are associated with long-term health outcomes in children. The current study examined whether infants of women who participated in a mindfulness-based intervention during pregnancy that reduced levels of stress and depression, increased physical activity, and improved glucose tolerance differed on biobehavioral markers of psychopathological and physical health risk compared with infants of women who did not.

METHODS

Participants were 135 mother-infant dyads drawn from a racially and ethnically diverse, low-income sample experiencing high stress. The women participated in an intervention trial during pregnancy that involved assignment to either mindfulness-based intervention or treatment-as-usual (TAU). Infants of women from both groups were assessed at 6 months of age on sympathetic (preejection period), parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia), and observed behavioral (negativity and object engagement) reactivity and regulation during the still face paradigm. Linear mixed-effects and generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to examine treatment group differences in infant outcomes.

RESULTS

Relative to those in the intervention group, infants in the TAU group showed a delay in sympathetic activation and subsequent recovery across the still face paradigm. In addition, infants in the intervention group engaged in higher proportions of self-regulatory behavior during the paradigm, compared with the TAU group. No significant effect of intervention was found for parasympathetic response or for behavioral negativity during the still face paradigm.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings provide evidence that maternal participation in a short-term, group mindfulness-based intervention during pregnancy is associated with the early development of salutary profiles of biobehavioral reactivity and regulation in their infants. Because these systems are relevant for psychopathology and physical health, prenatal behavioral interventions may benefit two generations.

Menstrual attitude and social cognitive stress influence autonomic nervous system in women with premenstrual syndrome

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is activated by stress and is closely related to the female menstrual cycle. Women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) have an imbalanced ANS response in their premenstrual period. However, no studies have explored the reasons for the differences in ANS response among women. In this study, we investigated how the female menstrual attitude and acute social stress influence the ANS response in women with PMS. First, 277 women [24.35 ± 2.1] were selected to measure the mediating role of women's menstrual attitude between PMS severity and perceived ANS response. Second, participants' (50 women [23.23 ± 1.25] with and 46 women [22.92 ± 2.00] without PMS) heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV; reflecting the functioning of ANS) under social stress were measured during various menstrual cycle phases. The results indicated that menstrual attitude (bothersome and predictable) had mediating effects between the degree of PMS and perceived ANS response; when undergoing a high cognitive load (e.g. mental-arithmetic) task, the ANS of the PMS group demonstrated hypo-arousal and delayed recovery in the late luteal phase; Therefore, menstrual attitude could influence female perceived ANS response, which may be a risk factor for PMS. When women with PMS experience high-strength cognitive pressure in the premenstrual period, their ANS showed hypo-arousal and delayed recovery, which may be another risk factor for PMS.

Exposure to intimate partner aggression during childhood is associated with blunted skin conductance recovery following stress in early adulthood

This study examines skin conductance level (SCL) trajectories and childhood exposure to intimate partner aggression (IPA) committed between parents in a sample of college students. Although IPA among parents does not directly involve children, children frequently see or are exposed to IPA first-hand when it occurs. This exposure to IPA increases risks for psychopathology and emotional or behavioral difficulties for children or adolescents later in life. However, research has not yet examined the stress response patterns of individuals exposed to IPA, nor how reactivity to stress may be altered based on this exposure. Participants included 161 college students who completed questionnaires assessing demographics, mental health, and exposure to IPA, and also reported on family functioning and parental drinking habits. Additionally, participants completed a three-minute mirror tracing task followed by a three-minute recovery period while SCL was monitored. Multilevel modeling was used to assess whether frequency or level of exposure to IPA was related to trajectories of SCL. Neither variable was related to SCL trajectories during the mirror-tracing task. However, both frequency and level of exposure were related to SCL trajectories during the recovery period, such that for participants reporting higher levels of either IPA exposure variable, SCL trajectories during recovery declined less rapidly and did not decline to as low of a level compared to participants reporting lower levels of IPA exposure. This blunted SCL recovery may be due to wear and tear from repeated innervation, or a calibrating of the SCL response to adapt to a volatile home environment.

Getting in synch: Unpacking the role of parent-child synchrony in the development of internalizing and externalizing behaviors

While substantial research supports the role of parent-child interactions on the emergence of psychiatric symptoms, few studies have explored biological mechanisms for this association. The current study explored behavioral and neural parent-child synchronization during frustration and play as predictors of internalizing and externalizing behaviors across a span of 1.5 years. Parent-child dyads first came to the laboratory when the child was 4-5 years old and completed the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule: Biological Synchrony (DB-DOS: BioSync) task while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data were recorded. Parents reported on their child's internalizing and externalizing behaviors using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) four times over 1.5 years. Latent growth curve (LGC) modeling was conducted to assess neural and behavioral synchrony as predictors of internalizing and externalizing trajectories. Consistent with previous investigations in this age range, on average, internalizing and externalizing behaviors decreased over the four time points. Parent-child neural synchrony during a period of play predicted rate of change in internalizing but not externalizing behaviors such that higher parent-child neural synchrony was associated with a more rapid decrease in internalizing behaviors. Our results suggest that a parent-child dyad's ability to coordinate neural activation during positive interactions might serve as a protective mechanism in the context of internalizing behaviors.

Genetic differential susceptibility to the parent-child relationship quality and the life span development of compassion

The development of compassion for others might be influenced by the social experiences made during childhood and has a genetic component. No research has yet investigated whether the parent-child relationship quality interacts with genetic variation in the oxytocin and dopamine systems in predicting compassion over the life span. In the prospective Young Finns Study (N = 2099, 43.9% men), we examined the interaction between mother-reported emotional warmth and intolerance toward their child assessed in 1980 (age of participants, 3-18 years) and two established genetic risk scores for oxytocin levels and dopamine signaling activity. Dispositional compassion for others was measured with the Temperament and Character Inventory 1997, 2001, and 2012 (age of participants, 20-50 years). We found a gene-environment interaction (p = .031) that remained marginally significant after adjustment for multiple testing. In line with the differential susceptibility hypothesis, only participants who carry alleles associated with low dopamine signaling activity had higher levels of compassion when growing up with emotionally warm parents, whereas they had lower levels of compassion when their parents were emotionally cold. Children's genetic variability in the dopamine system might result in plasticity to early environmental influences that have a long-lasting effect on the development of compassion. However, our findings need replication.

Autonomic Nervous System Inflexibility During Parent-child Interactions is Related to Callous-unemotional Traits in Youth Aged 10-14 Years Old

Youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits are at high risk for aggression and antisocial behavior. Extant literature suggests that CU traits are related to abnormal autonomic responses to negatively-valenced emotional stimuli, although few studies have tested autonomic responding specifically during social interactions. To address this knowledge gap, the current study tested whether CU traits were related to autonomic activity, assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), during several parent-child interaction tasks designed to provoke negative emotion. The sample was 162 clinically referred youth (M age = 12.03, SD = .92; 47% female). Using piecewise latent growth models, we estimated individual differences in RSA during three semi-structured social interaction tasks (reading aloud to a parent and research assistant; a recovery period from the reading task; and a parent-child conflict discussion) and tested whether CU traits were related to patterns of RSA responding across tasks. Overall, youth showed expected RSA decreases during the reading period, increases in RSA during recovery, and further decreases during the conflict discussion. However, youth with clinically-elevated CU traits had a different pattern of RSA change across tasks, such that CU traits were related to significantly less RSA change during reading and recovery. Findings suggest that less RSA engagement during social interactions and less RSA recovery may be a biomarker of CU traits. Future research is needed to examine whether this inflexibility contributes to the development of CU traits beginning early in childhood.

Vigilant or avoidant? Children's temperamental shyness, patterns of gaze, and physiology during social threat

Temperamental shyness is characterized by fear, wariness, and the perception of threat in response to social novelty. Previous work has been inconsistent regarding attentional patterns to social threat among shy children, with evidence for both avoidance and vigilance. We examined relations between children's shyness and gaze aversion during the approach of a stranger (i.e., a context of social novelty), and tested whether these patterns of gaze moderated relations between shyness and autonomic reactivity and recovery. Participants included 152 typically-developing children (M_age  = 7.82 years, SD = 0.44 years) who had their respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) recorded during baseline, social novelty, and recovery. Children's shyness correlated with increases in self-reported nervousness from baseline to social novelty, providing support for perceived threat. Results revealed that children's proportion of gaze aversion from social novelty was related to shyness in a U-shape pattern such that both low levels of gaze aversion (i.e., attentional vigilance) and high levels of gaze aversion (i.e., attentional avoidance) were related to higher levels of shyness. Further, we found that children's shyness was directly related to decreases in RSA from baseline to social novelty, whereas quadratic gaze to social novelty moderated the relation between shyness and RSA recovery. Specifically, shyness was related to greater RSA recovery among children who exhibited attentional vigilance during the novel social interaction. Our findings provide support for both avoidance of, and vigilance to, social threat among different shy children, and these gaze strategies may be differentially related to physiological regulation during novel social encounters.

The role of stress reactivity and pre-injury psychosocial vulnerability to psychological and physical health immediately after traumatic injury

BACKGROUND

Traumatic injuries can have long-term negative impacts on health, especially psychological health. A biopsychosocial approach is recommended to identify those likely to experience psychosocial stress, however large individual differences exist in stress reactivity and post-injury health that remain unexplored. Therefore, we investigated autonomic nervous system (ANS) stress responses and pre-existing psychosocial vulnerability as contributors to health in individuals who sustained a traffic-related injury.

METHODS

120 adults with traffic-related injury and 112 non-injury controls underwent an integrative ANS (cardiac and skin conductance) assessment and a health-related assessment at 3-6 weeks post-injury. Propensity score matching based on six pre-injury psychosocial vulnerability factors (age, sex, education, prior mental/physical health, socioeconomic status) guided the definition of high vulnerability (HV) and low vulnerability (LV) injury subgroups, with the LV subgroup having similar propensity scores to non-injury controls. A three-group comparative analysis of ANS responsivity (baseline, reactivity, recovery/rebound) and post-injury health was performed.

RESULTS

The HV subgroup exhibited the most negative immediate post-injury mental health profile and less adaptive ANS response patterns, indicating greater stress vulnerability/reactivity. Significant differences were found for psychological health (elevated psychological distress and catastrophizing), but not physical health (injury factors, pain, fatigue, physical wellbeing). HV participants showed sympathetic predominance at resting baseline (lower parasympathetic activity and/or elevated heart rate) compared to the LV and control groups, as well as smaller parasympathetic decrease during a cognitive task compared to controls. Despite preserved capacity for restoring initial homeostasis in both injury subgroups during recovery, there was some indication of blunted post-task sympathetic deactivation (larger sympathetic decrease) and reduced overall ANS adaptability (reduction in total power of heart rate variability spectrum), suggesting relative reduced capacity to face stressors compared to controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that baseline resting ANS regulation, particularly parasympathetic activity, and pre-injury psychosocial factors are key contributors to individual psycho-biological responses following traumatic injury, and are therefore potential stress vulnerability markers. Post-stress recovery patterns may represent a novel physiological signature for a "biological intrinsic" vulnerability early after the injury. These findings provide direction for improved early identification and management of injured individuals, including innovative preventive interventions that target ANS regulation.

Measurement of Dysregulation in Children and Adolescents

This article highlights the breadth of measures available for measuring emotion dysregulation, or facets thereof, in children and adolescents, and reviews in detail a subset of these measures. We describe broadband measures and measures that are specific to emotion dysregulation, including observational tools, clinical interviews, and rating scales. Furthermore, we discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and psychometric properties of each approach and specific contexts or populations in which certain methods may be particularly useful. Finally, recommendations for thorough assessment of emotion dysregulation in future studies are provided.

Sympathetic nervous system dominance during stress recovery mediates associations between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms in female adolescents

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is commonly diagnosed during adolescence and is associated with psychological stress reactivity and heightened physiological arousal. No study, however, has systematically examined which aspects of autonomic nervous system function mediate likely links between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Here, we assessed 163 adolescents (90 females; 12.29 ± 1.39 years) with respect to life stress and social anxiety symptoms, and measured respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance levels (SCL) during a psychosocial stress paradigm. We operationalized stress sensitivity as the residual variance in subjective stress severity after accounting for objective severity and changes in autonomic regulation using standardized change scores in RSA and SCL. In females only, stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with each other (p < .001) and with autonomic regulation during both reactivity and recovery (all ps < 0.04). Further, sympathetic nervous system dominance during recovery specifically mediated associations between stress sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms (B = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.02-2.64). In contrast, in males, stress sensitivity, autonomic regulation during reactivity or recovery, and social anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated (all ps > 0.1). We interpret these results in the context of psychobiological models of SAD and discuss implications for interventions targeting autonomic processes.

A Pilot Study of Responses to Interparental Conflict in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research supports that parents of children with ASD experience higher rates of marital conflict compared to parents of neurotypically developing (NT) children; however, no known research examining reactions to interparental conflict in children with ASD exists. This study compared emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses to interparental conflict in ASD (n = 21) and NT children (n = 29). Children were presented with videotaped interactions (constructive vs. destructive conflict) of actors and their reactions were measured. Children with ASD reported higher levels of negative emotions following constructive conflict compared to NT children. Parents of children with ASD rated their child's emotional and behavioral responses to interparental conflict more negatively than parents of NT children. Comparable levels of physiological reactivity were found across both groups.

Parent-child neural synchrony: a novel approach to elucidating dyadic correlates of preschool irritability

BACKGROUND

Research to date has largely conceptualized irritability in terms of intraindividual differences. However, the role of interpersonal dyadic processes has received little consideration. Nevertheless, difficulties in how parent-child dyads synchronize during interactions may be an important correlate of irritably in early childhood. Innovations in developmentally sensitive neuroimaging methods now enable the use of measures of neural synchrony to quantify synchronous responses in parent-child dyads and can help clarify the neural underpinnings of these difficulties. We introduce the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule: Biological Synchrony (DB-DOS:BioSync) as a paradigm for exploring parent-child neural synchrony as a potential biological mechanism for interpersonal difficulties in preschool psychopathology.

METHODS

Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 116) and their mothers completed the DB-DOS:BioSync while assessing neural synchrony during mild frustration and recovery. Child irritability was measured using a latent irritability factor that was calculated from four developmentally sensitive indicators.

RESULTS

Both the mild frustration and the recovery contexts resulted in neural synchrony. However, less neural synchrony during the recovery context only was associated with more child irritability.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that recovering after a frustrating period might be particularly challenging for children high in irritability and offer support for the use of the DB-DOS:BioSync task to elucidate interpersonal neural mechanisms of developmental psychopathology.

Real-Time Psychophysiological and Writing Correlates of Expressive Writing

Concealing memories and emotions associated with a traumatic event seems to have negative effects on health. Re-enacting those events through writing is an opportunity to disclose such memories and emotions, and especially for emotion regulation. To study this, 57 university students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. They either completed an expressive writing or a neutral writing task. Real-time writing and psychophysiological data were recorded throughout the experiment to examine writing dynamics associated with emotion regulation and its psychophysiological correlates (electrodermal activity and electrocardiography measures). The results showed that the expressive group (EG) paused for longer than the control group (CG) denoting a positive and medium effect size ( η p 2 = .10 ) . Furthermore, during and after writing, the EG showed a higher low frequency/high frequency ratio than the CG, evidencing a positive and large effect size ( η p 2 = .22 ) . These real-time findings are interpreted as signs of emotion regulation happening during writing.

Sympathetic arousal during the processing of dysphoric affect by youths at high and low familial risk for depression

Youths at high risk for depression have been shown to have problems in repairing their own sad mood. Given that sympathetic arousal has been implicated both in the experience and regulation of affect, an atypical pattern of arousal may be one of the factors that contribute to mood repair problems. In the current study, we measured sympathetic arousal of never-depressed youths at high (n = 56) and low (n = 67) familial risk for depression during sad mood induction and instructed mood repair. Sympathetic arousal was indexed by skin conductance level (SCL) and cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP); mood repair outcome was indexed by self-rated affect. High-risk youths demonstrated increased SCL during sadness induction, which persisted during mood repair; low-risk youths evidenced increased SCL only during mood repair. Shortened PEP was evident only among high-risk youths and only during mood repair. Furthermore, shortened PEP during mood induction predicted less successful mood repair in the low-risk but not in the high-risk group. The findings suggest that: (a) depression-prone youths differ from control peers in patterns of sympathetic responses to emotional stimuli, which may impair their ability to relieve sadness, and (b) activation patterns differ across subsystems (SCL vs. PEP) of sympathetic activity, in conjunction with depression risk status.

A latent change score approach to understanding dynamic autonomic coordination

Children's self-regulation is a core adaptive system in child development. Physiological indices of regulation, particularly the autonomic nervous system (ANS), have garnered increased attention as an informative level of analysis in regulation research. Cardiography supports the simultaneous examination of both ANS branches via measures of pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as indicators of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, respectively. However, despite their heavily intertwined functions, research examining autonomic coordination across sympathetic and parasympathetic systems is scarce. Moreover, extant efforts have favored static, mean level reactivity analyses, despite the dynamic nature of ANS regulation and the availability of analytic tools that can model these processes across time. This study drew on a sample of 198 six-year-old children from a diverse community sample (49.5% female, 43.9% Latinx) to examine dynamic autonomic coordination using bivariate latent change score modeling to evaluate bidirectional influences of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity over the course of a challenging puzzle completion task. Results indicated that children evidenced reciprocal sympathetic activation (i.e., PEP attenuation and RSA withdrawal) across the challenge task, and these regulatory responses were characterized by a temporally leading influence of PEP on lagging changes in RSA. The current findings contribute to our understanding of children's autonomic coordination while illustrating a novel analytic technique to advance ongoing efforts to understand the etiology and developmental significance of children's physiological self-regulation.

Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood

Although emotional responses are theorized to be important in the development of empathy, findings regarding the prediction of early empathic behavior by infant behavioral and physiological responses are mixed. This study examined whether behavioral and physiological responses to mild emotional challenge (still face paradigm and car seat task) in 118 infants at age 6 months predicted empathic distress and empathic concern in response to an empathy-evoking task (i.e, experimenter's distress simulation) at age 20 months. Correlation analyses, corrected for sex and baseline levels of physiological arousal, showed that stronger physiological and behavioral responses to emotional challenge at age 6 months were positively related to observed empathic distress, but not empathic concern, at age 20 months. Linear regression analyses indicated that physiological and behavioral responses to challenge at 6 months independently predicted empathic distress at 20 months, which suggests an important role for both physiological and behavioral emotional responses in empathy development. In addition, curvilinear regression analyses showed quadratic associations between behavioral responses at 6 months, and empathic distress and empathic concern at 20 months, which indicates that moderate levels of behavioral responsivity predict the highest levels of empathic distress and empathic concern.

Subjective social status and stress responsivity in late adolescence

Subjective social status (SSS) reflects one's perception of one's standing within society. SSS has been linked with health outcomes, over and above socioeconomic status, and is thought to influence health in part by shaping stress responsivity. To test this, the present study examined the links between SSS and psychological, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and cardiovascular responsivity in a sample of 87 ethnically diverse late adolescents (Mage = 18.39 years). Participants rated their family's SSS while either in high school (n = 50) or 1 year afterward (n = 37). Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST) and reported their fear during baseline and after task completion, provided six saliva samples throughout the task, and had their heart rate monitored continuously throughout the task. Multilevel models, with time points nested within participants, were conducted to assess reactivity and recovery for each outcome. Results indicated that lower SSS was associated with greater fear reactivity and faster rates of HPA axis reactivity and recovery to baseline. Regarding cardiovascular responses, no differences were observed with respect to heart rate. Lower SSS predicted increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia during the stress task only among participants who rated their SSS while in high school; no association was observed for those who rated SSS after high school. Results suggest that perceptions of one's family's standing in society can shape responses to stress and potentially broader health.HighlightsSubjective social status (SSS) was linked with differences in stress responsivity. Specifically, lower SSS was associated with greater increases in fear following an acute stressor and faster rates of cortisol reactivity and recovery. Adolescents with lower SSS in high school showed less cardiovascular reactivity and recovery with respect to respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a marker of parasympathetic nervous system activity.

Emotional and autonomic dysregulation in abstinent alcoholic men: An idiosyncratic profile?

Men who misuse alcohol tend to experience negative affect, which may entail difficulties in regulating emotions to cope effectively with stressful or anxiety-provoking situations, thus increasing the risk of alcohol relapse. This dysphoric state has been associated with alexithymia, which compromises an individual's abilities to acknowledge, recognize, and regulate emotional states. A physiological correlate of emotional regulation is autonomic flexibility, as shown by emotional dysregulation in men who misuse alcohol being correlated with reduced parasympathetic activation to control heart rate variability during stress and/or conflict situations. Hence, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether long-term abstinent alcoholic (LTAA) men exhibit higher levels of negative affect and sympathetic activation (cardiovascular and electrodermal) in response to acute standardized laboratory stress than non-alcoholic controls. In addition, we hypothesized that the higher the alexithymic traits, the greater would be the increase in negative affect and sympathetic activation in response to stress, especially in LTAAs. Our data demonstrated that LTAAs experienced slightly greater increases in anxiety, states of anger, and worsening of mood than controls. Moreover, they exhibited lower high-frequency heart rate variability, respiratory sinus arrhythmia values, shorter pre-ejection periods, and higher respiratory rates than controls. Finally, alexithymic traits imply greater worsening of mood and sympathetic predominance (shorter pre-ejection periods and smaller magnitude of response), with the associations being stronger in LTAAs. These findings indicate a different emotional and cardiovascular response to psychosocial stress in LTAA than non-alcoholic men. Improving our knowledge of the way this population reacts to stress may help identify risk factors for alcohol relapse.

The psychobiology of emotional development: The case for examining sociocultural processes

Psychobiological techniques to assess emotional responding have revolutionized the field of emotional development in recent decades by equipping researchers with the tools to quantify children's emotional reactivity and regulation more directly than behavioral approaches allow. Knowledge gained from the incorporation of methods spanning levels of analysis has been substantial, yet many open questions remain. In this prospective review, we (a) describe the major conceptual and empirical advances that have resulted from this methodological innovation, and (b) lay out a case for what we view as the most pressing challenge for the next decades of research into the psychobiology of emotional development: focusing empirical efforts toward understanding the implications of the broader sociocultural contexts in which children develop that shape the psychobiology of emotion. Thus, this review integrates previous knowledge about the psychobiology of emotion with a forward-looking set of recommendations for incorporating sociocultural processes into future investigations.

On Measuring and Modeling Physiological Synchrony in Dyads

Physiological synchrony within a dyad, or the degree of temporal correspondence between two individuals' physiological systems, has become a focal area of psychological research. Multiple methods have been used for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony. Each method extracts and analyzes different types of physiological synchrony, where 'type' refers to a specific manner through which two different physiological signals may correlate. Yet, to our knowledge, there is no documentation of the different methods, how each method corresponds to a specific type of synchrony, and the statistical assumptions embedded within each method. Hence, this article outlines several approaches for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony, connects each type of synchrony to a specific method, and identifies the assumptions that need to be satisfied for each method to appropriately extract each type of synchrony. Furthermore, this article demonstrates how to test for between-dyad differences of synchrony via inclusion of dyad-level (i.e., time-invariant) covariates. Finally, we complement each method with an empirical demonstration, as well as online supplemental material that contains Mplus code.

Physiological mechanisms of prosociality

Psychophysiological perspectives can provide unique insights into the nature and motivations of children's prosociality and inform our understanding of individual differences. Here, I review current research on prosociality involving some of the most common physiological measures in developmental psychology, including cortisol, various sympathetic nervous system measures, and high-frequency heart rate variability. The literature has been quite mixed, in part because the link between physiology and prosociality is context-dependent and person-dependent. However, recent advances are refining our understanding of the basic physiological mechanisms of prosociality. Resting physiology that contributes to a balance of regulation and vigilance prepares children to effectively cope with future social challenges, like noticing and attending to the needs of others. Experiencing some arousal is an important aspect of empathy-related responding, but physiological patterns of both heightened and hypoarousal can undermine prosociality. Physiological flexibility in response to others' needs may support emotional and behavioral flexibility important for prosociality.

Neurobiology of emotions: an update

The 'nature' of emotions is one of the archaic themes of Western thought, thematized in different cultural manifestations - such as art, science, philosophy, myths and religion -, since Ancient times. In the last decades, the advances in neurosciences have permitted the construction of hypotheses that explain emotions, especially through the studies involving the limbic system. To present an updated discussion about the neurobiology of processes relating to emotions - focusing (1) on the main neural structures that relate to emotions, (2) the paths and circuits of greater relevance, (3) the implicated neurotransmitters, (4) the connections that possess neurovegetative control and (5) the discussion about the main emotions - is the objective of this present article.

Moderate baseline vagal tone predicts greater prosociality in children

Vagal tone is widely believed to be an important physiological aspect of emotion regulation and associated positive behaviors. However, there is inconsistent evidence for relations between children's baseline vagal tone and their helpful or prosocial responses to others (Hastings & Miller, 2014). Recent work in adults suggests a quadratic association (inverted U-shape curve) between baseline vagal tone and prosociality (Kogan et al., 2014). The present research examined whether this nonlinear association was evident in children. The authors found consistent evidence for a quadratic relation between vagal tone and prosociality across 3 samples of children using 6 different measures. Compared to low and high vagal tone, moderate vagal tone in early childhood concurrently predicted greater self-reported prosociality (Study 1), observed empathic concern in response to the distress of others and greater generosity toward less fortunate peers (Study 2), and longitudinally predicted greater self-, mother-, and teacher-reported prosociality 5.5 years later in middle childhood (Study 3). Taken together, the findings suggest that moderate vagal tone at rest represents a physiological preparedness or tendency to engage in different forms of prosociality across different contexts. Early moderate vagal tone may reflect an optimal balance of regulation and arousal that helps prepare children to sympathize, comfort, and share with others. (PsycINFO Database Record