Collaborative Research: Examining Behavioral and Neurophysiological Precursors of Effortful Control

这个项目是关于自我调节的，这对整个生命周期内广泛的发展成果至关重要。我们对这些技能在生命的头两年的起源和最初的发展知之甚少。然而，正是在婴儿期，情绪反应性的行为和神经生理学基础--调节的先驱--得到了体现。此外，这些基本机制中的性别差异尚未得到审查，尽管有相当多的证据表明，对女孩的早期监管更先进。这项研究提供了情绪反应性的密集行为和大脑活动检查，与新兴的自我调节联系在一起。我们的研究首次考察了：(1)依赖情绪诱发任务，在婴儿期与恐惧/方法和相关信息处理偏差有关的大脑活动的发展；(2)婴儿期脑活动变化的性别差异，行为和脑活动变化模式之间的对应关系，以及这些变化预测两岁左右自我调节的程度。已确定的反应性和调节之间的联系将为现有的发展理论和结果提供信息，并将传播给父母和幼儿教育工作者，最大限度地支持新出现的儿童自我调节。从婴儿期开始，调节由注意力能力支持，并成为生活中大多数领域发挥作用的关键。尽管自律很重要，但人们对自律的起源仍然知之甚少，尤其是在情感基础方面。情绪反应首先“上线”，为随后的调节能力发展奠定基础。因此，婴儿期主要反应性领域(恐惧和接近)的增长，以及这些发育变化和新出现的自我调节之间的联系，需要进一步研究。我们将回答一些挥之不去的问题，比如恐惧和接近取向在行为和大脑活动水平上是如何相互关联的，以及这些特征在多大程度上为自我调节奠定了基础。我们将利用脑电(EEG)记录和生命头两年的多项评估来辨别恐惧和方法的变化如何有助于基于注意力的自我调节的发展，以及这些过程对男孩和女孩可能有什么不同。因此，家长和教育工作者可以就发展阶段进行指导，在这些阶段，从促进法规的角度来看，有效地协商儿童方法的极端变化或回避是特别重要的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is about self-regulation, critical to wide ranging developmental outcomes across the lifespan. We know little about the origins and initial development of these skills during the first two years of life. It is during infancy, however, that behavioral and neurophysiological underpinnings of emotion reactivity, the precursor of regulation, are manifested. Moreover, sex differences in these foundational mechanisms have not been examined, despite considerable evidence of more advanced early regulation for girls. This research provides an intensive behavioral and brain activity examination of emotion reactivity, making connections with emerging self-regulation. Our study is the first to examine: (1) development of brain activity linked with fear/approach and related information processing biases across infancy, relying on emotion-eliciting tasks; (2) sex differences in brain activity changes across infancy, correspondence between behavioral and brain activity change patterns, and the extent to which these predict self-regulation around the 2nd birthday. Identified connections between reactivity and regulation will inform existing developmental theories and results will be disseminated to parents and early childhood educators, maximizing support for emerging child self-regulation.Starting in infancy, regulation is supported by attentional capacity and becomes essential to functioning across most areas of life. Despite this importance, the origins of self-regulation are still poorly understood, especially with respect to the emotional underpinnings. Emotional reactivity “comes online” first, creating a foundation for subsequent development of regulatory capacity. Thus, growth in the principal domains of reactivity (fear and approach) in infancy, and links between these developmental changes and emerging self-regulation, require further study. We will answer lingering questions regarding how fearfulness and approach orientation on the behavioral and brain activity level are interrelated, and the extent to which these characteristics set the stage for self-regulation. We will leverage electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and multiple evaluations across the first two years of life to discern how changes in fear and approach contribute to the development of attention-based self-regulation, and how these processes may differ for boys and girls. As a result, parents and educators can be instructed regarding developmental periods during which effective negotiation of extreme changes in child approach or avoidance are particularly important from the standpoint of promoting regulation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.