Understanding the role of dysregulation in positive affect in developmental psychopathology.

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PROJECT SUMMARY Emotion dysregulation is transdiagnostic, integral to most affective and disruptive behavior disorders, and is associated with impaired functioning across domains from health to academics. The study of dysregulation of negative affect, or irritability, has resulted in a better understanding of how it predicts later impairment and general psychopathology and has identified neural correlates. However, there has been less focus on dysregulation of positive affect, despite recent evidence suggesting it contributes to the development of psychopathology, particularly externalizing symptoms, and impairment across domains from general to social functioning. Dysregulated positive affect may not only confer independent risk, but is likely to have separate underlying neural correlates, as positive and negative emotional valence systems are different domains in the Research Domains Criteria. While surgency, the temperamental measure of high positive affect, has been related to increased aggression and externalizing symptoms in infants and young children, how this relates to clinical dysregulation of positive affect, or excitability, is unknown. Moreover, the relationships between surgency and excitability with psychopathology and impairment have been largely unstudied in young children. This proposal addresses these gaps in understanding by studying the overlapping and separable contributions of surgency (normative high positive affect), excitability (clinically related dysregulated positive affect), and irritability (clinically related dysregulated negative affect) to symptoms of psychopathology and impairment in school age children. Additionally, this proposal will assess the overlap and distinctions in brain-behavior relationships between dysregulation in positive and negative affect. Specifically, 100 7-10-year-old children enriched for emotion dysregulation will be assessed using a research diagnostic interview and parent and self- report measures of emotional and general functioning at baseline and after one year. At baseline, children will undergo functional MRI scans during emotion response and regulation tasks. Consistent with the NIMH Strategic plan, particularly Strategy Objective 2, to “chart mental illness trajectories to determine when, where, and how to intervene,” understanding the separable contributions of surgency, excitability, and irritability to risk trajectories and elucidating the neural correlates of such can provide meaningful targets for early identification and intervention in multiple disorders. Under the mentorship of a diverse team of experts in emotion regulation and development, developmental psychology and psychopathology, and longitudinal and statistical methodology, the training provided through this proposal will facilitate the applicant gaining expertise in fMRI methods for studying affective processing, dimensional constructs in developmental psychopathology, and longitudinal design and analysis. This training will provide the foundational components of the applicant's long-term goals of understanding the neural and behavioral development of emotion dysregulation, specifically excitability, to inform early identification and interventions for improving emotion regulation prior to significant impairment.