Longitudinal study of emotion processing and regulation: An electrocortical approach

儿童情绪调节的个体差异预示着重要的发展结果，如以后的学习成绩、社交能力、社会经济地位以及身心健康。情绪调节依赖于执行功能(EF)的发展，EF是参与情绪调节的刻意的、自上而下的神经认知过程。它尤其与EF的“热”方面有关，也就是在情绪意义重大的情况下运作的控制过程。要了解儿童如何调节自己的情绪，第一步是了解他们是如何处理情绪的。鉴于情绪调节发展的重要结果，我建议研究6-14岁儿童的情绪加工模式是否与情绪调节有关。这个年龄段不仅以情绪调节的重要变化为标志，而且在了解情绪是如何在大脑中发展和处理方面受到的关注相对较少。*在NSERC资助的一系列婴儿和成年人研究中，我们发现了婴儿和成年人在处理恐惧、愤怒和快乐过程中额叶、边缘、自主神经和内分泌活动的明显模式，使用行为、功能磁共振、电皮质、自主神经和内分泌测量(参见Miskovic Schmidt&Miskovic，2014)。我们发现，积极情绪的体验(例如，快乐)与相对左侧额叶的大脑活动有关，而负面情绪的体验(例如，恐惧)与相对右侧额叶的大脑活动相关。*这项拟议的研究将扩展我之前在NSERC中对婴儿和年轻人的工作，以检查典型发育的学龄儿童和青少年的情绪处理发展。在这里，我们将招募6岁、10岁和14岁的典型发育儿童的横断面队列。最年轻的队列将在相同的时间点进行纵向跟踪。我们将回答以下问题：(1)学龄儿童和青少年在处理积极和消极情绪的过程中，是否有不同的大脑皮层活动、心率和皮质醇反应模式，这些模式是否会随着年龄的增长而变化？(2)大脑皮层活动的个体差异是否与情绪调节有关？(3)第一次，与学龄儿童和青少年的情绪处理和调节有关的振荡动力学(用脑电测量)是什么？*儿童时期的情绪处理和调节问题对所有加拿大人来说都是经济上代价高昂的，从心理健康成本、工作损失、和青少年犯罪--更不用说它们给受影响的家庭和儿童造成的损失了。这一建议对理解情绪调节问题背后的基本大脑和行为机制具有重要意义。

Individual differences in childhood emotion regulation predict important developmental outcomes, such as later academic performance, social competence, socioeconomic status, as well as physical and mental health. Emotion regulation relies on the development of executive function (EF) the deliberate, top-down neurocognitive processes involved in emotion regulation. It is particularly related to “hot” aspects of EF, or the control processes that operate in emotionally significant situations. A first step in understanding how children regulate their emotions is to understand how they process them. Given the important outcomes of the development of emotion regulation, I propose to examine whether patterns of emotion processing in 6- to 14-year-old children are linked to emotion regulation. This age period is not only marked by important changes in emotion regulation, but also it has received relatively little attention for understanding how emotions develop and are processed in the brain.****** In a series of NSERC funded studies with infants and adults, we have found distinct patterns of frontal lobe, limbic, autonomic, and endocrine activity during the processing of fear, anger, and happiness in infants and adults, using behavioural, fMRI, electrocortical, autonomic, and endocrine measures (see Miskovic Schmidt & Miskovic, 2014). We have found that the experience of positive emotions (e.g., happiness) is associated with greater relative left frontal brain activity, whereas the experience of negative affect (e.g., fear) is associated with greater relative right frontal brain activity. ****** The proposed research will extend my prior NSERC work with infants and young adults to examine the development of emotion processing in typically-developing school age children and adolescents. Here, we will recruit cross-sectional cohorts of typically developing children at ages 6, 10 and 14 years. The youngest cohort will be followed longitudinally at the same time points. We will address the following questions: (1) Are there distinct patterns of electrocortical activity, heart rate, and cortisol responses during the processing of positive and negative emotions in school age children and adolescents, and do these patterns change with age? (2) Are individual differences in electrocortical activity related to emotion regulation? (3) For the first time, what are the oscillatory dynamics (measured with electroencephalogram [EEG]) that are associated with emotion processing and regulation in school age children and adolescents? ****** Emotion processing and regulation problems in childhood are economically costly to all Canadians in terms of mental health costs, work loss, and delinquency - let alone the toll they take on families and children who are affected. This proposal has implications for understanding basic brain and behavioural mechanisms underlying emotion regulatory problems.