Longitudinal study of emotion processing and regulation: An electrocortical approach

儿童期情绪调节的个体差异可以预测重要的发展结果，如以后的学习成绩，社会能力，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，执行功能是参与情绪调节的深思熟虑的、自上而下的神经认知过程。它与执行功能的“热”方面特别相关，或者在情绪重要的情况下操作的控制过程。了解儿童如何调节情绪的第一步是了解他们如何处理情绪。鉴于情绪调节发展的重要成果，我建议研究6至14岁儿童的情绪处理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，而且它在理解情绪如何发展和在大脑中处理方面受到的关注相对较少。 在NSERC资助的一系列针对婴儿和成人的研究中，我们发现，在婴儿和成人处理恐惧、愤怒和快乐的过程中，额叶、边缘系统、自主神经和内分泌活动的不同模式，使用行为、功能磁共振成像、皮层电、自主神经和内分泌测量（见Miskovic施密特& Miskovic，2014）。我们发现积极情绪的体验（例如，快乐）与更大的相对左额叶脑活动相关，而负面影响的体验（例如，恐惧）与相对较大的右额叶脑活动有关。 这项拟议中的研究将扩展我之前在NSERC对婴儿和年轻人的研究，以研究典型发育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。将在相同时间点对最年轻的队列进行纵向随访。我们将解决以下问题：（1）学龄儿童和青少年在处理积极和消极情绪时，皮层电活动、心率和皮质醇反应是否有不同的模式，这些模式是否随年龄而变化？(2)皮层电活动的个体差异与情绪调节有关吗？(3)第一次，与学龄儿童和青少年的情绪处理和调节相关的振荡动力学（用脑电图[EEG]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代价高昂的，包括心理健康成本、失业和犯罪--更不用说对受影响的家庭和儿童造成的损失了。这一提议对理解情绪调节问题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.