Irritability in Youths: A Critical Integrative Review.

Irritability, defined as proneness to anger that may impair an individual's functioning, is common in youths. There has been a recent upsurge in relevant research. The authors combine systematic and narrative review approaches to integrate the latest clinical and translational findings and provide suggestions for addressing research gaps. Clinicians and researchers should assess irritability routinely, and specific assessment tools are now available. Informant effects are prominent, are stable, and vary by age and gender. The prevalence of irritability is particularly high among individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and mood and anxiety disorders. Irritability is associated with impairment and suicidality risk independent of co-occurring diagnoses. Developmental trajectories of irritability (which may begin early in life) have been identified and are differentially associated with clinical outcomes. Youth irritability is associated with increased risk of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and suicidality later in life. Irritability is moderately heritable, and genetic associations differ based on age and comorbid illnesses. Parent management training is effective for treating psychological problems related to irritability, but its efficacy in treating irritability should be tested rigorously, as should novel mechanism-informed interventions (e.g., those targeting exposure to frustration). Associations between irritability and suicidality and the impact of cultural context are important, underresearched topics. Analyses of large, diverse longitudinal samples that extend into adulthood are needed. Data from both animal and human research indicate that aberrant responses to frustration and threat are central to the pathophysiology of irritability, revealing important translational opportunities.

A network approach to the investigation of childhood irritability: probing frustration using social stimuli.

BACKGROUND: Self-regulation in early childhood develops within a social context. Variations in such development can be attributed to inter-individual behavioral differences, which can be captured both as facets of temperament and across a normal:abnormal dimensional spectrum. With increasing emphasis on irritability as a robust early-life transdiagnostic indicator of broad psychopathological risk, linkage to neural mechanisms is imperative. Currently, there is inconsistency in the identification of neural circuits that underlie irritability in children, especially in social contexts. This study aimed to address this gap by utilizing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm to investigate pediatric anger/frustration using social stimuli. METHODS: Seventy-three children (M = 6 years, SD = 0.565) were recruited from a larger longitudinal study on irritability development. Caregivers completed questionnaires assessing irritable temperament and clinical symptoms of irritability. Children participated in a frustration task during fMRI scanning that was designed to induce frustration through loss of a desired prize to an animated character. Data were analyzed using both general linear modeling (GLM) and independent components analysis (ICA) and examined from the temperament and clinical perspectives. RESULTS: ICA results uncovered an overarching network structure above and beyond what was revealed by traditional GLM analyses. Results showed that greater temperamental irritability was associated with significantly diminished spatial extent of activation and low-frequency power in a network comprised of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the precuneus (p < .05, FDR-corrected). However, greater severity along the spectrum of clinical expression of irritability was associated with significantly increased extent and intensity of spatial activation as well as low- and high-frequency neural signal power in the right caudate (p < .05, FDR-corrected). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings point to specific neural circuitry underlying pediatric irritability in the context of frustration using social stimuli. Results suggest that a deliberate focus on the construction of network-based neurodevelopmental profiles and social interaction along the normal:abnormal irritability spectrum is warranted to further identify comprehensive transdiagnostic substrates of the irritability.

Using Smartphone Sensors for Ataxia Trials: Consensus Guidance by the Ataxia Global Initiative Working Group on Digital-Motor Biomarkers.

Smartphone sensors are used increasingly in the assessment of ataxias. To date, there is no specific consensus guidance regarding a priority set of smartphone sensor measurements, or standard assessment criteria that are appropriate for clinical trials. As part of the Ataxia Global Initiative Digital-Motor Biomarkers Working Group (AGI WG4), aimed at evaluating key ataxia clinical domains (gait/posture, upper limb, speech and oculomotor assessments), we provide consensus guidance for use of internal smartphone sensors to assess key domains. Guidance was developed by means of a literature review and a two stage Delphi study conducted by an Expert panel, which surveyed members of AGI WG4, representing clinical, research, industry and patient-led experts, and consensus meetings by the Expert panel to agree on standard criteria and map current literature to these criteria. Seven publications were identified that investigated ataxias using internal smartphone sensors. The Delphi 1 survey ascertained current practice, and systems in use or under development. Wide variations in smartphones sensor use for assessing ataxia were identified. The Delphi 2 survey identified seven measures that were strongly endorsed as priorities in assessing 3/4 domains, namely gait/posture, upper limb, and speech performance. The Expert panel recommended 15 standard criteria to be fulfilled in studies. Evaluation of current literature revealed that none of the studies met all criteria, with most being early-phase validation studies. Our guidance highlights the importance of consensus, identifies priority measures and standard criteria, and will encourage further research into the use of internal smartphone sensors to measure ataxia digital-motor biomarkers.

Irritability Moderates the Association between Cognitive Flexibility Task Performance and Related Prefrontal Cortex Activation in Young Children.

The association between cognitive flexibility and related neural functioning has been inconsistent. This is particularly true in young children, where previous studies have found heterogenous results linking behavior and neural function, raising the possibility of unexplored moderators. The current study explored the moderating role of dimensional irritability in the association between cognitive flexibility task performance and prefrontal activation in young children. A total of 106 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited to complete a custom-designed, child-adapted, cognitive flexibility task, and 98 of them were included in the data analysis. The children's dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation was monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and their levels of irritability were reported by parents using the MAP-DB Temper Loss subscale. Results indicated that the mean reaction time of the cognitive flexibility task was negatively correlated with concurrent prefrontal activation. No evidence was found for the association between task accuracy and prefrontal activation. Moreover, irritability moderated the association between the mean reaction time and prefrontal activation. Children high in irritability exhibited a stronger negative association between the mean reaction time and related prefrontal activation than children low in irritability. The moderating model suggested a novel affective-cognitive interaction to investigate the associations between cognitive task performance and their neural underpinnings.

Setting boundaries: Development of neural and behavioral event cognition in early childhood.

The ongoing stream of sensory experience is so complex and ever-changing that we tend to parse this experience at "event boundaries," which structures and strengthens memory. Memory processes undergo profound change across early childhood. Whether young children also divide their ongoing processing along event boundaries, and if those boundaries relate to memory, could provide important insight into the development of memory systems. In Study 1, 4-7-year-old children and adults segmented a cartoon, and we tested their memory. Children's event boundaries were more variable than adults' and differed in location and consistency of agreement. Older children's event segmentation was more adult-like than younger children's, and children who segmented events more like adults had better memory for those events. In Study 2, we asked whether these developmental differences in event segmentation had their roots in distinct neural representations. A separate group of 4-8-year-old children watched the same cartoon while undergoing an fMRI scan. In the right hippocampus, greater pattern dissimilarity across event boundaries compared to within events was evident for both child and adult behavioral boundaries, suggesting children and adults share similar event cognition. However, the boundaries identified by a data-driven Hidden Markov Model found that a different brain region-the left and right angular gyrus-aligned only with event boundaries defined by children. Overall, these data suggest that children's event cognition is reasonably well-developed by age 4 but continues to become more adult-like across early childhood. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Adults naturally break their experience into events, which structures and strengthens memory, but less is known about children's event perception and memory. Study 1 had adults and children segment and remember events from an animated show, and Study 2 compared those segmentations to other children's fMRI data. Children show better recognition and temporal order memory and more adult-like event segmentation with age, and children who segment more like adults have better memory. Children's and adults' behavioral boundaries mapped onto pattern similarity differences in hippocampus, and children's behavioral boundaries matched a data-driven model's boundaries in angular gyrus.

Prefrontal activation in preschool children is associated with maternal adversity and child temperament: A preliminary fNIRS study of inhibitory control.

Exposure to adversity is a well-documented risk factor for cognitive, behavioral, and mental health problems. In fact, the consequences of adversity may be intergenerational. A growing body of research suggests that maternal exposures to adversity, including those prior to childbirth, are associated with offspring biobehavioral development. In a sample of 36 mothers and their preschool-age children (mean child age = 4.21 ± 0.92 years), we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to replicate and extend this work to include brain activation during inhibitory control in young children. We found that measures of maternal exposure to adversity, including cumulative, childhood, and preconception exposures, were significantly and positively associated with activation in the right frontopolar prefrontal cortex (PFC) and in the left temporal and parietal clusters during inhibitory control. In addition, and consistent with previous findings, children's increased negative affect and decreased effortful control were associated with increased right PFC activation during inhibitory control. These findings provide preliminary evidence that maternal and dispositional risk factors are linked to alterations in PFC functioning during the preschool years. Children of mothers with a history of exposure to adversity, as well as children who are less temperamentally regulated, may require increased neural resources to meet the cognitive demands of inhibitory control.

Review: Defining Positive Emotion Dysregulation: Integrating Temperamental and Clinical Perspectives.

OBJECTIVE: Although emotion dysregulation has been defined as a maladaptive process of emotional experiences, there is no specific reference to the emotional valence of the dysregulation. To date, child psychiatry has focused primarily on dysregulation of negative affect. Here, we suggest that positive emotion dysregulation requires additional clinical and research attention. METHOD: First, we present a developmental approach to the study of positive emotion regulation within a temperament framework. Second, we describe emerging research findings regarding dysregulation of positive emotion in early childhood. Third, we integrate neuroscientific approaches to positive emotion regulation and introduce a framework for future investigations and clinical applications. RESULTS: Dysregulation in positive affect can be examined from temperamental, developmental, clinical, and neuroscientific perspectives. Both temperamental surgency, which includes positive affect, and the proposed clinical extension, excitability, are associated with increased risk of externalizing symptoms and clinical impairment in youth. CONCLUSION: Studying the role of both temperamental surgency and clinically impairing positive affect, or excitability, in developmental psychopathology will help to elucidate the full spectrum of emotion dysregulation and to clarify the neural basis of dysregulation. A more comprehensive conceptualization of positively valanced emotion dysregulation will provide a more nuanced understanding of developmental risk and potential targets for intervention. DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT: One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science.

Calibrating temper loss severity in the transition to toddlerhood: Implications for developmental science.

The integration of neurodevelopmental perspectives into clinical science has identified irritability as an early dimensional marker of lifespan mental health risk. Elucidating the developmental patterning of irritable behavior is key to differentiating normative variation from risk markers. Accounting for dysregulation and contextual features of irritability is useful for differentiation at preschool age, laying the groundwork for even earlier characterization. We provide initial evidence for the validity of the Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Disruptive Behavior Temper Loss Scale, Infant-Toddler version in two independent samples of 12-18-month-olds from the US. We calibrated the measure using item response theory in a large representative sample, then validated within an independent sample. We characterized the developmental patterning of irritable behaviors and their dimensional spectrum, and demonstrated test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. The MAP-DB-IT is a standardized, dimensional survey assessing irritability that serves as a tool for characterizing the developmental expression of early mental health risk.

EmoCodes: a Standardized Coding System for Socio-emotional Content in Complex Video Stimuli.

Social information processing is vital for inferring emotional states in others, yet affective neuroscience has only begun to scratch the surface of how we represent emotional information in the brain. Most previous affective neuroscience work has used isolated stimuli such as static images of affective faces or scenes to probe affective processing. While this work has provided rich insight to the initial stages of emotion processing (encoding cues), activation to isolated stimuli provides limited insight into later phases of emotion processing such as interpretation of cues or interactions between cues and established cognitive schemas. Recent work has highlighted the potential value of using complex video stimuli to probe socio-emotional processing, highlighting the need to develop standardized video coding schemas as this exciting field expands. Toward that end, we present a standardized and open-source coding system for complex videos, two fully coded videos, and a video and code processing Python library. The EmoCodes manual coding system provides an externally validated and replicable system for coding complex cartoon stimuli, with future plans to validate the system for other video types. The emocodes Python library provides automated tools for extracting low-level features from video files as well as tools for summarizing and analyzing the manual codes for suitability of use in neuroimaging analysis. Materials can be freely accessed at https://emocodes.org/. These tools represent an important step toward replicable and standardized study of socio-emotional processing using complex video stimuli. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00100-7.

Joint Consideration of Inhibitory Control and Irritability in Young Children: Contributions to Emergent Psychopathology.

Deficits in self-regulation capacity have been linked to subsequent impairment and clinical symptomology across the lifespan. Prior work has identified difficulty regulating angry emotions (i.e., irritability) as a powerful transdiagnostic indicator of current and future clinical concerns. Less is known regarding how irritability intersects with cognitive features of self-regulation, in particular inhibitory control, despite its mental health relevance. A promising avenue for improving specificity of clinical predictions in early childhood is multi-method, joint consideration of irritability and inhibitory control capacities. To advance early identification of impairment and psychopathology risk, we contrast group- and variable-based models of neurodevelopmental vulnerability at the interface of irritability and inhibitory control in contexts of varied motivational and emotional salience. This work was conducted in a longitudinal study of children recruited at well-child visits in Midwestern pediatric clinics at preschool age (N = 223, age range = 3-7 years). Group-based models (clustering and regression of clusters on clinical outcomes) indicated significant heterogeneity of self-regulation capacity in this sample. Meanwhile, variable-based models (continuous multiple regression) evidenced associations with concurrent clinical presentation, future symptoms, and impairment across the broad spectrum of psychopathology. Irritability transdiagnostically indicated internalizing and externalizing problems, concurrently and longitudinally. In contrast, inhibitory control was uniquely associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms. We present these findings to advance a joint consideration approach to two promising indicators of neurodevelopmental vulnerability and mental health risk. Models suggest that both emotional and cognitive self-regulation capacities can address challenges in characterizing the developmental unfolding of psychopathology from preschool to early childhood age.

Children show adult-like hippocampal pattern similarity for familiar but not novel events.

The ability to detect differences among similar events in our lives is a crucial aspect of successful episodic memory performance, which develops across early childhood. The neural substrate of this ability is supported by operations in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Here, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to measure neural pattern similarity in hippocampus, perirhinal cortex, and parahippocampal cortex for 4- to 10-year-old children and adults during naturalistic viewing of clips from the same compared to different movies. Further, we assessed the role of prior exposure to individual movie clips on pattern similarity in the MTL. In both age groups, neural pattern similarity in hippocampus was lower for clips drawn from the same movies compared to those drawn from different movies, suggesting that related content activates processes focused on keeping representations with shared content distinct. However, children showed this only for movies with which they had prior exposures, whereas adults showed the effect regardless of any prior exposures to the movies. These findings suggest that children require repeated exposure to stimuli to show adult-like MTL functioning in distinguishing among similar events.

Parent-to-Child Anxiety Transmission Through Dyadic Social Dynamics: A Dynamic Developmental Model.

The intergenerational transmission of psychopathology is one of the strongest known risk factors for childhood disorder and may be a malleable target for prevention and intervention. Anxious parents have distinct parenting profiles that impact socioemotional development, and these parenting effects may result in broad alterations to the biological and cognitive functioning of their children. Better understanding the functional mechanisms by which parental risk is passed on to children can provide (1) novel markers of risk for socioemotional difficulties, (2) specific targets for intervention, and (3) behavioral and biological indices of treatment response. We propose a developmental model in which dyadic social dynamics serve as a key conduit in parent-to-child transmission of anxiety. Dyadic social dynamics capture the moment-to-moment interactions between parent and child that occur on a daily basis. In shaping the developmental trajectory from familial risk to actual symptoms, dyadic processes act on mechanisms of risk that are evident prior to, and in the absence of, any eventual disorder onset. First, we discuss dyadic synchrony or the moment-to-moment coordination between parent and child within different levels of analysis, including neural, autonomic, behavioral, and emotional processes. Second, we discuss how overt emotion modeling of distress is observed and internalized by children and later reflected in their own behavior. Thus, unlike synchrony, this is a more sequential process that cuts across levels of analysis. We also discuss maladaptive cognitive and affective processing that is often evident with increases in child anxiety symptoms. Finally, we discuss additional moderators (e.g., parent sex, child fearful temperament) that may impact dyadic processes. Our model is proposed as a conceptual framework for testing hypotheses regarding dynamic processes that may ultimately guide novel treatment approaches aimed at intervening on dyadically linked biobehavioral mechanisms before symptom onset.

Impact of prenatal exposure characterization on early risk detection: Methodologic insights for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study.

BACKGROUND: A major challenge in prenatal drug exposure research concerns the balance of measurement quality with sample sizes necessary to address confounders. To inform the selection of optimal exposure measures for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, we employed integrated analysis to determine how different methods used to characterize prenatal tobacco exposure influence the detection of exposure-related risk, as reflected in normal variations in birth weight. METHODS: Participants were N = 2323 mother-infant dyads derived from 7 independent developmental cohorts harmonized on measures of exposure, outcome (birthweight), and covariates. We compared estimates of PTE-related effects on birthweight derived from linear regression models when PTE was categorized dichotomously based on any fetal exposure (30% exposed; 69% not exposed); versus categorically, based on common patterns of maternal smoking during pregnancy (never smoked 69%; quit smoking 16%; smoked intermittently 2%; smoked persistently 13%). We secondarily explored sex differences in PTE-birthweight associations across these categorization methods. RESULTS: When PTE was categorized dichotomously, exposure was associated with a - 125-g difference in birthweight (95% C.I. -173.7 - -76.6, p < .0001). When PTE was characterized categorically based on maternal smoking patterns, however, exposure was associated with either no difference in birthweight if mothers quit smoking by the end of the first trimester (B = -30.6, 95% C.I. -88.7-27.4, p = .30); or a - 221.8 g difference in birthweight if mothers did not [95% C.I. (-161.7 to -282.0); p < .001]. Qualitative sex differences were also detected though PTE x sex interactions did not reach statistical significance. Maternal smoking cessation during pregnancy was associated with a 239.3 g increase in birthweight for male infants, and a 114.0 g increase in birthweight for females infants (p = .07). CONCLUSIONS: Categorization of PTE based on patterns of maternal smoking rather than the presence or absence of exposure alone revealed striking nuances in estimates of exposure-related risk. The described method that captures both between-individual and within-individual variability in prenatal drug exposure is optimal and recommended for future developmental investigations such as the HBCD Study.

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.

Links between socioeconomic disadvantage, neural function, and working memory in early childhood.

Children reared in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments are at risk for academic, cognitive, and behavioral problems. Mounting evidence suggests that childhood adversities, encountered at disproportionate rates in contexts of socioeconomic risk, shape the developing brain in ways that explain disparities. Circuitries that subserve neurocognitive functions related to memory, attention, and cognitive control are especially affected. However, most work showing altered neural function has focused on middle childhood and adolescence. Understanding alterations in brain development during foundational points in early childhood is a key next step. To address this gap, we examined functional near-infrared-spectroscopy-based neural activation during a working memory (WM) task in young children aged 4-7 years (N = 30) who varied in socioeconomic risk exposure. Children who experienced greater disadvantage (lower income to needs ratio and lower Hollingshead index) exhibited lower activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex than children who experienced less to no disadvantage. Variability in prefrontal cortex activation, but not behavioral performance on the WM task, was associated with worse executive functioning in children as reported by parents. These findings add to existing evidence that exposure to early adversity, such as socioeconomic risk, may lead to foundational changes in the developing brain, which increases risk for disparities in functioning across multiple cognitive and social domains.

Developmental Differences in Affective Representation Between Prefrontal and Subcortical Structures.

Developmental studies have identified differences in prefrontal and subcortical affective structures between children and adults, which correspond with observed cognitive and behavioral maturations from relatively simplistic emotional experiences and expressions to more nuanced, complex ones. However, developmental changes in the neural representation of emotions have not yet been well explored. It stands to reason that adults and children may demonstrate observable differences in the representation of affect within key neurological structures implicated in affective cognition. Forty-five participants (25 children; 20 adults) passively viewed positive, negative, and neutral clips from popular films while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using representational similarity analysis (RSA) to measure variability in neural pattern similarity, we found developmental differences between children and adults in the amygdala, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), such that children generated less pattern similarity within subcortical structures relative to the vmPFC; a phenomenon not replicated among their older counterparts. Furthermore, children generated valence-specific differences in representational patterns across regions; these valence-specific patterns were not found in adults. These results may suggest that affective representations grow increasingly dissimilar over development as individuals mature from visceral affective responses to more evaluative analyses.

Dysfunction in interpersonal neural synchronization as a mechanism for social impairment in autism spectrum disorder.

Social deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been linked to atypical activation of the mentalizing network. This work, however, has been limited by a focus on the brain activity of a single person during computerized social tasks rather than exploring brain activity during in vivo interactions. The current study assessed neural synchronization during a conversation as a mechanism for social impairment in adults with ASD (n = 24) and matched controls (n = 26). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data were collected from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and tempoparietal junction (TPJ). Participants self-reported on their social communication and videos of the interaction were coded for utterances and conversational turns. As expected, controls showed more neural synchrony than participants with ASD in the TPJ. Also as expected, controls showed less social communication impairment than participants with ASD. However, participants with ASD did not have fewer utterances compared with control subjects. Overall, less neural synchrony in the TPJ was associated with higher social impairment and marginally fewer utterances. Our findings advance our understanding of social difficulties in ASD by linking them to decreased neural synchronization of the TPJ. LAY SUMMARY: The coordination of brain responses is important for efficient social interactions. The current study explored the coordination of brain responses in neurotypical adults and adults with ASD to investigate if difficulties in social interactions are related to difficulties coordinating brain responses in ASD. We found that participants with ASD had more difficulties coordinating brain responses during a conversation with an interacting partner. Additionally, we found that the level of coordination in brain responses was linked to problems with social communication.

Adversity is Linked with Decreased Parent-Child Behavioral and Neural Synchrony.

Parent-child synchrony-parent-child interaction patterns characterized by contingent social responding, mutual responsivity, and co-regulation-has been robustly associated with adaptive child outcomes. Synchrony has been investigated in both behavioral and biological frameworks. While it has been demonstrated that adversity can influence behavioral parent-child synchrony, the neural mechanisms by which this disruption occurs are understudied. The current study examined the association between adversity, parent-child behavioral synchrony, and parent-child neural synchrony across lateral prefrontal cortical regions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning during a parent-child interaction task that included a mild stress induction followed by a recovery period. Participants included 115 children (ages 4-5) and their primary caregivers. Parent-child behavioral synchrony was quantified as the amount time the dyad was synchronous (e.g., reciprocal communication, coordinated behaviors) during the interaction task. Parent-child neural synchrony was examined as the hemodynamic concordance between parent and child lateral PFC activation. Adversity was examined across two, empirically-derived domains: sociodemographic risk (e.g., family income) and familial risk (e.g., household chaos). Adversity, across domains, was associated with decreased parent-child behavioral synchrony across task conditions. Sociodemographic risk was associated with decreased parent-child neural synchrony in the context of experimentally-induced stress. These findings link adversity to decreased parent-child behavioral and neural synchrony.

Multimodal examination of emotion processing systems associated with negative affectivity across early childhood.

High Temperamental Negative Affectivity in early childhood has been found to predict later emotion dysregulation. While much work has been conducted to separately probe bio-behavioral systems associated with Negative Affectivity, very little work has examined the relations among multiple systems across age. In this study, we use multi-modal methods to index neurobiological systems associated with Negative Affectivity in 53 4-7-year-old children. Prefrontal activation during emotion regulation was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy over the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) while children played a game designed to elicit frustration in Social (Happy and Angry faces) and Nonsocial contexts. Gaze behaviors while free-viewing Happy and Angry faces were also measured. Finally, Negative Affectivity was indexed using a score composite based on factor analysis of parent-reported temperament. Using mixed-effects linear models, we found an age-dependent association between Negative Affectivity and both PFC activation during frustration and fixation duration on the mouth area of Happy faces, such that older children high in Negative Affectivity spent less time looking at the mouths of Happy faces and had lower PFC activation in response to frustration (ps<0.034). These results provide further insight to how Negative Affectivity may be associated with changes in affective neurobiological systems across early childhood.