Young Children of Mothers with a History of Depression Show Attention Bias to Sad Faces: An Eye-tracking Study.

Maternal depression is a predictor of the emergence of depression in the offspring. Attention bias (AB) to negative emotional stimuli in children may serve as a risk factor for children of depressed parents. The present study aimed to examine the effect of maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) history on AB to emotional faces in children at age four, before the age of onset for full-blown psychiatric symptoms. The study also compared AB patterns between mothers and their offspring. Fifty-eight mothers and their four-year-old children participated in this study, of which 27 high-risk (HR) children had mothers with MDD during their children's lifetime. Attention to emotional faces was measured in both children and their mothers using an eye-tracking visual search task. HR children exhibited faster detection and longer dwell time toward the sad than happy target faces. The low-risk (LR) children also displayed a sad bias but to a lesser degree. Children across both groups showed AB towards angry target faces, likely reflecting a normative AB pattern. Our findings indicate that AB to sad faces may serve as an early marker of depression risk. However, we provided limited support for the mother-child association of AB. Future research is needed to examine the longitudinal intergenerational transmission of AB related to depression and possible mechanisms underlying the emergence of AB in offspring of depressed parents.

Expanding upon the relationship between gender-affirming hormone therapy, neural connectivity, mental health, and body image dissatisfaction.

OBJECTIVE: Transgender/non-binary (TNB) youth are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and suicidality compared to cisgender youth. Gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT, i.e., testosterone or estrogen) is a standard of care option for TNB youth, and we have recently shown that GAHT (testosterone) in transgender youth assigned a female sex at birth is associated with reductions in internalizing symptomatology. The current analysis explores: 1) whether these benefits are observed in both TNB youth assigned female at birth (TNBAFAB) and TNB youth assigned male at birth (TNBAMAB) and 2) the extent to which body image dissatisfaction and alteration in neural circuitry relate to internalizing symptoms. METHOD: The current study is an expansion of a previous publication from our lab that explored the association between gender-affirming testosterone and internalizing symptomatology. While participants in our previous study consisted of 42 TNBAFAB youth, participants in the current study included adolescent TNBAFAB receiving GAHT (n = 21; GAHT+) and not receiving GAHT (n = 29; GAHT-) as well as adolescent GAHT+ TNBAMAB (n = 15) and GAHT- TNBAMAB (n = 17). Participants reported symptoms of trait and social anxiety, depression, suicidality in the past year, and body image dissatisfaction. Brain activation was measured during a face processing task designed to elicit amygdala activation during functional MRI. RESULTS: GAHT+ TNBAFAB had significantly lower rates of social anxiety, depression, and suicidality compared to GAHT- TNBAFAB. While there were no significant relationships between estrogen and depression and anxiety symptoms, longer duration of estrogen was related to less suicidality. Both testosterone and estrogen administration were related to significantly lower rates of body image dissatisfaction compared to GAHT- youth. No significant differences emerged for BOLD response in the left or right amygdala during the face processing task, however, there was a significant main effect of GAHT on functional connectivity between the right amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, such that GAHT+ youth had stronger co-activation between the two regions during the task. Body image dissatisfaction, greater functional connectivity, their interaction effect, and age predicted depression symptomatology and body image dissatisfaction additionally predicted suicidality in the past year. CONCLUSION: The current study suggests that GAHT is associated with fewer short-term internalizing symptoms in TNBAFAB than in TNBAMAB, although internalizing symptoms among TNBAMAB may diminish with longer durations of estrogen treatment. Controlling for age and sex assigned at birth, our findings indicate that less body image dissatisfaction and greater functional connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex were both predictors of fewer levels of internalizing symptoms following GAHT.

Effect of Extremely Preterm Birth on Adolescent Brain Network Organization.

Introduction: Extremely preterm (EPT) birth, defined as birth at a gestational age (GA) <28 weeks, can have a lasting impact on cognition throughout the life span. Previous investigations reveal differences in brain structure and connectivity between infants born preterm and full-term (FT), but how does preterm birth impact the adolescent connectome? Methods: In this study, we investigate how EPT birth can alter broadscale network organization later in life by comparing resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging connectome-based parcellations of the entire cortex in adolescents born EPT (N = 22) to age-matched adolescents born FT (GA ≥37 weeks, N = 28). We compare these parcellations to adult parcellations from previous studies and explore the relationship between an individual's network organization and behavior. Results: Primary (occipital and sensorimotor) and frontoparietal networks were observed in both groups. However, there existed notable differences in the limbic and insular networks. Surprisingly, the connectivity profile of the limbic network of EPT adolescents was more adultlike than the same network in FT adolescents. Finally, we found a relationship between adolescents' overall cognition score and their limbic network maturity. Discussion: Overall, preterm birth may contribute to the atypical development of broadscale network organization in adolescence and may partially explain the observed cognitive deficits.

Associations Among Gender-Affirming Hormonal Interventions, Social Support, and Transgender Adolescents' Mental Health.

PURPOSE: We aimed to examine the concurrent associations of gender-affirming hormonal interventions (i.e., puberty blockers, testosterone, estrogen), as well as family and friend social support, on transgender and nonbinary (TNB) adolescents' reports of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and suicidality. We hypothesized that gender-affirming hormonal interventions and greater social support would be associated with lower levels of mental health concerns. METHODS: Participants (n = 75; aged 11-18; Mage = 16.39 years) were recruited for this cross-sectional study from a gender-affirming multidisciplinary clinic. Fifty-two percent were receiving gender-affirming hormonal interventions. Surveys assessed anxiety and depressive symptoms, NSSI and suicidality in the past year, and social support from family, friends, and significant others. Hierarchical linear regression models examined associations between gender-affirming hormonal interventions and social support (i.e., family, friend) with mental health while accounting for nonbinary gender identity. RESULTS: Regression models explained 15%-23% of variance in TNB adolescents' mental health outcomes. Gender-affirming hormonal interventions were associated with fewer anxiety symptoms (ß = -0.23; p < .05). Family support was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (ß = -0.33; p = .003) and less NSSI (ß = -0.27; p = .02). Friend support was associated with fewer anxiety symptoms (ß = -0.32; p = .007) and less suicidality (ß = -0.25; p = .03). DISCUSSION: TNB adolescents had better mental health outcomes in the context of receiving gender-affirming hormonal interventions and having greater support from family and friends. Findings highlight the important role of quality family and friend support for TNB mental health. Providers should aim to address both medical and social factors to optimize TNB mental health outcomes.

Quality of Social Relationships with Parents and Peers in Adolescents Born Extremely Preterm.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescents born extremely preterm (EPT, gestational age [GA] <28 weeks) are at higher risk for problems in peer socialization than those born full-term (FT, GA >36 weeks). This study was designed to examine the possibility that adolescents born EPT may also have difficulty in transitioning from parents to peers for socialization, a process referred to as "social reorienting." A secondary aim was to investigate associations of social reorienting with other neurodevelopmental characteristics. METHODS: The Network of Relationships Inventory, Relationship Quality Version was administered to 24 adolescents (ages 11-16 years) born EPT and 29 born FT to obtain self-ratings of closeness and discord with parents and peers. Measures of other neurodevelopmental characteristics included tests of cognitive and social skills, adolescent self-ratings of adjustment and victimization, and parent ratings of youth behavior and adaptive skills. Mixed model analyses controlling for sex, socioeconomic status, and race were conducted to examine group differences in measures of relationship quality and their associations with other neurodevelopmental characteristics. RESULTS: The EPT group had higher ratings of closeness with parents than the FT group. For adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, those born EPT had lower closeness with peers. Higher closeness with parents was associated with lower test scores. Lower closeness and more discord with peers were associated with more behavior problems. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that adolescents born EPT have difficulties in social reorientation toward peers and identify factors related to these difficulties. Results imply a need for interventions to improve peer socialization in youth born EPT.

Exogenous testosterone administration is associated with differential neural response to unfamiliar peer's and own caregiver's voice in transgender adolescents.

Changes in gonadal hormones during puberty are thought to potentiate adolescents' social re-orientation away from caregivers and towards peers. This study investigated the effect of testosterone on neural processing of emotional (vocal) stimuli by unfamiliar peers vs. parents, in transgender boys receiving exogenous testosterone as a gender-affirming hormone (GAH+) or not (GAH-). During fMRI, youth heard angry and happy vocal expressions spoken by their caregiver and an unfamiliar teenager. Youth also self-reported on closeness with friends and parents. Whole-brain analyses (controlling for age) revealed that GAH+ youth showed blunted neural response to caregivers' angry voices-and heightened response to unfamiliar teenage angry voices-in the anterior cingulate cortex. This pattern was reversed in GAH- youth, who also showed greater response to happy unfamiliar teenager vs. happy caregiver voices in this region. Blunted ACC response to angry caregiver voices-a pattern characteristic of GAH+ youth-was associated with greater relative closeness with friends over parents, which could index more "advanced" social re-orientation. Consistent with models of adolescent neurodevelopment, increases in testosterone during adolescence may shift the valuation of caregiver vs. peer emotional cues in a brain region associated with processing affective information.

Multimodal classification of extremely preterm and term adolescents using the fusiform gyrus: A machine learning approach.

OBJECTIVE: Extremely preterm birth has been associated with atypical visual and neural processing of faces, as well as differences in gray matter structure in visual processing areas relative to full-term peers. In particular, the right fusiform gyrus, a core visual area involved in face processing, has been shown to have structural and functional differences between preterm and full-term individuals from childhood through early adulthood. The current study used multiple neuroimaging modalities to build a machine learning model based on the right fusiform gyrus to classify extremely preterm birth status. METHOD: Extremely preterm adolescents (n = 20) and full-term peers (n = 24) underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Group differences in gray matter density, measured via voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response to face stimuli were explored within the right fusiform. Using group difference clusters as seed regions, analyses investigating outgoing white matter streamlines, regional homogeneity, and functional connectivity during a face processing task and at rest were conducted. A data driven approach was utilized to determine the most discriminative combination of these features within a linear support vector machine classifier. RESULTS: Group differences in two partially overlapping clusters emerged: one from the VBM analysis showing less density in the extremely preterm cohort and one from BOLD response to faces showing greater activation in the extremely preterm relative to full-term youth. A classifier fit to the data from the cluster identified in the BOLD analysis achieved an accuracy score of 88.64% when BOLD, gray matter density, regional homogeneity, and functional connectivity during the task and at rest were included. A classifier fit to the data from the cluster identified in the VBM analysis achieved an accuracy score of 95.45% when only BOLD, gray matter density, and regional homogeneity were included. CONCLUSION: Consistent with previous findings, we observed neural differences in extremely preterm youth in an area that plays an important role in face processing. Multimodal analyses revealed differences in structure, function, and connectivity that, when taken together, accurately distinguish extremely preterm from full-term born youth. Our findings suggest a compensatory role of the fusiform where less dense gray matter is countered by increased local BOLD signal. Importantly, sub-threshold differences in many modalities within the same region were informative when distinguishing between extremely preterm and full-term youth.

Development of the mentalizing network structures and theory of mind in extremely preterm youth.

Adolescents born preterm (<37 weeks of gestation) are at elevated risk for deficits in social cognition and peer relationships. Theory of Mind (ToM) is a complex form of social cognition important for regulating social interactions. ToM and the underlying mentalizing network continue to develop across adolescence. The present study recruited 48 adolescents (12-17 years old) who were either born extremely preterm (EPT; <28 weeks of gestation) or full-term (FT) at birth. Cortical thickness, gray matter volume and surface area were measured in four regions of the mentalizing network: the temporoparietal junction, anterior temporal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus and frontal pole (mBA10). We also assessed the adolescents' performance on a ToM task. Findings revealed both group differences and group-by-age interaction effects in the gray matter indices within the temporal lobe regions of the mentalizing network. The EPT group also performed significantly worse than the FT group on the ToM task. The cortical structural measures that discriminated the EPT and FT groups were not related to ToM performance. These results highlight altered developmental changes in brain regions underlying mentalizing functions in EPT adolescents relative to FT controls.

Longitudinal change in neural response to vocal emotion in adolescence.

Adolescence is associated with maturation of function within neural networks supporting the processing of social information. Previous longitudinal studies have established developmental influences on youth's neural response to facial displays of emotion. Given the increasing recognition of the importance of non-facial cues to social communication, we build on existing work by examining longitudinal change in neural response to vocal expressions of emotion in 8- to 19-year-old youth. Participants completed a vocal emotion recognition task at two timepoints (1 year apart) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The right inferior frontal gyrus, right dorsal striatum and right precentral gyrus showed decreases in activation to emotional voices across timepoints, which may reflect focalization of response in these areas. Activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was positively associated with age but was stable across timepoints. In addition, the slope of change across visits varied as a function of participants' age in the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ): this pattern of activation across timepoints and age may reflect ongoing specialization of function across childhood and adolescence. Decreased activation in the striatum and TPJ across timepoints was associated with better emotion recognition accuracy. Findings suggest that specialization of function in social cognitive networks may support the growth of vocal emotion recognition skills across adolescence.

Testosterone treatment, internalizing symptoms, and body image dissatisfaction in transgender boys.

OBJECTIVE: Many transgender adolescents experience clinically elevated anxiety and depression. Testosterone (T), used as a gender affirming treatment, may reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. We assessed the effect of gender affirming T treatment on internalizing symptoms, body image dissatisfaction, and activation patterns within the amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit in transgender adolescent boys. METHOD: Symptoms of generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, suicidality and body image dissatisfaction were measured by self-report and brain activation was measured during a face processing task with functional MRI in a group of 19 adolescent transgender boys receiving T treatment and 23 not receiving gonadal hormone treatment (UT). RESULTS: Severity of anxiety and depression was significantly lower in the T treated group relative to the UT group, along with a trend of lower suicidality. The T group also reported less distress with body features and exhibited stronger connectivity within the amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit compared to the UT group. Finally, group differences on depression and suicidality were directly associated with body image dissatisfaction, and anxiety symptoms were moderated by amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity differences between groups. CONCLUSION: T treatment is associated with lower levels of internalizing symptoms among transgender adolescent boys. T is also associated with greater body satisfaction and greater connectivity in a neural circuit associated with anxiety and depression. Satisfaction with body image was found to overlap with the association between T and both depression and suicidality, and amygdala-prefrontal co-activation moderated the role of T on anxiety.

Atypical age-related changes in the structure of the mentalizing network in children with refractory focal epilepsy.

Refractory focal epilepsy (rFE) is commonly comorbid with impaired social functioning, which significantly reduces quality of life. Previous research has identified a mentalizing network in the brain-composed of the anterior temporal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior temporal sulcus (pSTS), and temporoparietal junction-that is thought to play a critical role in social cognition. In typically-developing (TD) youth, this network undergoes a protracted developmental process with cortical thinning and white matter expansion occurring across adolescence. Because epilepsy is associated with both social dysfunction and irregular neural development, we investigated whether gray and white matter in the mentalizing network differed between youth with rFE (n = 22) and TD youth (n = 41) aged 8-21 years. Older age was associated with reduced cortical thickness in the bilateral mPFC in TD youth, but not in rFE youth. Compared to TD youth, rFE youth had greater white matter density in the right pSTS. Our findings suggest that rFE youth show atypical patterns of cortical thickness and white matter density in regions of the brain that are typically associated with social information processing, potentially as a result of ongoing seizures, comorbid conditions, or other illness-related factors. These results encourage future research to examine whether such variations in neural structure are predictive of specific social deficits in rFE youth.

Blunted neural response to emotional faces in the fusiform and superior temporal gyrus may be marker of emotion recognition deficits in pediatric epilepsy.

Individuals with epilepsy are at risk for social cognition deficits, including impairments in the ability to recognize nonverbal cues of emotion (i.e., emotion recognition [ER] skills). Such deficits are particularly pronounced in adult patients with childhood-onset seizures and are already evident in children and adolescents with epilepsy. Though these impairments have been linked to blunted neural response to emotional information in faces in adult patients, little is known about the neural correlates of ER deficits in youth with epilepsy. The current study compared ER accuracy and neural response to emotional faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in youth with intractable focal epilepsy and typically developing youth. Relative to typically developing participants, individuals with epilepsy showed a) reduced accuracy in the ER task and b) blunted response to emotional faces (vs. neutral faces) in the bilateral fusiform gyri and right superior temporal gyrus (STG). Activation in these regions was correlated with performance, suggesting that aberrant response within these face-responsive regions may play a functional role in ER impairments. Reduced engagement of neural circuits relevant to processing socioemotional cues may be markers of risk for social cognitive deficits in youth with focal epilepsy.

Internalizing symptoms in intractable pediatric epilepsy: Structural and functional brain correlates.

Internalizing disorders (i.e., depression and anxiety) are common comorbidities in people with epilepsy. In adults with epilepsy, comorbid depression or anxiety is associated with worse seizure control and reduced quality of life, and may be linked to specific neural biomarkers. Less is known about brain correlates of internalizing symptoms in pediatric populations. In the current study, we performed a retrospective analysis of 45 youth between the ages of 6 and 18 years old with intractable epilepsy. Individuals were evaluated for internalizing symptoms on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and underwent magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging as part of the clinical evaluation for surgical treatment of epilepsy. Forty-two percent of patients experienced clinically significant internalizing symptoms based on parent report. Compared with individuals who scored in the normal range, youth with clinical levels of internalizing problems showed overall reductions in cortex volume, as well as widespread reductions in cortical thickness and functional activation in the bilateral occipital/parietal lobe, left temporal regions, and left inferior frontal cortex on MR and PET scans. There were no group differences in amygdala or hippocampus volumes, nor other patient- or illness-related variables such as age, sex, or the type, lateralization, or duration of epilepsy. Results suggest that high rates of internalizing disorders are present in youth with refractory epilepsy. Multifocal reductions in cortical thickness and function may be nonspecific risk factors for clinically meaningful internalizing symptoms in youth with chronic epilepsy. As such, the presence of broad cortical thinning and reduced glucose uptake upon radiological examination may warrant more focused clinical evaluation of psychological symptoms.

Age-related differences in neural activation and functional connectivity during the processing of vocal prosody in adolescence.

The ability to recognize others' emotions based on vocal emotional prosody follows a protracted developmental trajectory during adolescence. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms supporting this maturation. The current study investigated age-related differences in neural activation during a vocal emotion recognition (ER) task. Listeners aged 8 to 19 years old completed the vocal ER task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The task of categorizing vocal emotional prosody elicited activation primarily in temporal and frontal areas. Age was associated with a) greater activation in regions in the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri, b) greater functional connectivity between the left precentral and inferior frontal gyri and regions in the bilateral insula and temporo-parietal junction, and c) greater fractional anisotropy in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, which connects frontal areas to posterior temporo-parietal regions. Many of these age-related differences in brain activation and connectivity were associated with better performance on the ER task. Increased activation in, and connectivity between, areas typically involved in language processing and social cognition may facilitate the development of vocal ER skills in adolescence.

Associations Between Adolescents' Social Re-orientation Toward Peers Over Caregivers and Neural Response to Teenage Faces.

Adolescence is a period of intensive development in body, brain, and behavior. Potentiated by changes in hormones and neural response to social stimuli, teenagers undergo a process of social re-orientation away from their caregivers and toward expanding peer networks. The current study examines how relative relational closeness to peers (compared to parents) during adolescence is linked to neural response to the facial emotional expressions of other teenagers. Self-reported closeness with friends (same- and opposite-sex) and parents (mother and father), and neural response to facial stimuli during fMRI, were assessed in 8- to 19-year-old typically developing youth (n = 40, mean age = 13.90 years old, SD = 3.36; 25 female). Youth who reported greater relative closeness with peers than with parents showed decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during stimulus presentation, which may reflect lessened inhibitory control or regulatory response to peer-aged faces. Functional connectivity between the dlPFC and dorsal striatum was greatest in older youth who were closer to peers; in contrast, negative coupling between these regions was noted for both younger participants who were closer to peers and older participants who were closer to their parents. In addition, the association between relative closeness to peers and neural activation in regions of the social brain varied by emotion type and age. Results suggest that the re-orientation toward peers that occurs during adolescence is accompanied by changes in neural response to peer-aged social signals in social cognitive, prefrontal, and subcortical networks.

Amygdala-prefrontal cortex white matter tracts are widespread, variable and implicated in amygdala modulation in adolescents.

The amygdala is critically involved in processing emotion. Through bidirectional connections, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is hypothesized to influence amygdala reactivity. However, research that elucidates the nature of amygdala-PFC interactions - through mapping amygdala-prefrontal tracts, quantifying variability among tracts, and linking this variability to amygdala activation - is lacking. Using probabilistic tractography to map amygdala-prefrontal white matter connectivity in 142 adolescents, the present study found that white matter connectivity was greater between the amygdala and the subgenual cingulate, orbitofrontal (OFC), and dorsomedial (dmPFC) prefrontal regions than with the dorsal cingulate and dorsolateral regions. Then, using a machine-learning regression, we found that greater amygdala-PFC white matter connectivity was related to attenuated amygdala reactivity. This effect was driven by amygdala white matter connectivity with the dmPFC and OFC, supporting implicit emotion processing theories which highlight the critical role of these regions in amygdala regulation. This study is among the first to map and compare specific amygdala-prefrontal white matter tracts and to relate variability in connectivity to amygdala activation, particularly among a large sample of adolescents from a well-sampled study. By examining the association between specific amygdala-PFC tracts and amygdala activation, the present study provides novel insight into the nature of this emotion-based circuit.

A break in parental interaction does not affect the temporal dependency of infant social engagement, but disrupts non-social engagement.

Infant looking patterns during interaction offer an early window into social and nonsocial engagement. Recent evidence indicates that infant looks exhibit temporal dependency-one look duration predicts the next look duration. It is unknown, however, whether temporal dependency emerges as infants structure their own looking or whether it is influenced by interaction. We examined whether a perturbation of social interaction affected temporal dependency. Using the Face-to-Face/Still-Face procedure, we compared temporal dependency during parental interaction (the Face-to-Face & Reunion episodes) to parental non-responsiveness (the Still-Face episode). Overall, the durations of successive infant looks were predictable; past behavior constrained current behavior. The duration of one look at the parent (Face Look) predicted the duration of the next Face Look. Likewise, the duration of a look at any place that was not the parent's face (Away Look) predicted the duration of the next Away Look. The temporal dependency of Face Looks (social engagement) was unaffected by the Still-Face perturbation, but the temporal dependency of Away Looks (nonsocial engagement) declined during the Still-Face. Infant temporal structuring of engagement during social looking is not dependent on parental interaction while the disruption of interaction affects infants' structuring of their own non-social engagement.

Amygdala habituation and uncinate fasciculus connectivity in adolescence: A multi-modal approach.

Despite prior extensive investigations of the interactions between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, few studies have simultaneously considered activation and structural connectivity in this circuit, particularly as it pertains to adolescent socioemotional development. The current multi-modal study delineated the correspondence between uncinate fasciculus (UF) connectivity and amygdala habituation in a large adolescent sample that was drawn from a population-based sample. We then examined the influence of demographic variables (age, gender, and pubertal status) on the relation between UF connectivity and amygdala habituation. 106 participants (15-17 years) completed DTI and an fMRI emotional face processing task. Left UF fractional anisotropy was associated with left amygdala habituation to fearful faces, suggesting that increased structural connectivity of the UF may facilitate amygdala regulation. Pubertal status moderated this structure-function relation, such that the association was stronger in those who were less mature. Therefore, UF connectivity may be particularly important for emotion regulation during early puberty. This study is the first to link structural and functional limbic circuitry in a large adolescent sample with substantial representation of ethnic minority participants, providing a more comprehensive understanding of socioemotional development in an understudied population.

Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI.

Does silently talking to yourself in the third-person constitute a relatively effortless form of self control? We hypothesized that it does under the premise that third-person self-talk leads people to think about the self similar to how they think about others, which provides them with the psychological distance needed to facilitate self control. We tested this prediction by asking participants to reflect on feelings elicited by viewing aversive images (Study 1) and recalling negative autobiographical memories (Study 2) using either "I" or their name while measuring neural activity via ERPs (Study 1) and fMRI (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced an ERP marker of self-referential emotional reactivity (i.e., late positive potential) within the first second of viewing aversive images without enhancing an ERP marker of cognitive control (i.e., stimulus preceding negativity). Conceptually replicating these results, Study 2 demonstrated that third-person self-talk was linked with reduced levels of activation in an a priori defined fMRI marker of self-referential processing (i.e., medial prefrontal cortex) when participants reflected on negative memories without eliciting increased levels of activity in a priori defined fMRI markers of cognitive control. Together, these results suggest that third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of self-control.