Behavioral inhibition and EEG delta-beta correlation in early childhood: Comparing a between-subjects and within-subjects approach

Abstract

Heightened delta-beta correlation has been conceptualized as reflecting exaggerated neural regulation and has been implicated in anxiety. Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized by wariness to novelty and is a robust predictor of anxiety, but delta-beta correlation has not been investigated in relation to childhood BI. We examined the relation between BI and between-subjects (i.e., across participants) and within-subjects (i.e., across data epochs) measures of baseline EEG delta-beta correlation in 118 children. Using a between-subjects measure, children scoring high on BI had higher delta-beta correlation relative to low BI children at frontal and central, and marginally higher in parietal, brain regions. Using a within-subjects measure, continuous BI scores were positively correlated with central and parietal delta-beta correlation. Delta-beta correlation may be a neural correlate of BI in childhood that displays differences in region specificity, correlation strength, and variability of correlation values when comparing between-and within-subjects measures. Keywordsbehavioral inhibition; delta-beta correlation; EEG; temperament; child Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early emerging temperamental style characterized by fear and wariness in response to novelty (Garcia-Coll & Kagan, 1984). Studying the neurobiological correlates of BI may provide greater precision into our understanding of the biological processes that may underlie this phenotype

Review of EEG, ERP, and Brain Connectivity Estimators as Predictive Biomarkers of Social Anxiety Disorder

“…A very recent study (Poole and Schmidt, 2019) found that preschool children who have unsteady and temperamental antecedents of SAD exhibited relatively high frontal delta-beta correlation, as reported in and Poole et al (2020). It is obvious that although the overall coupling in frontal cross-frequency in children with SAD in this study is stronger, this pattern seems to be controlled primarily by the right frontal lobe when examining the separate hemispherical coupling.…”

Positive Shyness in the Brain: Frontal Electroencephalogram Alpha Asymmetry and Delta–Beta Correlation in Children

“…However, the functional significance of delta-beta correlation is not a foregone conclusion. Some researchers have posited that heightened delta-beta correlation is a maladaptive neural process associated with over-control and emotion dysregulation, which is supported by empirical work reporting heightened delta-beta correlation in relation to observed fear in toddlers (Najjar & Brooker, 2017;Phelps, Brooker, & Buss, 2016), behavioral inhibition in children (Poole, Anaya, & P erez-Edgar, 2020), anxiety-related profiles in adults (e.g., Knyazev, Schutter, & van Honk, 2006;Miskovic, Moscovitch, et al, 2011;Miskovic et al, 2010;van Peer, Roelofs, & Spinhoven, 2008), and in children of socially anxious parents (Miskovic, Campbell, et al, 2011).…”

Individual dynamics of delta–beta coupling: using a multilevel framework to examine inter‐ and intraindividual differences in relation to social anxiety and behavioral inhibition

“…The number of cleaned segments was entered as a covariate in our models to control for variation in proportion of available data. Power values across target electrodes (Poole et al, 2020) were averaged to create composites for the Frontal (F3, Fz, F4), Central (C3, Cz, C4), and Parietal (P3, Pz, P4) regions based on the 10-20 System of Electrode Placement.…”

“…Similarly, temperamental antecedents of anxiety such as behavioral inhibition (BI) have been associated with stronger delta-beta coupling (Poole, Anaya, & P erez-Edgar, 2020). BI is a temperament profile characterized by shy, hypervigilant, and fearful behaviors in novel social situations that typically would not be interpreted as threatening (Garc ıa Coll, Kagan, & Reznick, 1984).…”

“…BI is a strong predictor of social anxiety with an up to sevenfold increase in risk (Clauss & Blackford, 2012), and given the overlap of fear‐related behaviors, delta–beta coupling may be associated with anxiety and BI temperament in a similar manner. Indeed, researchers have reported stronger delta–beta coupling in behaviorally inhibited individuals with adult (van Peer et al, 2008) and child (Poole et al, 2020) samples. However, specific studies on the link between delta–beta coupling and BI remain scarce.…”