Biological Systems and the Development of Self-Regulation: Integrating Behavior, Genetics, and Psychophysiology

Abstract

Self-regulation is the ability to control inner states or responses with respect to thoughts, emotions, attention, and performance. As such, it is a critical aspect of development and fundamental to personality and behavioral adjustment. In this review, we focus on attentional, cognitive, and emotional control as we discuss the genetic mechanisms and brain mechanisms that contribute to individual differences in self-regulation. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for deviations in the development of this complex construct and suggestions for future research. (J Dev Behav Pediatr 28:409-420, 2007) Index terms: self-regulation, controlled attention, temperament, brain mechanisms, genetic mechanisms Whatexpl ains the remarkable variation between children in how well they adapt to their ever changing environments? In part, the answer lies in self-regulation, a critical aspect of development in infancy, early childhood, and beyond. A set of developing regulatory processes appears to be fundamental to individual differences in personality development and behavioral adjustment 1-3 and includes biological components such as physiology, neurobiology, and genes, and situational components such as parenting, environment, and experience. 4,5 As such, self-regulation can be examined at many different levels and can have multiple definitions. 6 This necessarily makes self-regulation a complex construct and developmentalists have typically simplified the study of self-regulation by focusing only on one or two of these conceptual levels at a time, such as the regulation of emotion. 2,7 There is general agreement, however, that self-regulation operates at the physiological, attentional, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels. 1,8,9 In this review, we define self-regulation as the ability to control inner states or responses with respect to thoughts, emotions, attention, and performance. 6 Thus, our conceptualization of self-regulation could be described as cognitive control and emotion control. Within this conceptualization, we highlight attentional control as the mechanism for early developing self-regulation in both the cognitive and emotional domains. 10 -12 As such, we go beyond the typical focus on relationships between either cognitive functioning or attentional control and consequential emotion regulation 5,7 and provide a more dynamic view of self-regulatory processes. 11 Our focus in this review is on the biological components of developing self-regulation, as the situational and contextual components have been reviewed elsewhere. 6,7 We begin by highlighting the psychobiological framework that we use in conceptualizing regulatory processes. Then we discuss biological mechanisms of selfregulation associated with the development of specific cognitive and emotion behaviors. Because of our focus on psychobiology, we next examine genetic and brain mechanisms of self-regulation processes by integrating the functions associated with central nervous system and autonomic nervous system networks tha...

Multifaceted emotion regulation, stress and affect in mothers of young children

“…EF reflects inter-related cognitive mechanisms (specifically executive attention, inhibitory control, and working memory) that serve self-regulation across a wide variety of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to experiences (Miyake & Friedman, 2012). When an individual becomes physiologically and emotionally aroused by changes in the environment, she or he must effortfully attend to and utilize multiple pieces of information in order to effectively regulate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to maintain homeostasis and behavior appropriately (Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007; Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000; Ochsner & Gross, 2008). EF is not the same thing as ER; it is involved in a broad range of regulatory functions well beyond just emotion.…”

EEG/ERP MEASURES OF EMOTION–COGNITION INTEGRATION DURING DEVELOPMENT

“…Next we turn to a brief discussion of the use of electrophysiology in studying the integration of emotion and cognition during development. We begin with a definition of integration and then highlight the brain systems that we (Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007; Bell & Wolfe, 2004) and others (e.g., Dennis, 2010; Lewis, 2005; Rothbart, Sheese, & Posner, 2007) propose are the foundations for emotion-cognition integration.…”

“…Our model is focused on the brain mechanisms of the Executive Attention System, encompassing the anterior cingulate cortex and other areas of the prefrontal cortex (see Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007, for details of this model). The anterior cingulate has sections that process cognitive and emotional information separately.…”

“…Psychologists have long struggled with creating a framework for conceptualizing relations between affect and reason (Izard, 1993; Lazrus, 1982; Zajonc, 1980), and more recently have focused on examining interactions between cognition and emotion from both behavioral and brain-based approaches (Sherer, 2003). Although, the field of developmental psychology has traditionally compartmentalized emotion development and cognitive development, there have been recent attempts to integrate these processes conceptually using a neuroscience perspective (e.g., Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007; Dennis, 2010; Lewis & Todd, 2007; Posner & Rothbart, 2000; Thompson, Lewis, & Calkins, 2008; Zelazo & Cunningham, 2007). Empirical studies with EEG and ERP measures can be used to support these conceptual models (see Fox, Kirwan, & Reeb-Sutherland, this volume, for specifics on measuring EEG/ERP associated with emotion).…”

“…We begin by examining different models of interrelations between emotion and cognition and selectively review developmental EEG/ERP studies that illustrate each model, including some of our own work. Then we summarize our current conceptualization of emotion-cognition integration in early development (Bell & Deater-Deckard, 2007; Bell & Wolfe, 2004). …”