Developing Mechanisms of Self-Regulation in Early Life

Abstract

Children show increasing control of emotions and behavior during their early years. Our studies suggest a shift in control from the brain's orienting network in infancy to the executive network by the age of 3–4 years. Our longitudinal study indicates that orienting influences both positive and negative affect, as measured by parent report in infancy. At 3–4 years of age, the dominant control of affect rests in a frontal brain network that involves the anterior cingulate gyrus. Connectivity of brain structures also changes from infancy to toddlerhood. Early connectivity of parietal and frontal areas is important in orienting; later connectivity involves midfrontal and anterior cingulate areas related to executive attention and self-regulation.

Multimodal imaging of the self-regulating developing brain

“…Most children enter a stage of self-regulation about preschool age, at which time they are able to use rules, strategies, and plans to guide their behavior (41). From around 4 y of age, an executive attentional network is assumed to gradually differentiate from orienting and alerting systems and become the dominant factor in cognitive control (6,22). The present results show age differences that are in coherence with a steep developmental trajectory of cognitive control from 4 y, which gradually decreases in slope and plateaus at around 14-15 y.…”

“…1 and 2). Several neuropsychiatric conditions and problems have been related to deficiencies in self-regulation [e.g., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (3), addiction (4), risk behavior (5), conduct problems (6), and poor school and academic performance (7,8)]. Although development of self-regulation in children is the result of a dynamic interaction between maturation and learning, we have scarce knowledge about the role played by structural brain characteristics in this process.…”

“…The ability to handle response conflict in pure cognitive tasks has been shown to correlate with parents' reports of their children's behavioral control (e.g., to delay actions and avoid lying, cheating, or other antisocial behavior) (6,15). Executive attention and effortful control have been related to academic outcome, aspects of social adjustment (16), and inhibitory control to early arithmetic competency (17).…”

Short-term meditation induces white matter changes in the anterior cingulate

“…During infant and child development this structure has been shown to change its connectivity (9,10). These changes have been related to the increasing ability of children to regulate their own emotions and behavior (11).…”

Infant Self-Regulation and Early Childhood Media Exposure

“…In that study, infant behaviors and media use were measured at the same time, so it is unknown whether media exposure is dysregulating to infants or whether parents are using TV to try to calm their fussy infants, who might quiet their vocalizations and movements when directing visual attention to a screen. 28 Our findings demonstrate that, longitudinally, infants with regulatory problems do watch more TV and videos later in their toddler years. However, the relationship is probably not unidirectional; child selfregulation abilities and media habits likely influence each other through a transactional process whereby parents might try to soothe fussier infants through screen time, which reduces the amount of enriching parent-infant interactions and other developmental activities, exposes infants to potentially inappropriate content, and contributes to continued regulatory difficulties, which in turn predict greater media exposure, and so on.…”