Neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal in children: An ERP study

Abstract

Cognitive emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraising the emotional meaning of events, are linked to positive adjustment and are disrupted in individuals showing emotional distress, like anxiety. The late positive potential (LPP) is sensitive to reappraisal: LPP amplitudes are reduced when unpleasant pictures are reappraised in a positive light, suggesting regulation of negative emotion. However, only one study has examined reappraisal in children using the LPP. The present study examined whether directed reappraisals reduce the LPP in a group of 5- to 7-year-olds, and correlate with individual differences in fear and anxiety. EEG was recorded from 32 typically-developing children via 64 scalp electrodes during a directed reappraisal task. Mothers reported on child anxiety. Fearful behavior was observed. As predicted, LPP amplitudes were larger to unpleasant versus neutral pictures; counter to predictions, the LPP was not sensitive to reappraisal. The degree to which unpleasant versus neutral pictures elicited larger LPPs was correlated with greater anxiety and fear. Results suggest that reappraisal in young children is still developing, but that the LPP is sensitive to individual differences related to fear and anxiety. The utility of the LPP as a measure of cognitive emotion regulation and emotional processing biases in children is discussed.

Cognitive emotion regulation in children: Reappraisal of emotional faces modulates neural source activity in a frontoparietal network

“…4, bottom left). This is consistent with previous reappraisal studies in children, showing that specific LPP amplitudes were reduced with more adaptive emotion regulation and enhanced with increasing anxious-depressed symptoms , and that the LPP difference between unpleasant and neutral stimuli was enhanced with higher anxiety and more fearful behavior (DeCicco et al, 2012). Although involving somewhat different indicators of LPP-related neural processing, these results converge in showing that less intense neural responses were associated with better emotional adjustment.…”

“…In adults, ERP studies documented that the LPP can be modulated by reappraisal, with enhanced amplitudes during up-regulation (Moser et al, 2009(Moser et al, , 2010 and reduced amplitudes during downregulation (Hajcak and Nieuwenhuis, 2006;Moser et al, 2009). In children, an effective reduction of the LPP amplitude by reappraisal was observed in 7-10-year-olds , while in 5-7-year-olds this effect could not yet be shown reliably (DeCicco et al, 2012;Dennis and Hajcak, 2009). Beyond that, these studies revealed positive correlations of the LPP with symptoms of anxiety and negative correlations with emotion regulation capacities.…”

“…In addition to experimental manipulations, correlation analyses were conducted to analyze changes of neural activity with age and two indexes of emotional adjustment. Based on previous findings DeCicco et al, 2012) it was hypothesized that LPP-related neural activity should show (4) negative correlations with emotion regulation and (5) positive correlations with trait anxiety.…”

Cognitive Reappraisal in Preschoolers: Neuropsychological Evidence of Emotion Regulation From an ERP Study

“…Based on grand waveforms and previous investigations (e.g., DeCicco et al, 2012;Foti & Hajcak, 2008), the mean LPP amplitudes were evaluated as the average activity in the three regions of posterior (Pz, P3, P4, Oz, O1, O2), central (Cz, C3, C4, CPz, CP3, CP4), and anterior (Fz, F3, F4, FCz, FC3, FC4) and calculated separately by the three time windows of early (400-1,000 msec), middle (1,000-2,000 msec), and late (2,000-3,000 msec).…”

“…Although this strategy can also be interpreted as pre-appraisal, we adopted the term reappraisal to be consistent with previous literature (Foti & Hajcak, 2008;DeCicco et al, 2012DeCicco et al, , 2014. The goal of the present study was to simplify the reappraisal interpretations and provide neuropsychological evidence to determine whether young preschoolers have already developed the ability to regulate their emotions via precise reappraisal instructions.…”