Cited by 20Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

The Contribution of Childhood Negative Emotionality and Cognitive Control to Anxiety-Linked Neural Dysregulation of Emotion in Adolescence

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Davis, Megan M., Miernicki, Michelle E., Telzer, Eva H., Rudolph, Karen D.·2019·Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of heightened emotional reactivity, which is reflected in greater activation in emotion-processing regions of the brain in adolescents relative to children and adults. While elevated emotional reactivity and poor emotion regulation are thought to contribute to the rise in rates of internalizing psychopathology, including anxiety, during adolescence, little research has examined factors predicting individual differences in the neural regulation of emotion that can explain why only some adolescents experience anxiety. To address this gap, the present study examined the contribution of childhood negative emotionality (NE) and cognitive control (CC) to neural processing of emotion in adolescence. A sample of 44 girls (M age = 15.5, SD = 0.35) was selected from a longitudinal study that included self, parent, and teacher report of NE and CC between 2nd and 7th grades. Following 9th grade, girls completed an emotion regulation task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Neural regulation of emotion was indexed by functional connectivity between the amygdala and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) during emotion regulation. Analyses revealed that NE predicted a less mature pattern of amygdala-rVLPFC connectivity while CC predicted a more mature pattern of amygdala-rVLPFC connectivity. Additionally, we found an interaction between NE and CC, such that NE predicted emotion dysregulation at low but not high levels of CC. Neural dysregulation of emotion was associated with anxiety symptoms across the following nine months. These findings identify important individual differences in the development of emotion dysregulation that contribute to risk for anxiety in adolescence.

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  • Activation across similar circuitry during incidental emotion regulation may prospectively predict the development of anxiety symptoms.

    “However, activation across similar circuitry during incidental emotion regulation may prospectively predict the development of anxiety symptoms.”
  • In a sample of ninth grade females (mean age 15), positive amygdala-vlPFC connectivity during an incidental emotion regulation task (affect labeling) predicted future symptoms of anxiety in the following 9 months.

    “For example, in a sample of ninth grade females (mean age 15), positive amygdala–vlPFC connectivity during an incidental emotion regulation task (affect labeling [87]) predicted future symptoms of anxiety in the following 9 months [45].”
  • Childhood negative emotionality (assessed by parent, teacher, and self-report from grades 2-7) related to positive amygdala-right vlPFC connectivity in ninth grade, but only in girls with low levels of cognitive control.

    “Interestingly, childhood negative emotionality (assessed by parent, teacher, and self-report from grades 2–7) related to positive amygdala–right vlPFC connectivity in ninth grade, but only in girls with low levels of cognitive control (assessed by Brief Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning reports from grades 5–7).”
  • Studies of anxiety suggest that disruptions in neural functioning may precede onset of symptomatology.

    “Studies of anxiety suggest that disruptions in neural functioning may precede onset of symptomatology.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Simonds, J., & Rothbart, M. K. (2004). The Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ): A computerized self-report measure of temperament for ages 7-10. Poster presented at the Occasional Temperament Conference. GA: Athens.

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Authors
Davis, M. M., Miernicki, M. E., Telzer, E. H., & Rudolph, K. D.
Affiliations
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Corresponding author
Davis, Megan M.
Venue
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Published
2018-07-31
Volume
47
Issue
3
Pages
515-527
ISSN
  • 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2835
OpenAlex
W2774854215
Cited by
20
References
88
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3
FWCI
3.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH68444, MH105655)
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Research Board Award)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
cognitive control, amygdala, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, emotional dysregulation, adolescent anxiety, internalizing psychopathology, individual differences, emotional reactivity, girls
MeSH terms
Emotional Regulation, Adolescent, Affective Symptoms, Amygdala, Anxiety, Child, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Temperament, Prefrontal Cortex, Executive Function, Connectome

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