Emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy interact to predict executive functioning in early childhood.

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Ursache ◽  
◽  
Clancy Blair ◽  
Cynthia Stifter ◽  
Kristin Voegtline
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle R. Baskin-Sommers ◽  
John Joseph Curtin ◽  
Christine Larson ◽  
Daniel Stout ◽  
Kent A. Kiehl ◽  
...  

Externalizing traits are characterized by exaggerated emotional (e.g., frustration, anger) and behavioral (e.g., drug seeking, reactive aggression) reactions to motivationally-significant stimuli. Explanations for this exaggerated reactivity emphasize attention, executive function, and affective processes, but the associations among these processes is rarely investigated. To examine these interactions, we measure fear potentiated startle (FPS; Experiment 1) and neural activation (Experiment 2) in an instructed fear paradigm that manipulates attentional focus, demands on executive functioning, and emotion. In both studies, exaggerated emotional reactivity associated with externalizing was specific to conditions that focused attention on threat information and placed minimal demands on executive functioning. Results suggest that a crucial cognition-emotion interaction affecting externalizing is the over-prioritization and over-allocation of attention to motivationally-significant information, which in turn, may impair executive and affective regulation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 689-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah C. Hibel ◽  
Douglas A. Granger ◽  
Clancy Blair ◽  
Martha J. Cox ◽  

AbstractThis study prospectively examined the effect of intimate partner violence (IPV) on adrenocortical reactivity and recovery during early childhood. The sample (n = 1102 mother–infant dyads; 49.2% male) was racially diverse and from predominantly low-income, rural communities. To measure IPV exposure mothers completed the Conflicts Tactics Scale, and her caretaking behaviors were observed when her child was approximately 7, 15, and 24 months of age. Children's saliva samples, later assayed for cortisol, were collected around challenge tasks designed to elicit emotional reactivity. IPV was related to a trajectory of increased cortisol reactivity from infancy to toddlerhood. By contrast, the trajectory for non-IPV-exposed children decreased in cortisol reactivity across 7 to 24 months of age. At the 24-month assessment, on average, toddlers did not exhibit a cortisol reaction; however, those exposed to high levels of violence continued to have reactivity. Accumulative levels of IPV across the first 2 years of life predicted cortisol reactivity at 24 months of age. Early (7-month) sensitive maternal behavior moderated this relationship, so that only children exposed to both early insensitivity and high accumulated IPV exhibited increased reactivity at the 24-month assessment. Findings are discussed in relation to the risky family framework.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 404-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad G. Kurowski ◽  
Amery Treble-Barna ◽  
Huaiyu Zang ◽  
Nanhua Zhang ◽  
Lisa J. Martin ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth A. Wilde ◽  
Ilirjana Hyseni ◽  
Hannah M. Lindsey ◽  
Jessica Faber ◽  
James M. McHenry ◽  
...  

Plasticity is often implicated as a reparative mechanism when addressing structural and functional brain development in young children following traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, conventional imaging methods may not capture the complexities of post-trauma development. The present study examined the cingulum bundles and perforant pathways using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in 21 children and adolescents (ages 10–18 years) 5–15 years after sustaining early childhood TBI in comparison with 19 demographically-matched typically-developing children. Verbal memory and executive functioning were also evaluated and analyzed in relation to DTI metrics. Beyond the expected direction of quantitative DTI metrics in the TBI group, we also found qualitative differences in the streamline density of both pathways generated from DTI tractography in over half of those with early TBI. These children exhibited hypertrophic cingulum bundles relative to the comparison group, and the number of tract streamlines negatively correlated with age at injury, particularly in the late-developing anterior regions of the cingulum; however, streamline density did not relate to executive functioning. Although streamline density of the perforant pathway was not related to age at injury, streamline density of the left perforant pathway was significantly and positively related to verbal memory scores in those with TBI, and a moderate effect size was found in the right hemisphere. DTI tractography may provide insight into developmental plasticity in children post-injury. While traditional DTI metrics demonstrate expected relations to cognitive performance in group-based analyses, altered growth is reflected in the white matter structures themselves in some children several years post-injury. Whether this plasticity is adaptive or maladaptive, and whether the alterations are structure-specific, warrants further investigation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christianne Laliberté Durish ◽  
Keith Owen Yeates ◽  
Terry Stancin ◽  
H. Gerry Taylor ◽  
Nicolay C. Walz ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectives:This study examined the relationship of the home environment to long-term executive functioning (EF) following early childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI).Methods:Participants (N=134) were drawn from a larger parent study of 3- to 6-year-old children hospitalized for severe TBI (n=16), complicated mild/moderate TBI (n=44), or orthopedic injury (OI;n=74), recruited prospectively at four tertiary care hospitals in the United States and followed for an average of 6.8 years post-injury. Quality of the home environment, caregiver psychological distress, and general family functioning were assessed shortly after injury (i.e., early home) and again at follow-up (i.e., late home). Participants completed several performance-based measures of EF at follow-up. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the early and late home environment measures as predictors of EF, both as main effects and as moderators of group differences.Results:The early and late home environment were inconsistent predictors of long-term EF across groups. Group differences in EF were significant for only the TEA-Ch Walk/Don’t Walk subtest, with poorer performance in the severe TBI group. However, several significant interactions suggested that the home environment moderated group differences in EF, particularly after complicated mild/moderate TBI.Conclusions:The home environment is not a consistent predictor of long-term EF in children with early TBI and OI, but may moderate the effects of TBI on EF. The findings suggest that interventions designed to improve the quality of stimulation in children’s home environments might reduce the long-term effects of early childhood TBI on EF. (JINS, 2018,24, 11–21)


Circulation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orna Reges ◽  
Xiaoyun Yang ◽  
Amy Krefman ◽  
Lauren Wakschlag ◽  
Rachel Flynn ◽  
...  

Background: Cardiovascular health (CVH) declines with age starting in early childhood. Neurodevelopmental health (NDH) measures, such as executive function, in early childhood have been associated with subsequent behavioral and lifestyle outcomes; however, little is known about the association of NDH measures in early life with CVH during childhood. Objective: To assess the association of preschool NDH with CVH in later childhood/early adolescence. Methods: Among participants from the Multidimensional Assessment of Preschoolers Study (MAPS), we defined 3 neurodevelopment domains at baseline (ages 3-7 years): executive functioning, developmental functioning, and emotion and behavior regulation (each as a z-score of its component surveys and direct assessment). At the tween follow-up wave (ages 9-14 years), MAPS participants completed a CVH examination including assessment of physical activity, diet, blood pressure, and BMI defined as favorable vs unfavorable CVH metrics according to AHA recommendations. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association of each NDH domain with favorable/unfavorable CVH metrics at follow up. Models were adjusted for age, race, gender, and poverty. Results: We included 229 SES-diverse children (46.2% boys; 52% living in poverty at baseline; mean baseline age 4.7 yr; mean follow-up age: 11.3 yr). At follow-up, there were 179 (78.2%) children with favorable CVH and 50 (21.8%) children with unfavorable CVH. Better performance on all 3 NDH domains at baseline was demonstrated among children with favorable CVH at follow-up compared to those with unfavorable CVH, with mean z-score of 0.04 among those with favorable CVH compared to -0.15 among those with unfavorable CVH for executive functioning (p<0.001), 0.02 compared to -0.07 for developmental functioning (p=0.004), and 0.02 compared to -0.06 for emotion and behavior regulation (p=0.027). After adjustment, associations between executive functioning, developmental functioning, and emotion/behavior regulation and favorable CVH were attenuated to non-significance {OR (95% CI): 1.21 (0.80-1.81), 1.03 (0.64-1.67), 1.08 (0.73-1.59), respectively}. Conclusions: These findings suggest a possible association between neurodevelopmental domains and CVH, although findings were not significant after adjustment. The heterogeneity of the sample may have obscured effects and the moderating role of the environment may elucidate explanatory pathways. More research with larger sample sizes is needed to better understand the impact of early-life NDH with adolescent CVH.


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