Affective Dysregulation in Children Is Associated With Difficulties in Response Control in Emotional Ambiguous Situations

Franziska Giller; Pascal-M Aggensteiner; Tobias Banaschewski; Manfred Döpfner; Daniel Brandeis; Veit Roessner; Christian Beste

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.03.014

Affective Dysregulation in Children Is Associated With Difficulties in Response Control in Emotional Ambiguous Situations

Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2022 Jan;7(1):66-75. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.03.014. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Authors

Franziska Giller¹, Pascal-M Aggensteiner², Tobias Banaschewski², Manfred Döpfner³, Daniel Brandeis⁴, Veit Roessner¹, Christian Beste⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; School for Child and Adolescent Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zürich, University and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: christian.beste@uniklinikum-dresden.de.

PMID: 33857639
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.03.014

Abstract

Background: Affective dysregulation (AD), or synonymously "irritability," is a transdiagnostic construct that serves as a diagnostic criterion in various childhood mental disorders. It is characterized by severe or persistent outbursts of anger and aggression. Emotional self-regulation is highly dependent on the ability to process relevant and ignore conflicting emotional information. Understanding neurophysiological mechanisms underlying impairment in AD may provide a starting point for research on pharmacological treatment options and evaluation of psychotherapeutic intervention.

Methods: A total of 120 children 8 to 12 years of age (63 with AD and 57 typically developing) were examined using an emotional Stroop task. Signal-decomposed electroencephalographic recordings providing information about the affected sensory-perceptual, response selection, or motor information processing stage were combined with source localization.

Results: Behavioral performance revealed dysfunctional cognitive-emotional conflict monitoring in children with AD, suggesting difficulties in differentiating between conflicting and nonconflicting cognitive-emotional information. This was confirmed by the electroencephalographic data showing that they cannot intensify response selection processes during conflicting cognitive-emotional situations. Typically developing children were able to do so and activated a functional-neuroanatomical network comprising the left inferior parietal cortex (Brodmann area 40), right middle frontal (Brodmann area 10), and right inferior/orbitofrontal (Brodmann area 47) regions. Purely sensory-perceptual selection and motor execution processes were not modulated in AD, as evidenced by Bayesian analyses.

Conclusions: Behavioral and electroencephalogram data suggest that children with AD cannot adequately modulate controlled response selection processes given emotionally ambiguous information. Which neurotransmitter systems underlie these deficits and how they can be improved are important questions for future research.

Keywords: Affective dysregulation; EEG; Emotional conflict control; Source localization; Stroop.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bayes Theorem
Child
Cognition* / physiology
Electroencephalography
Emotions* / physiology
Humans
Stroop Test