Associations between social behaviors and experiences with neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation in middle childhood

Abstract

Emotion regulation is essential for successful social interactions and function, which are important aspects of middle childhood. The current study is one of the first to examine associations between neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation and indices of social behavior and experience during late middle childhood. We examined neural activation during the implicit emotion regulation condition of the Emotional N-back task using data from 8987 9- to 11-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development^℠ study. The brain regions assessed included areas linked to social cognition, social behavior, and emotion recognition, including the amygdala, insula, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobe. Greater number of close friends was associated with significantly higher activation of the fusiform gyrus, insula, temporoparietal junction, inferior parietal lobe, and superior temporal gyrus during implicit emotion regulation. Greater reciprocal social impairments were linked to decreased fusiform gyrus activation during implicit emotion regulation. More experiences of discrimination were associated with a significantly lower activation in the middle temporal gyrus during implicit emotion regulation. This study provides evidence that both positive and negative indices of children's social experiences and behaviors are associated with neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation during late middle childhood. These findings suggest that both positive and negative indices of social behavior and experience, including those within and not within the youth's control, are associated with generally unique neural correlates during implicit emotion regulation.

Fig. 1. Association between positive social behavior and experience indices and activity in a priori ROIs during Emotion Faces versus Neutral Faces contrast.

Color bar depicts t-statistic range. Warm colors indicate increased activation, cool colors indicate decreased activation relative to baseline. A t-statistics from all models examining associations between a priori ROIs and number of close friends, whether or not they passed FDR correction.

Fig. 2. Association between negative social behavior and experience indices and activity in a priori ROIs during Emotion Faces versus Neutral Faces contrast.

Color bar depicts t-statistic range. Warm colors indicate increased activation, cool colors indicate decreased activation relative to baseline. A t-statistics from all models examining associations between a priori ROIs and reciprocal social impairments, whether or not they passed FDR correction. B t-statistics from all models examining associations between a priori ROIs and experiences of discrimination, whether or not they passed FDR correction.