The N170 to Angry Faces Predicts Anxiety in Typically Developing Children over a Two-year Period

Overview

Journal Dev Neuropsychol

Publisher Routledge

Date 2013 Jul 19

PMID 23862637

Citations 16

Authors

Laura J OToole

Jennifer M DeCicco

Samantha Berthod

Tracy A Dennis

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Enhanced threat processing has been associated with elevated anxiety in adults, but less is known about how threat processing influences the developmental trajectory of anxiety in children. We used the N170 to measure threat (angry faces) processing in relation to child anxiety over a 2-year period. Participants were 27 typically developing 5-to-7-year-olds (13 females). Higher anxiety when children were aged 5 to 7 was associated with higher anxiety 2 years later, but only for children showing larger N170 amplitudes to angry versus happy faces. The N170 captures individual differences in threat processing that may characterize children at enhanced risk for anxiety.

Citing Articles

Case Series of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation as an Augmentation Strategy for Attention Bias Modification Treatment in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders.

Vaclavik D, Bechor M, Foster A, Gralnik L, Bar-Haim Y, Pine D Klin Spec Psihol. 2024; 9(3):105-126.

PMID: 39555233 PMC: 11565484. DOI: 10.17759/cpse.2020090308.

Preference for digital media use, biobehavioral attention bias, and anxiety symptoms in adolescents.

Myruski S, de Rutte J, Findley A, Roy A, Dennis-Tiwary T Comput Hum Behav Rep. 2024; 15.

PMID: 39268514 PMC: 11391916. DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100439.

Investigating the consistency of ERPs across threatening situations among children and adolescents.

Heffer T, Willoughby T Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2021; 22(2):328-340.

PMID: 34724176 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00957-y.

The development of neural responses to emotional faces: A review of evidence from event-related potentials during early and middle childhood.

Bigelow F, Clark G, Lum J, Enticott P Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021; 51:100992.

PMID: 34329806 PMC: 8339225. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100992.

Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research with Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations and Recommendations for Research on Cognition and Emotion.

Brooker R, Bates J, Buss K, Canen M, Dennis-Tiwary T, Gatzke-Kopp L J Psychophysiol. 2021; 34(3):137-158.

PMID: 34024985 PMC: 8136588. DOI: 10.1027/0269-8803/a000243.

References

Perez-Edgar K, Reeb-Sutherland B, McDermott J, White L, Henderson H, Degnan K . Attention biases to threat link behavioral inhibition to social withdrawal over time in very young children. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2011; 39(6):885-95. PMC: 3756613. DOI: 10.1007/s10802-011-9495-5. View

OToole L, Dennis T . Attention training and the threat bias: an ERP study. Brain Cogn. 2011; 78(1):63-73. PMC: 3233611. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.10.007. View

Fox E, Russo R, Georgiou G . Anxiety modulates the degree of attentive resources required to process emotional faces. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2006; 5(4):396-404. PMC: 1903373. DOI: 10.3758/cabn.5.4.396. View

Banaschewski T, Brandeis D . Annotation: what electrical brain activity tells us about brain function that other techniques cannot tell us - a child psychiatric perspective. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007; 48(5):415-35. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01681.x. View

Batty M, Taylor M . Early processing of the six basic facial emotional expressions. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2003; 17(3):613-20. DOI: 10.1016/s0926-6410(03)00174-5. View

Pessoa L, McKenna M, Gutierrez E, Ungerleider L . Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002; 99(17):11458-63. PMC: 123278. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.172403899. View

Tottenham N, Tanaka J, Leon A, McCarry T, Nurse M, Hare T . The NimStim set of facial expressions: judgments from untrained research participants. Psychiatry Res. 2009; 168(3):242-9. PMC: 3474329. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2008.05.006. View

Hadwin J, Donnelly N, Richards A, French C, Patel U . Childhood anxiety and attention to emotion faces in a modified stroop task. Br J Dev Psychol. 2009; 27(Pt 2):487-94. DOI: 10.1348/026151008x315503. View

Righart R, de Gelder B . Context influences early perceptual analysis of faces--an electrophysiological study. Cereb Cortex. 2005; 16(9):1249-57. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhj066. View

10.

Thomas K, Drevets W, Whalen P, Eccard C, Dahl R, Ryan N . Amygdala response to facial expressions in children and adults. Biol Psychiatry. 2001; 49(4):309-16. DOI: 10.1016/s0006-3223(00)01066-0. View

11.

Bar-Haim Y, Lamy D, Pergamin L, Bakermans-Kranenburg M, van IJzendoorn M . Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study. Psychol Bull. 2007; 133(1):1-24. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1. View

12.

Waters A, Henry J, Mogg K, Bradley B, Pine D . Attentional bias towards angry faces in childhood anxiety disorders. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2010; 41(2):158-64. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.12.001. View

13.

Hofmann S . Cognitive factors that maintain social anxiety disorder: a comprehensive model and its treatment implications. Cogn Behav Ther. 2007; 36(4):193-209. PMC: 2151931. DOI: 10.1080/16506070701421313. View

14.

Eimer M, Holmes A . An ERP study on the time course of emotional face processing. Neuroreport. 2002; 13(4):427-31. DOI: 10.1097/00001756-200203250-00013. View

15.

Perez-Edgar K, Bar-Haim Y, McDermott J, Chronis-Tuscano A, Pine D, Fox N . Attention biases to threat and behavioral inhibition in early childhood shape adolescent social withdrawal. Emotion. 2010; 10(3):349-57. PMC: 3614079. DOI: 10.1037/a0018486. View

16.

Roy A, Vasa R, Bruck M, Mogg K, Bradley B, Sweeney M . Attention bias toward threat in pediatric anxiety disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008; 47(10):1189-96. PMC: 2783849. DOI: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181825ace. View

17.

Chronis-Tuscano A, Degnan K, Pine D, Perez-Edgar K, Henderson H, Diaz Y . Stable early maternal report of behavioral inhibition predicts lifetime social anxiety disorder in adolescence. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009; 48(9):928-935. PMC: 2789287. DOI: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181ae09df. View

18.

Bentin S, Allison T, Puce A, Perez E, McCarthy G . Electrophysiological Studies of Face Perception in Humans. J Cogn Neurosci. 2010; 8(6):551-565. PMC: 2927138. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.1996.8.6.551. View

19.

Wronka E, Walentowska W . Attention modulates emotional expression processing. Psychophysiology. 2011; 48(8):1047-56. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01180.x. View

20.

Pollak S, Cicchetti D, Hornung K, Reed A . Recognizing emotion in faces: developmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Dev Psychol. 2000; 36(5):679-688. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.36.5.679. View