Exploring background aperiodic electroencephalography (EEG) activity in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.

Aperiodic activity is a background arrhythmic component of electroencephalogram (EEG) that is present in the power spectrum and characterized by an aperiodic offset and an aperiodic exponent. These components have been proposed as a marker of brain maturation, reflecting alterations in excitatory-inhibitory (E:I) balance and exhibiting developmental changes over time. Currently, there is limited understanding regarding how aperiodic activity changes over the course of an individual's life, particularly from early childhood to adolescence, a period when the brain undergoes significant structural and functional transformation.

Component-specific developmental trajectories of ERP indices of cognitive control in early childhood.

Early childhood is characterized by robust developmental changes in cognitive control. However, our understanding of intra-individual change in neural indices of cognitive control during this period remains limited. Here, we examined developmental changes in event-related potential (ERP) indices of cognitive control from preschool through first grade, in a large and diverse sample of children (N = 257).

Social versus non-social behavioral inhibition: Differential prediction from early childhood of long-term psychosocial outcomes.

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperamental style characterized by cautious and fearful behaviors in novel situations. The present multi-method, longitudinal study examined whether young children's observed and parent-reported BI in social versus non-social contexts predicts different long-term psychosocial outcomes. Participants (N = 279) were drawn from a longitudinal study of socioemotional development.

Simultaneous multimodal fNIRS-EEG recordings reveal new insights in neural activity during motor execution, observation, and imagery.

Motor execution, observation, and imagery are important skills used in motor learning and rehabilitation. The neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive-motor processes are still poorly understood. We used a simultaneous recording of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalogram (EEG) to elucidate the differences in neural activity across three conditions requiring these processes.

A Developmental Pathway from Early Inhibitory Control to Social Connectedness.

Social connections are critical for mental and physical health; however, the developmental pathways to children's social connectedness outcomes are not well understood. This study examined the pathways from children's inhibitory control at 4 years to two social connectedness outcomes - loneliness and friendship quality at age 10 - through behavioral problems at age 7. As part of a longitudinal study (N = 291, 54% girls), children's inhibitory control was assessed via a Go/No-Go task when children were 4 years old.

Which Anxious Adolescents Were Most Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant stress and anxiety among many, individuals' experiences varied. We examined if specific forms of anxiety predicted distinct trajectories of anxiety, perceived stress, and COVID-related worries during three early months of the pandemic. In a longitudinal study ( = 291), adolescents' ( = 194) social and generalized anxiety levels were assessed via parent- and self-reports and clinical diagnostic interviews.

Annual Research Review: Developmental pathways linking early behavioral inhibition to later anxiety.

Behavioral Inhibition is a temperament identified in the first years of life that enhances the risk for development of anxiety during late childhood and adolescence. Amongst children characterized with this temperament, only around 40 percent go on to develop anxiety disorders, meaning that more than half of these children do not. Over the past 20 years, research has documented within-child and socio-contextual factors that support differing developmental pathways.

Structural Brain Correlates of Childhood Inhibited Temperament: An ENIGMA-Anxiety Mega-analysis.

Temperament involves stable behavioral and emotional tendencies that differ between individuals, which can be first observed in infancy or early childhood and relate to behavior in many contexts and over many years. One of the most rigorously characterized temperament classifications relates to the tendency of individuals to avoid the unfamiliar and to withdraw from unfamiliar people, objects, and unexpected events. This temperament is referred to as behavioral inhibition or inhibited temperament (IT).

Effects of foster care intervention and caregiving quality on the bidirectional development of executive functions and social skills following institutional rearing.

Institutional rearing negatively impacts the development of children's social skills and executive functions (EF). However, little is known about whether childhood social skills mediate the effects of the foster care intervention (FCG) and foster caregiving quality following early institutional rearing on EF and social skills in adolescence. We examined (a) whether children's social skills at 8 years mediate the impact of the FCG on the development of EF at ages 12 and 16 years, and (b) whether social skills and EF at ages 8 and 12 mediate the relation between caregiving quality in foster care at 42 months and subsequent social skills and EF at age 16.

Structured sparse multiset canonical correlation analysis of simultaneous fNIRS and EEG provides new insights into the human action-observation network.

The action observation network (AON) is a network of brain regions involved in the execution and observation of a given action. The AON has been investigated in humans using mostly electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), but shared neural correlates of action observation and action execution are still unclear due to lack of ecologically valid neuroimaging measures. In this study, we used concurrent EEG and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the AON during a live-action observation and execution paradigm.

A Developmental Pathway From Early Behavioral Inhibition to Young Adults' Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to young adults' lives, resulting in mental health difficulties for many; however, some individuals are particularly prone to heightened anxiety. Little is known about the early life predictors of anxiety during the pandemic. We examined a developmental pathway from behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by fearful responses toward novelty, to changes in young adults' anxiety during the initial period of the pandemic.

An fNIRS Study of Brain Lateralization During Observation and Execution of a Fine Motor Task.

Brain activity in the action observation network (AON) is lateralized during action execution, with greater activation in the contralateral hemisphere to the side of the body used to perform the task. However, it is unknown whether the AON is also lateralized when watching another person perform an action. In this study, we use fNIRS to measure brain activity over the left and right cortex while participants completed actions with their left and right hands and watched an actor complete action with their left and right hands.

Autonomic profiles and self-regulation outcomes in early childhood.

This study examined autonomic profiles in preschoolers (N = 278, age = 4.7 years) and their relations to self-regulation outcomes concurrently and one year later, in kindergarten. Children's sympathetic (preejection period [PEP]) and parasympathetic activity (respiratory sinus arrythmia [RSA]) were measured at rest and during cognitive and emotional tasks.

Cerebral hemodynamic response during a live action-observation and action-execution task: A fNIRS study.

Although many studies have examined the location of the action observation network (AON) in human adults, the shared neural correlates of action-observation and action-execution are still unclear partially due to lack of ecologically valid neuroimaging measures. In this study, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility of using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the neural correlates of action-observation and action execution regions during a live task. Thirty adults reached for objects or observed an experimenter reaching for objects while their cerebral hemodynamic responses including oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) were recorded in the sensorimotor and parietal regions.

Pathways from maternal shyness to adolescent social anxiety.

Background: Social anxiety is amongst the most prevalent adolescent mental health problems; however, it is often unrecognized due to its comorbidity with other anxiety problems such as generalized anxiety. Thus, understanding the unique developmental pathways to social anxiety is critical for improving its prevention. We examined the pathway from maternal shyness, when children were 4 years old, to adolescents' social anxiety at age 15 through social wariness at age 7.

Neurocognitive Profiles in Adolescence Predict Subsequent Anxiety Trajectories During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created increased stress and anxiety for many; however, some individuals are particularly prone to heightened anxiety. It is unclear if and how prestress neurocognitive factors moderate risk for anxiety during high-stress situations. Enhanced error monitoring and a cognitive control strategy of more instantaneous (reactive) control have both been independently related to anxiety.

Long-Term Effects of Institutional Care and Enhanced Attachment Relationships on Close Adolescent Friendships.

This study examined whether early institutional rearing and attachment security influence the quality and quantity of friendships at age 16 in 138 participants, including children abandoned to institutions in Bucharest, Romania, who were randomized to care as usual (n = 45, 26 female), or foster care (n = 47, 25 female), and a never-institutionalized group (n = 46, 18 female). Adolescents in the foster care group with secure attachment to their foster mothers at 42 months were comparable to never-institutionalized adolescents in having more friends and more positive behaviors with their friend during dyadic interactions, compared to the foster care group with insecure attachment and care as usual group. Interventions targeting early child-caregiver attachment relationships may help foster the ability to build positive friendships in adolescence.

When is Parental Suppression of Black Children's Negative Emotions Adaptive? The Role of Preparation for Racial Bias and Children's Resting Cardiac Vagal Tone.

Research demonstrates that Black parents attempt to suppress children's expressions of negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear), in part, to protect them from experiencing racial bias from authority figures.

A Developmental Pathway From Early Behavioral Inhibition to Young Adults' Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to young adults' lives, resulting in mental health difficulties for many; however, some individuals are particularly prone to heightened anxiety. Little is known about the early life predictors of anxiety during the pandemic. We examined a developmental pathway from behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by fearful responses toward novelty, to changes in young adults' anxiety during the initial period of the pandemic.

Transactional Associations Between Parent and Late Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Role of Avoidant Coping.

Extensive research has demonstrated the transactional nature of parent-child psychopathology, with limited studies examining these effects during late adolescence and none, to our knowledge, longitudinally during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examined the cross-lagged effects of parent and adolescent internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating role of avoidant coping. A sample of 291 adolescents (Age  = 18.

Autonomic nervous system functioning in early childhood: Responses to cognitive and negatively valenced emotional challenges.

Although autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning is "context-dependent," few studies examined children's normative sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic responses to distinct challenges in early childhood years. Examining children's ANS responsivity to distinct challenges is important for understanding normative autonomic responses toward everyday life stressors and identifying paradigms that effectively elicit a "stress response." We examined children's (N = 278) sympathetic (preejection period [PEP]) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) responses to cognitive (i.

Maternal behavior predicts neural underpinnings of inhibitory control in preschoolers.

Separate lines of research have revealed that the rapid development of inhibitory control in the preschool period is closely tied to normative brain development and influenced by early mother-child interactions. One potential theory is that maternal behavior in the context of early interactions influences the neural underpinnings of inhibitory control in development, with implications for child behavior. The purpose of this paper was to examine whether maternal emotional support, measured during a mother-child problem-solving game, predicted child neural responses (frontal-central N2 event-related potential) and behavioral performance (discrimination index, d') in a go/no-go task of inhibitory control in a large, diverse sample of mother-child dyads (N = 276) observed in children's last year of preschool (mean age = 56 months).

Pathways from maternal effortful control to child self-regulation: The role of maternal emotional support.

This study examined the direct and indirect pathways from maternal effortful control to 2 aspects of children's self-regulation-executive functioning and behavioral regulation-via maternal emotional support. Two hundred seventy-eight children and their primary caregivers (96% mothers) participated in laboratory visits when children were 4 and 5 years, and teachers reported on children's behavior at kindergarten. At the 4-year assessment, maternal effortful control was measured using the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (Evans & Rothbart, 2007) and maternal emotional support was observed during a semistructured mother-child problem-solving task.