3-030 - Neural Response to Emotion in Children: Considering Contextual Factors

Session Type: Paper Session

Integrative Statement

This group of papers examines amygdala and frontal activity and assymmetry in response to faces and body postures epressing various emotional states, including a neutral state. Results from paper 1 indicate that infants as young as 8 (but not 4) months of age respond differentially to (upright but not inverted) happy and fearful body expressions, suggesting early differentiation of not only facial emotino but also emotion cues in body posture. Paper two suggests that context (namely recent exposure to fearful or happy facial expressions) matters for how both adults and children respond to neutral faces, and that developmental differences may not be evident. When combined with the results from paper 1, these results suggest a broader focus on the cues available when processing emotion may be needed. In paper 3, differences between post-institutionalized and non-post-institutionalized children's neural response to facial emotions suggest that prior experience also shapes neural processing and should be addressed.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes

Chair

• Nim Tottenham, Columbia Univ

Individual Presentations

• Infants’ perception of happy and fearful body expressions and frontal EEG asymmetry - Presenting Author: Manuela Missana, Max Planck Institute; Tobias Grossmann, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, and University of Virginia

• Amygdala Response to Neutral Faces: The Importance of Context - Presenting Author: Madeline B. Harms, University of Minnesota; Angela Tseng, Columbia University; Nathalie Vizueta, University of California, Los Angeles; Jennifer A Wenner, University of Minnesota; Ruskin H. Hunt, University of Minnesota; Kathleen M Thomas, University of Minnesota

• Post-Institutionalized Children Show Hyper-reactivity of Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens in Response to Social Stimuli - Presenting Author: Kelly Elizabeth Jedd, University of Minnesota; Ruskin H. Hunt, University of Minnesota; Megan R Gunnar, Univ of Minnesota; Kathleen M Thomas, University of Minnesota