3-110 - Developmental trajectories of anxiety: Neural and behavioral mechanisms related to threat sensitivity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Increased sensitivity to threat is a fundamental characteristic of anxiety. Behavioral measures of attentional bias, EEG asymmetry, and hyperactive neural response to errors have all been conceptualized as mechanisms that link threat responsivity to anxious symptoms. Talks in the current symposium examine these and other measures among youth through early adolescence—probing their utility as correlates and mechanisms that shape developmental trajectories of anxiety. Two presentations will focus on the relationship between anxiety in youth and event-related potential indices of performance monitoring (i.e., the error-related negativity or ERN, and the correct response negativity or CRN). The first presentation will focus on data demonstrating that increased ERN/CRN moderates the relationship between early BI and later social anxiety outcomes at age 12. In the second presentation we will present data showing that the relationship between harsh parenting and anxious outcomes is mediated by an increased ERN – and that this relationship is only evident among children with the plasticity-linked Met BDNF genotype. The third presentation will examine decision-making data from a novel Choice-Threat Task that assesses the balance between approach and avoidance motivation; in addition, the tendency to tolerate increased threat in the context of potential reward is examined in relation to self-reported temperament. Finally, the fourth presentation will present data on the impact of attention bias training (ABM) on anxiety, and the moderating role of baseline anxiety symptoms and EEG asymmetry. The discussant will integrate findings and highlight directions for future research in clinical developmental neuroscience.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Greg Hajcak, Stony Brook University

Individual Presentations

• The Performance Monitoring System Moderates the Relation Between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Anxiety During Early Adolescence - Presenting Author: George A. Buzzel, University of Maryland; Tyson V. Barker, University of Maryland; Sonya Troller-Renfree, University of Maryland; Heather Henderson, University of Waterloo; Daniel Pine, 1. Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, NIMH; Nathan Fox, 3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland

• BDNF Polymorphism Interacts with Hostile Parenting to Predict Error-Related Brain Activity and Thereby Internalizing Disorders - Presenting Author: Alexandria Meyer, Florida State University; Greg Hajcak, Stony Brook University; Daniel Klein, Stony Brook University

• The Tipping Point: Assessment of Approach-Avoidance Decision Making and Implications for Anxiety Disorders in Adolescence - Presenting Author: Cecile D. Ladouceur, University of Pittsburgh; Michael Schlund, University of North Texas

• Electrophysiological Markers of Change in Attention to Threat and Temperamental Risk for Anxiety - Presenting Author: Koraly Perez-Edgar, The Pennsylvania State University; Bradley Taber-Thomas, Penn State University; Pan Liu, Penn State University; Nhi Thai, Penn State University; Santiago Morales, Pennsylvania State University