Poster #9 - Associations between the Development of Error Monitoring, Temperament and Anxiety: A Longitudinal Multimodal Study

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Introduction

The ability to detect errors during goal-directed action is an important facet of cognition reflected in task-performance and subsequent adaptive behavior. Developmental studies demonstrate that event-related potentials (ERPs) such as error-related negativity (ERN) show protracted development from childhood through adulthood during tasks that require conflict resolution (e.g., Flanker task). However, less is known about the developmental trajectories of the neural generators of the ERN, with results pointing to anterior or posterior areas of the cingulate cortex. Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperamental predisposition to experience distress to novel environments and/or stimuli that emerges early in life, is a known risk factor for the development of anxiety. Recent work shows that ERN amplitude may moderate the link between BI and anxiety, but it is unclear what specific brain areas explain this moderation, and whether changes in ERN over time have implications for this effect.

Objectives

The first aim of the current study is to localize age-related change in the neural sources of the ERN using a relatively large longitudinal sample of early adolescents and young adults followed since infancy. The second aim is to leverage the existing BI and anxiety measures in our sample to examine the links between error monitoring (the neural sources of the ERN and how they may change over time), temperamental factors such as BI, and the development of anxious symptomatology which often emerges during the adolescent period.

Methods

High-density EEG recordings during the Flanker task were acquired at ages 12 (n = 133), 15 (n = 147) and 18 (n = 105). Anxiety was assessed via self-, parent-reports and clinical interviews. BI was assessed at ages 24 and 36 months via behavioral coding of laboratory assessments. Where possible, we employed structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) to acquire both T1- and T2-weighted images for each participant, which will aid the generation of participant-specific head models. Where individual MRIs are not available, we will use close-fitting sMRIs based on age and head measurements.

Analytic Plan

1) The accurate co-registration of electrode placement to the MRI head volume.
2) MRI head segmentation using the finite element method (FEM).
3) Calculation of the lead field matrix with the source space constrained to the gray matter.
4) Source localization will be performed using the exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA) algorithm.
5) Based on previous findings, six anatomical regions of interest (ROIs) will be selected for analyses (frontal pole, orbito-frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobe, ventral-, anterior- and posterior-cingulate).
ERN measures for each ROI will be entered as predictors in latent change score models to examine their associations with BI and changes in anxious symptomatology over time.

Hypotheses

We hypothesize that ERN amplitudes will increase as a function of age with the largest contributors to the ERN demonstrating a shift from anterior to posterior brain regions over time.
We hypothesize that we will observe associations between anxiety and BI, possibly moderated by ERN amplitude and the neural generators of the ERN.

Authors

• Marco McSweeney, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• John E Richards, University of South Carolina

• Stefania Conte, University of South Carolina

• Emilio Alejandro Valadez, University of Maryland - College Park

• George A Buzzell, Florida International University

• Enda Tan, University of Maryland - College Park

• Santiago Morales, University of Southern California

• Daniel S. Pine, National Institutes of Health

• Anderson Winkler

• Lucrezia Liuzzi, National Institute of Mental Health

• Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, University of Maryland, College Park

• Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park