2-118 - Investigating the Neural Correlates of Psychopathology in Preschool-Age Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Neural processes that underpin risk for early-onset mood and behavior problems should be a priority for researchers. However, despite technologies available to explore the neural correlates of psychopathology, few studies examine preschool-age children. This is in part due to difficulty getting preschoolers to comply with study requirements to acquire brain data, such as staying still and tolerating unfamiliar environments. Thus, the neural correlates of psychopathology in preschoolers represent an underexplored area of research.
The speakers in this symposium developed novel child-friendly paradigms to successfully acquire brain activity data in preschool children, including fNIRS, fMRI, and Event Related Potential (ERP) data. Moreover, the studies presented investigated different theoretical pathways to psychopathology, and examined diverse samples of typical and disordered preschoolers.
The first speaker will present data from an innovative fNIRS study showing how preschooler’s working memory relates to irritability via Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) activation. The second speaker will discuss an fMRI study that used a novel guessing-game task to test relations between reward-related circuitry and positive affect in preschoolers. The third speaker will present ERP findings on the characteristics of error detection in a unique sample of asymptomatic preschoolers genetically predisposed to depression and anxiety. The final speaker will present ERP findings showing blunted waveforms associated with preventing and processing errors in preschoolers with disruptive behavior disorders.
Taken together, these data represent insightful findings into the neural processes that may indicate risk for psychopathology in early childhood. Furthermore, these studies suggest future directions for measuring brain activity in challenging pediatric populations.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Adam Grabell, Univ of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Neural Development of Irritability: A fNIRS study of Executive Function in Preschool Children - Presenting Author: Susan B Perlman, University of Pittsburgh; Theodore Huppert, University of Pittsburgh

• Brain Function and Positive Affect In Early Childhood: Validation of a Developmentally Informed fMRI Reward Processing Task - Presenting Author: Michael Gaffrey, Washington University in St. Louis; Deanna Barch, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis; Julie Mannarino, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis; Jessica Varner, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis; Steve Petersen, Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis; Joan L Luby, Washington Univ Sch of Med

• Error-Related Brain Activity in Young Children at High Familial Risk for Anxiety and Depression - Presenting Author: Yanni Liu, Unviersity of Michigan; Twila Tardif, University of Michigan; William Gehring, University of Michigan; Maria Muzik, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Katherine L Rosenblum, Univ of Michigan; Kate D Fitzgerald, University of Michigan, Department of Psychiatry

• Neural Mechanisms of Emotion Dysregulation in Preschool Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders - Presenting Author: Adam Grabell, Univ of Pittsburgh; Sheryl L Olson, 10Charge; Twila Tardif, University of Michigan; William Gehring, University of Michigan