Contributions of Autonomic Activity to Neural Indices of Attention and Inhibitory Control in Preschool-age Children

• In Event: 3-123 - New Methodological Approaches and Applications in the Study of Children’s Multisystem Physiology

Integrative Statement

Early in development, autonomic nervous system activity shows robust associations with a wide-range of children’s cognitive functions. Activity of the parasympathetic branch (PNS) has been identified as a transdiagnostic marker of self-regulation skills, including inhibitory control, prosocial behavior, and related executive functions (Beauchaine & Thayer, 2015; Graziano & Derefinko, 2013), while activity of the sympathetic branch (SNS) makes foundational contributions to selective attention and when dysregulated may contribute to attention-deficit disorders and serve as a risk factor for sensation-seeking behaviors (Giuliano et al., 2018; Hinnant et al., 2017).

It has generally been acknowledged that neural activity varies as a function of autonomic nervous system activity (Thayer & Lane, 2009; Smith et al. 2017), yet surprisingly few studies measure central and peripheral nervous systems simultaneously. Even fewer studies measure both parasympathetic and sympathetic autonomic branches when doing so. Such studies hold particular promise for understanding variability in neurocognitive development, given the oft-reported relationships between autonomic nervous system activity and cognition early in life.

Here, we employed cardiovascular measures of PNS and SNS activity concurrently with event-related potentials (ERPs) in multiple samples of preschool-age children, during tasks emphasizing selective attention and inhibitory control. During a baseline period featuring the presentation of a calming ocean video and during each task, high-frequency heart rate variability was measured as index of PNS activity, and pre-ejection period was measured as index of SNS activity. For Experiment 1, 144 children completed a dichotic listening measure of auditory selective attention. For Experiment 2, 84 children completed a Go/No-go task. For Experiments 3 and 4, two separate samples of 100 children each completed both the auditory selective attention task and the Go/No-go task. Analyses focused on identifying associations of PNS and SNS activity with ERPs and behavioral performance that replicated across experiments.

Across experiments, evidence was found supporting a dissociation between PNS and SNS activity with neurocognitive measures, such that PNS activity covaried with ERP and behavioral measures of inhibitory control, while SNS activity covaried with ERP measures of selective attention. For inhibitory control, greater PNS activity was associated with greater accuracy on No-go trials (Figure 1A) and larger stimulus-evoked N2 amplitudes on Go and No-go trials (Figure 1B), as well as reduced reaction time variability. For selective attention, greater SNS activity (i.e., shorter pre-ejection period) was associated with greater inhibition of distractor sounds, as seen by smaller amplitudes of the P1 auditory evoked potential (Figure 2).

In summary, these results are consistent with previous research implicating PNS activity in measures of self-regulation and SNS activity in measures of attention early in development. Given that the present findings were observed across a variety of samples of preschool-age children, this suggests that these relationships are relatively stable. Future directions include examining interactions between PNS and SNS activity in terms of autonomic space (Berntson, Cacioppo, & Quigley, 1993) with regard to neurocognitive outcomes, as well as examining the impact of early life adversity on these relationships.

Authors

• Ryan Giuliano, University of Manitoba
  Presenting Author

• Leslie Elizabeth Roos, University of Manitoba
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christina Karns, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theodore Bell, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth A. Skowron, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author