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Early temperamental fearfulness and the developmental trajectory of error‐related brain activity
Author(s) -
Meyer Alexandria,
Hajcak Greg,
TorpeyNewman Dana,
Kujawa Autumn,
Olino Thomas M.,
Dyson Margaret,
Klein Daniel N.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21605
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , developmental psychology , temperament , negativity effect , mistake , audiology , personality , medicine , psychiatry , social psychology , political science , law
The error‐related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event‐related potential waveform that occurs when an individual makes a mistake, and an increased ERN has been proposed as a biomarker for anxiety. However, previous work suggests that fearful children are characterized by a smaller ERN. We have proposed that this may reflect the changing phenomenology of anxiety across development. In the current study, we investigate this possibility using a longitudinal within‐subject design. In 271 children, we completed observational measures of fear when the children were 3 years old, and then measured the ERN when the children were 6 and 9 years old. Fearful children were characterized by a decreased ERN when they were 6‐year‐old; by age 9, the same children who were fearful at age 3 had increased ERNs—a pattern that closely resembles that of anxious adolescents and adults.