PHYSIOLOGICAL MARKERS OF EMOTION AND BEHAVIOR DYSREGULATION IN EXTERNALIZING PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Much of the research conducted in our lab over the past decade has focused on identifying peripheral and central nervous system (CNS) markers of both trait impulsivity and emotion dysregulation in preschoolers (e.g., Crowell et al., 2006), middle schoolers (e.g., Shannon, Beauchaine, Brenner, Neuhaus & Gatzke-Kopp 2007), and adolescents (e.g., Crowell et al., 2005). This body of work includes studies of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), boys with conduct disorder (CD; e.g., Beauchaine, Katkin, Strassberg, & Snarr, 2001), and girls with borderline personality traits (e.g., Crowell, Beauchaine et al., 2008). One key assumption of this work is that inherited impulsivity interacts across development with socialized deficiencies in emotion regulation (ER) to promote the development of conduct problems among boys and borderline traits among girls. Although space constraints preclude a full description of the theoretical bases of this assumption, in writing this chapter, I summarize how the use of autonomic nervous system (ANS) markers, neuroimaging, and genetic data have led my research group to our current thinking about the roles of impulsivity and emotion dysregulation in the development of externalizing psychopathology. I note at the outset that my discussion of environmental risk is limited given the objectives of this monograph. However, I consider such risk factors to be as important in the development of psychopathology as biological vulnerabilities (see Beauchaine, Hinshaw, & Pang, 2010). Furthermore, although not discussed in this chapter, and not difficult to identify in humans, epigenetic alterations in the DNA structure that are brought about through adverse life events are also likely to potentiate psychopathology (Mead, Beauchaine, & Shannon, 2010; Tremblay, 2005).