Cognitive Conflict Links Behavioural Inhibition and Social Problem Solving During Social Exclusion in Childhood

Abstract

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized by heightened negative affect and social reticence to unfamiliar peers. In a longitudinal study, 291 infants were assessed for BI at 24 and 36 months of age. At age 7, N2 amplitude was measured during a Flanker task. Also at age 7, children experienced social exclusion in the lab during an interaction with an unfamiliar peer and an experimenter. Our findings indicate that children characterized as high in BI, relative to those low in BI, had larger (i.e., more negative) N2 amplitudes. Additionally, among children with a large N2, BI was positively related to withdrawal and negatively related to assertiveness during social exclusion. These findings suggest that variations in conflict detection among behaviorally inhibited children plays a role in their social behavior during stressful social situations.

Behavioral Inhibition and Developmental Risk: A Dual-Processing Perspective

“…For children with a history of BI, smaller ERN amplitudes tended to reduce the probability of a lifetime diagnosis (OR ¼ 0.82, p ¼ 0.06), whereas the ERN was unrelated to probability of diagnosis for children without a history of BI. Importantly, as was the case in the N2/conflict detection studies by Lahat et al (2014b) and Henderson (2010), a history of BI was unrelated to behavioral performance (error rates or reaction times) on the Flanker task, suggesting that the exaggerated cortical responses did not support superior task performance. Examining the association between the ERN and clinically significant anxiety longitudinally, Lahat et al (2014a), in a separate study, reported that BI in toddlerhood was associated with larger ERN amplitudes at 7 years of age.…”

“…This is also consistent with the Perez-Edgar et al (2007) finding that adolescents with a history of childhood BI showed exaggerated amygdala responses to all emotion faces (not just threatening ones) when asked to rate their subjective experiences. In addition, it is supported by the finding that enhanced N2 amplitudes on both incompatible (high conflict) and compatible (low conflict) trials linked BI to indices of social and emotional maladaptation (Henderson, 2010;Lahat et al, 2014b) and that a childhood history of BI is associated with the failure to discriminate between positive and negative feedback in vmPFC activation during a monetary incentive delay task in adolescence (Helfinstein et al, 2011).…”

“…Similar findings arose in two studies on BI. In one of these, Lahat et al (2014b) found that a history of BI in toddlerhood predicted a larger amplitude N2 response on a Go/No Go task at age 7. Moreover, the combination of high BI and larger amplitude N2 responses predicted less competent social behavior with an unfamiliar peer.…”

“…These regions include the ACC and DLPFC, as indexed by enhanced amplitude N2 responses. It is also important to note that in both the Lahat et al (2014b) and Henderson (2010) papers, the moderating effect of the N2 amplitude was apparent whether incompatible (high conflict) or compatible (low conflict) trials were examined, suggesting the possibility that over-generalized neural sensitivity and engagement of conflict monitoring could be a specific mechanism linking BI to anxiety.…”

Approach, avoidance, and the detection of conflict in the development of behavioral inhibition

“…Studies of the relation between N2 magnitude and BI have found that children (7 −8 years of age) characterized by early BI exhibit larger N2 magnitudes during a motor inhibition task (i.e., Go/No-Go Task) compared with less-inhibited children (Lamm et al, 2014). Enhanced N2 activation among behaviorally inhibited children (7 −8 years of age) has also been observed during a stimulus conflict task (Lahat, Walker, et al, 2014). During a dot-probe task, behaviorally inhibited children (7 −8 years of age) exhibit larger N2 amplitude when avoiding threat (Thai, Taber-Thomas, & Perez-Edgar, 2016).…”