Event-Related Potentials and Emotion Processing in Child Psychopathology

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the neural mechanisms underlying altered emotional processes in children and adolescents with psychopathology. This review provides a brief overview of the most up-to-date findings in the field of event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial and vocal emotional expressions in the most common child psychopathological conditions. In regards to externalizing behavior (i.e., ADHD, CD), ERP studies show enhanced early components to anger, reflecting enhanced sensory processing, followed by reductions in later components to anger, reflecting reduced cognitive-evaluative processing. In regards to internalizing behavior, research supports models of increased processing of threat stimuli especially at later more elaborate and effortful stages. Finally, in autism spectrum disorders abnormalities have been observed at early visual-perceptual stages of processing. An affective neuroscience framework for understanding child psychopathology can be valuable in elucidating underlying mechanisms and inform preventive intervention.

Multimodal Evidence of Atypical Processing of Eye Gaze and Facial Emotion in Children With Autistic Traits

“…In Experiment 2 we investigated the ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions and its modulation by gaze direction in ASD and TD children by means of the emotion composite task. The observed overall lower performance of the ASD group as compared to TD children might reflect a global deficit in categorizing facial expressions as reported in many other studies ( Wong et al, 2008 ; Chronaki, 2016 ). However, since we had no non-emotional control task, it might also reflect a more general phenomenon in the ASD group, e.g., task compliance related differences between the groups.…”

“…Event-related potential (ERP) studies indicate difficulties of individuals with ASD in orienting to social stimuli. This was demonstrated by a reduced or delayed N170 response to faces, which may indicate impaired structural processing of faces ( Samaey et al, 2020 ) or diminished emotion recognition ( Chronaki, 2016 ). The N170 is one of the most frequently investigated face-sensitive ERP components, and is also associated with eye gaze processing ( Pelphrey et al, 2005 ; Senju et al, 2005b ; Webb et al, 2006 ).…”

Autism‐relevant traits interact with temporoparietal junction stimulation effects on social cognition: a high‐definition transcranial direct current stimulation and electroencephalography study

“…Second, power tends to be enhanced in the left (LH) relative to the right hemisphere (RH) across frequency bands in ASD (relative to controls) (Cantor et al ., ; Stroganova et al ., ). With reference to ERPs, longer latencies and reduced amplitudes during facial emotion processing have been observed in ASD for the P100 (Chronaki, ), N170 (McPartland et al ., ; Dawson et al ., ,b) and the P300 (Dawson et al ., ,b; Chronaki, ). By way of linking these themes to this study, prior research points to posterior parietal and temporoparietal regions with reference to such spectral power differences and ERP components relevant to social cognition (Itier & Taylor, ; McCleery et al ., ; Mavratzakis et al ., ).…”

Early Posterior Negativity as Facial Emotion Recognition Index in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

“…Impaired recognition of emotions can be caused by problems in orienting to emotional stimuli. An eye tracking study (Ahmadi, Judi, Khorrami, Mahmoudi-Gharaei, & Tehrani-Doost, 2011) and few Event-Related Potential (ERP) studies reported that these impairments are associated with early stages of facial emotion processing and selective attention in ADHD (Williams et al, 2008; Barry et al, 2009; Nazari et al, 2010; Sarraf Razavi, Tehranidoost, Ghassemi, Purabassi, & Taymourtash, 2017), as well as autism spectrum disorders Chronaki (2016). In addition, ERP studies reported deficits in selective attention in other cognitive tasks in ADHD (Barry et al, 2009; Nazari et al, 2010).…”

“…Literature reporting the neural basis of emotional dysfunction in children with ADHD is scarce. To our knowledge and according to a review article by Chronaki (2016), the current study is the first to investigate the early stages of neural activity of facial emotion recognition based on EPN component in children with ADHD. The present study aimed to better understand the early stages of facial emotion processing in children with ADHD.…”