Frontal Activation Asymmetry and Social Competence at Four Years of Age

Abstract

The pattern of frontal activation as measured by the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) may be a marker for individual differences in infant and adult disposition to respond with either positive or negative affect. We studied 48 4-year-old children who were first observed in same-sex quartets during free-play sessions, while making speeches, and during a ticket-sorting task. Social and interactive behaviors were coded from these sessions. Each child was subsequently seen 2 weeks later when EEG was recorded while the child attended to a visual stimulus. The pattern of EEG activation computed from the session was significantly related to the child's behavior in the quartet session. Children who displayed social competence (high degree of social initiations and positive affect) exhibited greater relative left frontal activation, while children who displayed social withdrawal (isolated, onlooking, and unoccupied behavior) during the play session exhibited greater relative right frontal activation. Differences among children in frontal asymmetry were a function of power in the left frontal region. These EEG/behavior findings suggest that resting frontal asymmetry may be a marker for certain temperamental dispositions.

Relationship between adult attachment patterns, emotional experience and EEG frontal asymmetry

“…Higher right resting asymmetry had already been found in children who exhibited inhibited behaviour in social interactions, whereas social competence was related to greater left activity (Fox et al, 1995). These patterns could be paired with the present trends in adult attachment, considering the influence of internal models on social behaviour: avoidant children are more likely to retire from social interactions, whereas preoccupied children could display social anxiety and timidity when facing unfamiliar or novel places.…”

Striatal Functional Alteration in Adolescents Characterized by Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition

“…Both behavioral [e.g., reticence with peers (Rubin et al, 2002)] and physiological [e.g., right frontal EEG asymmetry (Fox et al, 1995)] response profiles documented in inhibited children early in life suggest that this form of temperament is characterized by a stable, general hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli that has typically been understood in terms of enhanced reactivity of the fear circuitry of the brain to novel stimuli (Kagan, 1994;Schwartz et al, 2003;Fox et al, 2005). The main finding from the current study extends this characterization by demonstrating that an inhibited temperament is associated with enhanced neural sensitivity in brain regions that facilitate motivated behavior in response to nonsocial reward stimuli.…”

Shyness: Subtypes, Psychosocial Correlates, and Treatment Interventions

“…Shyness is characterized by active avoidance of social contact (Rubin, Stewart, & Coplan, 1995) due to fear of social scrutiny and embarrassment, feelings of negative self-worth (Crozier, 1981), low self-esteem (Schmidt & Fox, 1995), anxiety (Hirshfeld et al, 1992), and occasionally depression (Schmidt & Fox, 1995). Some theorists explain the etiology of shyness from a trait perspective.…”