Neural Reactivity to Emotional Stimuli Prospectively Predicts the Impact of a Natural Disaster on Psychiatric Symptoms in Children

Abstract

Background Natural disasters expose entire communities to stress and trauma, leading to increased risk for psychiatric symptoms. Yet, the majority of exposed individuals are resilient, highlighting the importance of identifying underlying factors that contribute to outcomes. Methods The current study was part of a larger prospective study of children in Long Island, NY (N = 260). At age 9, children viewed unpleasant and pleasant images while the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) component that reflects sustained attention towards salient information, was measured. Following the ERP assessment, Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history, hit the region. Eight weeks after the hurricane, mothers reported on exposure to hurricane-related stress and children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Symptoms were re-assessed 8 months after the hurricane. Results The LPP predicted both internalizing and externalizing symptoms after accounting for pre-hurricane symptomatology, and interacted with stress to predict externalizing symptoms. Among children exposed to higher levels of hurricane-related stress, enhanced neural reactivity to unpleasant images predicted greater externalizing symptoms 8 weeks after the disaster, while greater neural reactivity to pleasant images predicted lower externalizing symptoms. Moreover, interactions between the LPP and stress continued to predict externalizing symptoms 8 months after the hurricane. Conclusions Results indicate that heightened neural reactivity and attention towards unpleasant information, as measured by the LPP, predisposes children to psychiatric symptoms when exposed to higher levels of stress related to natural disasters, while greater reactivity to and processing of pleasant information may be a protective factor.

Behavioral observations of positive and negative valence systems in early childhood predict physiological measures of emotional processing three years later

“…Along similar lines, children high in temperamental fearfulness are at increased risk for developing anxiety symptoms (De Pauw and Mervielde, 2010), and an enhanced LPP to unpleasant images has been observed among offspring of parents with anxiety disorders (Nelson et al, 2015). In addition to internalizing symptoms, temperamental NA is a vulnerability for externalizing symptoms (Tackett et al, 2012), and we have previously shown that an enhanced unpleasant LPP prospectively predicted increases in externalizing symptoms in response to stress (Kujawa et al, 2016). …”

“…At the age 9 visit, participants completed an emotional interrupt task (Kujawa et al, 2016, 2013; Weinberg and Hajcak, 2011), which has previously been shown to reliably elicit an LPP in children and adolescents (Kujawa et al, 2013). The tasks includes presentation of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al, 2008).…”

Social processing in early adolescence: Associations between neurophysiological, self-report, and behavioral measures

“…In particular, the series of positivities observed in the ERP wave likely reflect components of the P300 and LPP, which reflect attention towards and sustained processing of salient information and may be relevant to the development of both internalizing and externalizing symptoms in youth (Cuthbert, Schupp, Bradley, Birbaumer, & Lang, 2000; Foti et al, 2009; Kujawa et al, 2016; Kujawa, Hajcak, Torpey, Kim, & Klein, 2012; Kujawa, MacNamara, Fitzgerald, Monk, & Phan, 2015). Although our exploratory analyses did not reveal significant associations between depressive symptoms and the component consistent with LPP, we did observe an association with P300 to acceptance.…”

Neural Biomarker and Early Temperament Predict Increased Internalizing Symptoms After a Natural Disaster

“…9,36,37 The items were drawn from previous questionnaires developed for Hurricane Katrina 38 and Hurricane Ike. 39 The first 8 items were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not at all affected, 5 = extremely affected), and included damage to home, safety threatened, financial hardship, children fear for their safety, life disrupted by the hurricane, difficulty finding gasoline, difficulty getting food, water, or warmth, and children quarreling or complaining more than usual.…”