Shared genetic influences among childhood shyness, social competences, and cortical responses to emotions

Abstract

Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by facial expressions are useful to map socioemotional responses among shy children and to predict transition into social phobia. We investigated the sources of covariation among childhood shyness, social competences, and ERPs to other children's happy, neutral, and angry expressions. Electrophysiological and twin analyses examined the phenotypic and etiological association among an index of childhood shyness, an index of social competences, and ERP responses to facial expressions in 200 twins (mean age=9.23years). Multivariate twin analyses showed that the covariation among shyness, social competences, and a composite of a frontal late negative component occurring around 200-400ms in response to happy, neutral, and angry expressions could be entirely explained by shared genetic factors. A coherent causal structure links childhood shyness, social competences, and the cortical responses to facial emotions. A common genetic substrate can explain the interrelatedness of individual differences for childhood shyness, social competences, and some associated electrophysiological responses to socioemotional signals.

The development of neural responses to emotional faces: A review of evidence from event-related potentials during early and middle childhood

“…Detection of the N170 was typically within timeframes of 140−240 ms, however Battaglia et al (2017) reported a latency of 115.18 ms. As expected, there was a tendency for studies including younger samples, such as Curtis and Cicchetti (2011) , to record wider N170 time windows (up to 300 ms). Examining N170 activity was primarily achieved by utilizing posterior temporal electrodes (T5, T6, P7, P8), however Battaglia et al (2017) recorded N170 using Cz. The selected electrodes seemed dependent upon the age of the sample.…”

“…Differences in the average amplitudes recorded ranged from -11.44 μV ( Battaglia et al, 2007 ) to 11.48 μV ( Dennis et al, 2009 ). Sample size ranged from 12 ( Wong et al, 2008 ) to 200 ( Battaglia et al, 2017 ), with a median of 29 participants.…”

“…A range of stimulus sets were used, however the most common were coloured, static adult male and female stimuli from the NimStim ( Tottenham et al, 2009 ). Studies by Battaglia et al (2017) , 2007 ; Bertoletti et al (2012) , and Tye et al (2014) included child stimuli adopted from previous work by Battaglia et al (2005), whilst O’Connor et al (2005) included both adult and child stimuli. Luyster et al (2017) and Young et al (2017) used morphing software to present emotional stimuli at incremental emotional intensities up to 60 %.…”

“…The influence of stimuli presentation may help to explain differences across recorded latencies when comparing similarly aged children. For example, Battaglia et al (2017) reported an overall average N170 latency of 115 ms for children with a mean age of 9.23 years, whilst Miki et al (2011) recorded an average latency of 245 ms amongst children with a mean age of 9.30 years. Although Miki et al (2011) reported a latency more than twice that of Battaglia et al (2017) , important methodological differences may assist in explaining this variation.…”

“…For example, Battaglia et al (2017) reported an overall average N170 latency of 115 ms for children with a mean age of 9.23 years, whilst Miki et al (2011) recorded an average latency of 245 ms amongst children with a mean age of 9.30 years. Although Miki et al (2011) reported a latency more than twice that of Battaglia et al (2017) , important methodological differences may assist in explaining this variation. Miki et al (2011) presented stimuli that were morphed from a neutral expression to an affective expression, thereby mimicking dynamic facial movement, whilst Battaglia et al (2017) displayed static facial stimuli.…”