Neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation in subtypes of aggressive children

One of the most important tasks of childhood is learning to regulate the impulses that accompany negative emotions. Individual differences in the regulation of emotional impulses have been found to predict social competence, and children lacking emotion-regulation skills often develop aggressive behaviour problems. The objective of this study was to assess the neural mechanisms underlying different styles of emotion regulation corresponding to different subtypes of aggressive children. Specifically, the mechanisms underlying the regulatory abilities of purely aggressive children (EXT), children comorbid for internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems (MIXED), and their normal age-mates were examined.;Eighty-one children, 8 to 12 years of age, performed an emotionally challenging go/nogo task, while EEG was collected. Two ERP components tapping the cognitive control of emotion and action were assessed: the nogo N2 and frontal P3. Cortical activation patterns for two regions of interest (ROIs) were estimated---a ventral ROI suggestive of orbitofrontal, ventromedial, and subgenual anterior cingulate activity and a dorsal ROI suggestive of dorsal anterior cingulate activity---two regions linked with emotion regulation. Go/nogo response-time data and the effortful-control cluster of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire were used to assess behavioural characteristics related to children's regulatory abilities.;MIXED and EXT children both revealed poor self-regulation but showed very different cortical activation patterns. For the N2 analysis, as well as the ventral and dorsal ROI analyses, MIXED children revealed high activation while EXT children revealed low activation. EXT children may not have recruited enough dorsally and ventrally mediated regulation to perform the task well. MIXED children, because they also have to regulate their ongoing negative ruminations, may not have used ventrally and dorsally mediated regulation efficiently to address task demands. Understanding both of these maladaptive regulatory styles at the neurocognitive level can help guide diagnosis and treatment of aggressive children.