BACKGROUND: Affective dysregulation (AD) or synonymously "irritability" is a transdiagnostic construct that serves as a diagnostic criterion in various childhood mental disorders. It is characterized by severe or persistent outbursts of anger and aggression. Emotional self-regulation is highly dependent on the ability to process relevant and ignore conflicting emotional information. Understanding neurophysiological mechanisms underlying impairment in AD may provide a starting point for research on pharmacological treatment options and evaluation of psychotherapeutic intervention.
METHODS: N=120 children, aged 8 to 12 years (63 with AD and 57 typical-developed children, TD) were examined using an emotional Stroop task. Signal decomposed EEG-recordings providing information about the affected sensory-perceptual, response selection, or motor information processing stage were combined with source localisation.
RESULTS: Behavioral performance revealed dysfunctional cognitive-emotional conflict monitoring in children with AD suggesting difficulties to differentiate between conflicting and non-conflicting cognitive-emotional information. This was confirmed by the EEG-data showing that they cannot intensify response selection processes during conflicting cognitive-emotional situations. TD children were able to do so and activated a functional-neuroanatomical network comprising the left inferior parietal cortex (BA40), right middle frontal (BA10) and right inferior/orbito-frontal (BA47) regions. Purely sensory-perceptual selection and motor execution processes were not modulated in AD as evidenced by Bayesian analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: Behavioral and EEG data suggest that children with AD cannot adequately modulate controlled response selection processes given emotionally ambiguous information. Which neurotransmitter systems underlie these deficits and how they can be improved are important questions for future research.