Physiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in early adolescents

Melissa D Latham; Nina Cook; Julian G Simmons; Michelle L Byrne; Jonathan WL Kettle; Orli Schwartz; Nandita Vijayakumar; Sarah Whittle; Nicholas B Allen

Journal article

Physiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in early adolescents

Melissa D Latham, Nina Cook, Julian G Simmons, Michelle L Byrne, Jonathan WL Kettle, Orli Schwartz, Nandita Vijayakumar, Sarah Whittle, Nicholas B Allen

BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.07.018

Abstract

Few studies have examined physiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in adolescents, despite the occurrence in this group of significant developmental changes in emotional functioning. The current study employed multiple physiological measures (i.e., startle-elicited eyeblink and ERP, skin conductance, facial EMG) to assess the emotional reactivity and regulation of 113 early adolescents in response to valenced images. Reactivity was measured while participants viewed images, and regulation was measured when they were asked to discontinue or maintain their emotional reactions to the images. Adolescent participants did not exhibit fear-potentiated startle blink. However, ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Sarah Whittle Author Psychiatry

Nick Allen Author Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

Orli Schwartz Author Centre for Youth Mental Health

Julian Simmons Author Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Awarded by Australian Research Council (ARC)

Awarded by NHMRC

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank the participating families for their loyal support of the Orygen Adolescent Development Study. Funding for this analysis was supported through grants from the Colonial Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (NHMRC Program Grant < gn > 350241 < / gn2 >), and the Australian Research Council (ARC) (ARC Discovery Grant DP0878136). Dr. Sarah Whittle is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (ID: 1007716). The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.