Biomedical subjects

Peter J Marshall

Publications and source records attributed to Peter J Marshall.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Behavioral inhibition: linking biology and behavior within a developmental framework.

Behavioral inhibition refers to a temperament or style of reacting that some infants and young children exhibit when confronted with novel situations or unfamiliar adults or peers. Research on behavioral inhibition has examined the link between this set of behaviors to the neural systems involved in the experience and expression of fear. There are strong parallels between the physiology of behaviorally inhibited children and the activation of physiological systems associated with conditioned and unconditioned fear. Research has examined which caregiving behaviors support the frequency of behavioral inhibition across development, and work on the interface of cognitive processes and behavioral inhibition reveal both how certain cognitive processes moderate behavioral inhibition and how this temperament affects the development of cognition. This research has taken place within a context of the possibility that stable behavioral inhibition may be a risk factor for psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders in older children. The current chapter reviews these areas of research and provides an integrative account of the broad impact of behavioral inhibition research.

Affect↗

PubMed2004

Children's narratives and patterns of cardiac reactivity.

The present study examines the associations between narrative processing, narrative production, and cardiac rate and variability in children. Heart period (HP) and vagal tone (VT) were computed for fifty-eight 7-year-olds (29 males) during a resting baseline and during epochs in which the children listened to and completed a selected set of story-stems from the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (I. Bretherton, D. Oppenheim, H. Buchsbaum, R. N. Emde, & the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990). Significant decreases in HP and VT were observed between a resting baseline and epochs of story-stem presentation by the experimenter. In addition, HP was shorter and VT lower during children's narrative production to emotionally laden story-stems compared with narration to a neutral story-stem. Furthermore, narrative and cardiac responses to stories containing separation-reunion themes reflected increased emotional and cognitive load compared with responses to stories that did not contain such themes. Finally, children who showed VT suppression in response to emotion-laden stories produced more coherent and adaptive narratives compared to those of children who did not show VT suppression. The findings suggest interplay between the cognitive-emotional processes associated with narrative processing and production and cardiac activation patterns.

Affect↗

PubMed2004

The development of P50 suppression in the auditory event-related potential.

The development of P50 suppression in the auditory event-related potential was examined in 32 participants aged 7-13 years and the relation of P50 suppression to individual differences in social withdrawal was investigated. Auditory click pairs were presented binaurally and the amplitude of the P50 component was measured for the two clicks. Across the whole sample, P50 amplitude to the second click was significantly smaller than P50 amplitude to the first click, although around one third of participants showed augmentation of the P50 to the second click. For the children who showed P50 suppression, the magnitude of P50 suppression increased with age and reached adult levels in the oldest participants. P50 suppression did not vary with the extent of social withdrawal behaviors.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2004

A comparison of the electroencephalogram between institutionalized and community children in Romania.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected from a sample of institutionalized infants and young children in Bucharest, Romania, and were compared with EEG data from age-matched children from the local community who had never been institutionalized and who were living with their families in the Bucharest area. Compared with the never-institutionalized group, the institutionalized group showed a pattern of increased low-frequency (theta) power in posterior scalp regions and decreased high-frequency (alpha and beta) power, particularly at frontal and temporal electrode sites. This finding is consistent with EEG studies of children facing environmental adversity and children with learning disorders. The institutionalized group also showed less marked hemispheric EEG asymmetries than the never-institutionalized group, particularly in the temporal region. The results are discussed in the context of two models: that the pattern of EEG in the institutionalized children reflects a maturational lag in nervous system development, or that it reflects tonic cortical hypoactivation.

Alpha Rhythm↗

PubMed2003

Mismatch negativity in socially withdrawn children.

BACKGROUND: Individual differences in auditory processing have been associated with social withdrawal, introversion, and other forms of dysfunction in social engagement. The goal of this study was to investigate the characteristics of an electrophysiologic response that is seen to index early cortical auditory processing (mismatch negativity, MMN) among socially withdrawn and more sociable control children. METHODS: Auditory event-related potentials to standard and deviant tone stimuli were computed for 23 socially withdrawn children and 22 control subjects. We calculated MMN difference waveforms for frontal, central, and parietal electrode sites. RESULTS: Socially withdrawn children had smaller MMN amplitude and longer MMN latencies compared with more sociable control children. CONCLUSION: The findings point to the involvement of individual differences in early cortical auditory processing in childhood social withdrawal. Reduced MMN amplitude and delayed latency may index a component of social withdrawal seen in socially withdrawn children and in depressed and schizophrenic patients. The existence of a secondary MMN generator in the frontal cortex may provide a link between the hypothesized frontal lobe involvement in childhood social withdrawal, schizophrenia, and depression and the MMN reductions seen in these conditions.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2003

Infant attachment and temperament as predictors of subsequent externalizing problems and cardiac physiology.

BACKGROUND: The primary objective of this study was to examine the extent to which both individual child temperament and parent-child relationship quality independently and/or interactively predicted physiological, psychosocial, and behavioral 'outcomes'. Employing a longitudinal prospective design over three years, statistical associations were found among infant attachment, uninhibited temperament, and 4-year behavioral and physiological functioning that supported a bio-psychosocial model of development. METHOD: Three cohorts totaling 140 children and their mothers visited the laboratory for observational assessments of attachment classification at age 14 months (Strange Situation), behavioral inhibition at 24 months, and social behaviors with unfamiliar peers at age 4 years. Cardiac measures of heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were collected at every time point. At age 4 years maternal ratings of child temperament and behaviors were also obtained. RESULTS: Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with inhibition group (high, moderate, low) and attachment classification (A, B, C) revealed that the low inhibited group had significantly higher activity level scores and displayed significantly less reticence at 4 years compared to the moderately and highly inhibited groups. Infants who had an avoidant attachment with their mothers had more externalizing problems (aggressive behaviors) at age 4 than either securely or ambivalently attached infants. This predictive relation, however, was qualified by an interaction whereby avoidant attachment and uninhibited temperament together predicted a higher incidence of externalizing behavior problems. Moreover, infants' avoidant attachment was not concurrently but predictively associated with lower heart rate and high RSA at age 4 years. Therefore, an avoidant mother-child relationship in infancy could influence the development of an underaroused autonomic profile in early childhood. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with bio-psychosocial models of development, these findings support the contention that both early child temperament and parent-child relationship quality contribute to subsequent psychological/behavioral and physiological functioning.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2002

Development of the EEG from 5 months to 4 years of age.

OBJECTIVES: This report provides a systematic longitudinal analysis of the EEG from infancy into early childhood. Particular emphasis is placed on the empirical confirmation of a 6-9 Hz alpha-range frequency band that has previously been used in the infant EEG literature. METHODS: EEG data in 1-Hz bins from 3 to 12 Hz were analyzed from a longitudinal sample of 29 participants at 5, 10, 14, 24, and 51 months of age. RESULTS: Inspection of power spectra averaged across the whole sample indicated the emergence of a peak in the 6-9 Hz range across multiple scalp regions. Coding of peaks in the power spectra of individual infants showed a clear developmental increase in the frequency of this peak. A rhythm in the 6-9 Hz emerged at central sites that was independent of the classical alpha rhythm at posterior sites. The relative amplitude of this central rhythm peaked in the second year of life, when major changes are occurring in locomotor behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The 6-9 Hz band is a useful alpha-range band from the end of the first year of life into early childhood. The findings also complement other research relating the infant central rhythm with the adult sensorimotor mu rhythm.

Aging↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychophysiological and behavioral evidence for varying forms and functions of nonsocial behavior in preschoolers.

Four-year-old children showing low levels of social behavior in a laboratory play session with unfamiliar peers were classified as reticent (unoccupied or onlooking behaviors) or solitary-passive (solitary constructive or exploratory play). Compared with a group of more social children, the children in both low-social groups were rated high on maternal reports of shyness and displayed a pattern of right frontal EEG asymmetry. However, only the reticent group was elevated on measures indicative of a fearful temperament, both concurrently and retrospectively. A subset of children in the solitary-passive group showed increasing levels of reticent behavior over the course of the visit, suggesting that for some children solitary-passive behaviors provide a means for coping with feelings of unease.

Adaptation, Psychological↗