Neurophysiology of predictable unpleasant event processing in preadolescents and early adolescents, part I: Event-related potential markers of unpleasant image anticipation and processing

The ability to anticipate and process predictable unpleasant events, while also regulating emotional reactivity, is an adaptive skill. The current article and a companion in this issue test for potential changes in predictable event processing across the childhood-to-adolescence transition, a key developmental period for biological systems that support cognitive/emotional abilities. While the companion article focuses on emotion regulation and peripheral attention modulation in predictable unpleasant contexts, the current paper presents neurophysiological markers of predictable event processing itself. 315 third-, sixth-, or ninth-grade individuals saw 5-s cues predicting scary, every day, or uncertain image content; in this paper, cue- and picture-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) are analyzed. During the cue, early ERP positivities were increased and later slow-wave negativities were reduced when predicted content was scary as compared with mundane. After picture onset, a picture processing-related positivity was then increased for scary compared with everyday images regardless of predictability. Cue-interval data suggest enhanced processing of scary cues and reduced anticipatory processing of scary images-opposite to adults. After event onset, meanwhile, emotional ERP enhancement regardless of predictability is similar to adults and suggests that even preadolescent individuals maintain preferential engagement with unpleasant events when they are predictable.

Automated summary

This article examines potential changes in the processing of predictable events during the childhood-to-adolescence transition. The study finds that children show enhanced processing of predicted scary content, but unlike adults, they show reduced anticipatory processing of scary images in predictable contexts.