The Neuroscience Revolution in the Study of Developmental Psychopathology:

Is There Room for Context?

Louis A. SchmidtDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour

Child Emotion LabMcMaster University

Historical Precedent: Early Functionalists and Pragmatists

Allport (1937) called personality traits “neuropsychic dispositions” and seemed to hope for more “aid from neurophysiology” (p.319; Personality: A Psychological Interpretation)

A long standing “promissory note” in the adult personality literature…

While Murray (1938) emphasized that personality processes are “dominant configurations in the brain” and regretted “At present…they must be inferred” (p. 45. Explorations in Personality)

“It is my hope, as it presumably is that of all the students whose work is reported here, that from these studies there should arise a system of taxonomy, or classification, or nosology, which may be regarded as firmly based on biological reality…” (Eysenck, 1953, The Structure of Human Personality)

Garcia-Coll,C., Kagan, J., & Reznick, J.S. (1984). Behavioral inhibition in young children. Child Development, 55, 1005-1019.

Contributions of Kagan’s work…

1. From subjective report of temperament to behavioral observation in the lab

2. From parental risk factors to typically developing children at the extremes (5-10%)

3. Ushered in changing Zeitgeist of how emotional development was viewed -- from learning models to a return to functionalism

4. Removed blame from parents

What is temperamental shyness?

•Small percentage of typically developing children (5 to 10%) exhibit extreme fear and wariness in response to novelty and unfamiliar and familiar social situations

•Linked to early appearing differences in infant motor activity and affect in response to novelty in the first 6 months of post-natal life

•Linked to individual differences in excitability of the amygdala (particularly its central nucleus)?

What do we know about its correlates?

Multiple components, e.g.,

Behavioural

close proximity to caregiver, increase latency to verbalize to new stimuli during the toddler years, increase avoidance behaviour, gaze aversion, anxiety during preschool and early school age years

Cognitive/Affective

A pre-occupation with the self, anxiousness, negative feelings

What do we know about its correlates?Psychophysiological

A number of differences on resting (or baseline) and in response to stress measures in children and adults, including:

• Increased startle responses (Schmidt & Fox, 1998, Developmental Psychobiology)

• High and stable heart rate in shy children (Kagan et al., 1987 Child Development, 1988, Science) and adults (Schmidt & Fox, 1994, Biological Psychology)

• Greater relative right frontal EEG activity at rest in shy children (Fox et al., 1995, 2001, Child Development) and adults (Schmidt, 1999, Psychological Science), and in response to stress in shy children (Schmidt, et al, 1999, Developmental Psychobiology; Theall-Honey & Schmidt, 2005)

Why study it?

• Theoretical i.e, may tell us something about brain-behaviour relations

• Practical i.e., early identification of temperamental and physiological markers may help offset the development course, given that a small percentage of children in this temperamental category are at risk for internalizing-related problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, social phobia) during the school age years and into young adulthood

Methods and Measures

We and others use a number of relatively non-invasive psychophysiological and neuroendocrine measures during development to index stress in children, including:

•regional EEG

•heart rate, cardiac vagal tone

•hormonal (e.g., salivary cortisol)Measuring brain electrical activity (EEG) in a temperamentally shy child

Is there room for context in the study of temperamental shyness?

Two recent studies…

Interaction between the allele of the 5HTT promoter region and social support in predicting behavioral inhibition and shyness at 84 months

Fox, N.A., Nicols, K., Henderson, H., Rubin, K.H., Schmidt, L.A., Hamer, D., Ernst, M., & Pine D.S. (In press). Evidence for a gene-environment interaction in predicting behavioral inhibition in middle childhood. Psychological Science.

behavioral inhibition shyness

Are individual differences in shyness context specific?

Online self-disclosure in shy and non-shy adults with and without a webcam

Brunet, P. & Schmidt, L.A. (submitted). Are individual differences in shyness context specific? Online self-disclosure in shy and non-shy adults with and without a webcam. Emotion.

Is there room for context today in the study of developmental psychopathology?

Of course… new tools and methods allow us to examine old questions in novel ways and new questions in new ways regarding Individual X Context interactions

Bem, D. J., & Allen, A. (1974). On predicting some of the people some of the time: The search for cross-situational consistencies in behavior. Psychological Review, 81, 506-520.

Davidson, R.J., Jackson, D.C., & Kalin, N.H. (2000). Emotion, plasticity, context, and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 890-909.

Cautionary notes… Radical views???

Silly radical views regarding molecular genetics of complex human traits and individual destiny…

Not so silly radical views regarding parents and other contextual influences on development…

AcknowledgementsResearch AssistantsLindsay Bennett

Sue Mckee

Lisa Hodgson-Minnie

Sylvia Nowakowski

Diane Santesso

Research supported by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Graduate StudentsElliott Beaton

Paul Brunet

Michelle Jetha

Eman Leung

Caroline Parkin

Carrie Sniderman

Susan Tasker

Laura Theall-Honey

UndergraduatesSara Ahola

Celia Hsiao

Renee Nossal

Jillian Popovic