Emotional Arousal and its Neurobehavioral Associations during Development

Project Summary Emotional arousal is a key bio-behavioral target for investigations of transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the development of pathological emotional states (e.g., anxiety, depression, irritability). While arousal is different from valence (positive or negative affect), arousal creates a readiness for valenced states, and its temporal and magnitude properties dictate the nature of experienced emotions. Arousal is one of the first affective states to emerge developmentally, and it is highly susceptible to stress exposures; therefore, delineating trajectories of psychopathology associated with arousal requires a developmental approach. As central as phasic changes in arousal are to healthy emotional functioning, reliably and objectively studying emotional arousal across the first two decades of life is challenging because existing probes may not be appropriate for use across a wide range of ages. The current proposal develops a straight-forward, controlled, and standardized tool – a looming auditory stimulus – to measure phasic changes in arousal to provide a common metric that can be used across development and diverse designs and settings. The work in the proposal will measure the looming task’s psychometric properties during pupillometry, autonomic responses (HR, SCR), and behavioral ratings. Then we will assess how these measures track affect-related psychopathology (anxiety, depression, irritability) during development. Finally, we will identify associations between arousal-induced brain function and affect-related psychopathological symptoms during development. Aim I establishes validity and reliability of a simple arousal task from the preschool period through young adulthood (2-25 years). Aim II assesses how arousal tracks individual differences in psychopathology symptoms (anxiety, depression, irritability) in a high-risk developmental sample. Aim III identifies the associations between arousal-related brain function and psychopathological symptoms (anxiety, depression, irritability) during development.