Chapter 27 - Development of Affective Circuitry

Summary

This chapter provides an overview of research into development of those neural structures and neurocognitive functions implicated in emotion perception and regulation. First, it reviews emotional brain systems - the focus of developmental research with children. Next, the chapter discusses affective neuroscience findings from studies of typically developing children. It focuses on emotion and emotion regulation circuitry during infancy, early childhood, and adolescence, highlighting the challenges and outlining several outstanding research questions. The chapter talks about individual differences in emotional development in childhood. It discusses two key approaches to emotion regulation: the development of inhibitory control and its neural bases, and the use of explicit emotion regulation strategies in childhood and adolescence. It describes how physical abuse, as one example of an adverse environmental experience, can influence the functioning of the affective system. The concept of emotion regulation requires a consideration of regions that support both bottom-up and top-down processes.