In these projects, we are examining various aspects of emotional function in the child brain. Childhood, especially the preschool and middle childhood years, is an important period for emotional, social, and cognitive development with the brain peaking in size during middle childhood. The more we learn how the brain creates this foundational circuitry, the better equipped we will be to intervene and improve public health.
Characterize Naturalistic Emotion Processing across Childhood
In this line of research, we aim to identify the shifts in network characteristics associated with active, naturalistic emotion processing in children. How do children process emotional content? How does this shift across the preschool years and into later childhood? Is this related to their temperamental profiles? How does this predict increases in psychopathology? All these questions are of interest in this project.
Associated publications:
Camacho, M.C., Williams, E.M., Ding, K., & Perlman, S.B. (2021). Multimodal Examination of Emotion Processing Systems Associated with Negative Affectivity across Early Childhood. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 48, 100917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100917
Camacho, M.C., Karim, H.T., & Perlman, S.B. (2019). Neural architecture supporting active emotion processing in children: A multivariate approach. NeuroImage, 188, 171–180. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.12.013 pdf
Mapping Network Connectivity across Childhood
This project aims to identify differences in connectivity across childhood and how this connectivity relates to concurrent affect, such as temperament or psychiatric symptoms.
Associated Publications:
Camacho, M.C., Quiñones-Camacho, L.E., Perlman, S.B. (2020). Does the Child Brain Rest?: An Examination and Interpretation of Resting Cognition in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. NeuroImage, 212, 116688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116688 pdf
