Emotion Regulation in the Preadolescent Brain and the Role of Individual Temperamental Differences.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the association between emotion regulation, brain maturation, and self-regulation traits in preadolescents, a developmental stage marked by substantial brain changes. An imbalance between hyperactive subcortical regions and an immature prefrontal cortex often leads to emotional instability and increased risk-taking behaviors. METHOD: We conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on preadolescents (N = 23; 10 females; mean age = 10.5 ± 1.3 years) using an emotional color flanker task to examine whole-brain activation and seed-based functional connectivity. Additionally, we assessed temperament traits to explore the relationship between neural correlates of emotional conflict resolution and self-regulation abilities. FINDINGS: Negative emotions impaired cognitive processing, particularly during conflict resolution. Preadolescents with stronger self-regulation were quicker at resolving conflict under negative emotional conditions and showed reduced functional connectivity between cognitive-emotional regions when processing negative versus neutral stimuli. Conversely, those with weaker self-regulation showed heightened connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral anterior insula when processing negative words. CONCLUSION: Our findings underscore the role of individual differences in brain connectivity and temperamental traits in emotion regulation during preadolescence. Enhanced self-regulation is linked to more efficient emotion processing and distinct neural connectivity patterns, highlighting the importance of incorporating neurobiological and temperamental factors in developmental studies of emotion regulation.