Developmental Neuropsychology

ISSN: 8756-5641 (Print) 1532-6942 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hdvn20

Temperamental Effortful Control Modulates

Gender Differences in Late Positive Potentials
Evoked by Affective Pictures in Adolescents

Wenhai Zhang, Tao Suo, Ping Zhang, Cancan Zhao, Caizhi Liao, Liwei Zhang &
Hong Li

To cite this article: Wenhai Zhang, Tao Suo, Ping Zhang, Cancan Zhao, Caizhi Liao, Liwei Zhang
& Hong Li (2017): Temperamental Effortful Control Modulates Gender Differences in Late Positive
Potentials Evoked by Affective Pictures in Adolescents, Developmental Neuropsychology, DOI:
10.1080/87565641.2017.1315806

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/87565641.2017.1315806

Published online: 12 May 2017.

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DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/87565641.2017.1315806

Temperamental Effortful Control Modulates Gender Differences in

Late Positive Potentials Evoked by Affective Pictures in
Adolescents
Wenhai Zhanga,b,c, Tao Suod, Ping Zhangc, Cancan Zhaoc, Caizhi Liaoa, Liwei Zhange,
and Hong Lia
a
College of Education Science, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China; bMental Health Center, Yancheng Institute of
Technology, Yancheng, China; cResearch Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University,
Dalian, China; dInstitute of Psychology and Behavior, School of Education Science, Henan University, Kaifeng, China;
e
Department of Science and Technology, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China

ABSTRACT
We investigated whether effort control (EC) modulates gender differences
in late positive potential (LPP) evoked by affective pictures. We collected
EEG data from 46 healthy adolescents while they viewed 90 affective
pictures. Relative to neutral pictures, boys showed larger LPP amplitudes
for positive pictures compared to girls while girls showed larger LPP ampli-
tudes for negative pictures compared to boys. Temperamental EC in boys
negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for positive pictures, whereas EC in
girls negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for negative pictures. These
observations increase our understanding of the relationship between EC
and gender difference in electrocortical maturation.

Introduction
Adolescence is a major transitional period that is associated with increased psychopathological
vulnerabilities, particularly with respect to affective stimuli (Somerville, Jones, & Casey, 2010). An
important developmental landmark in adolescents is the maturation of executive functions that have
been attributed to the anterior attentional network (Posner, 2012). Individual differences in this
system are closely related to effortful control (EC) (Kanske & Kotz, 2013). Generally, EC also
undergoes vast changes and maturation during the toddler and preschool years (Rothbart, Ellis, &
Posner, 2011). However, during adolescence, a vast array of neurobiological changes drive processes
(e.g., further-improved executive attention) from a cascade of hormonal signals that initiate puberty
(Sisk & Zehr, 2005). Temperamental EC has shown a positive correlation with emotion regulation
(Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, & Reiser, 2007). Whats more, poor temperamental EC is an important
risk factor for the development of psychopathologies (Martel & Nigg, 2006). For example, lower
temperamental EC in children and adolescents prospectively predicts the development of externaliz-
ing and internalizing problems over time (Martel & Nigg, 2006; Schoppe-Sullivan, Weldon, Cook,
Davis, & Buckley, 2009). However, how temperamental EC in adolescents modulates the processing
of affective stimuli has yet to be determined.
Temperamental EC has been defined as individual differences in ability to shift and focus
attention and inhibit a dominant response and/or activate a subdominant response (Rothbart
et al., 2011). Psychometrically, EC arises from factorial analyses of temperament questionnaires as

CONTACT Hong Li albert2013418@sina.cn College of Education Science, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China;
Tao Suo suotao810815@163.com Institute of Psychology and Behavior, School of Education Science, Henan University,
Kaifeng 475004, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/hdvn.
2017 Taylor & Francis
2 W. ZHANG ET AL.

a latent construct describing an individuals capacity for self-regulation (Rothbart et al., 2011). A
structural MRI study has revealed a link between EC and cortical maturation during adolescence
(Nelson, Leibenluft, McClure, & Pine, 2005). A voxel-based morphometry study has further revealed
that temperamental EC in young adults is related to variations in gray matter volume mainly within
the frontoparietal attention network (Zhang et al., 2015). Functional neuroimaging studies have
indicated that EC reflects the function of the executive attention network during task switching and
sequential inhibition tasks (Posner, 2012). However, until now, there has been no ERP research to
study EC during affective information processing.
The ERP studies of affective processing have determined that the late positive potential (LPP) is
an electrophysiological measure of emotional reactivity in adults (Horan, Foti, Hajcak, Wynn, &
Green, 2012; Weinberg, Hilgard, Bartholow, & Hajcak, 2012). LPP is a positive shift that begins
400500 ms after stimulus onset (Weinberg et al., 2012). LPP reflects facilitated attention to
emotional stimuli (Hajcak & Dennis, 2009) and is modulated by task demands (Foti & Hajcak,
2008). LPP is also related to high-level, heightened cognitive elaboration of stimuli (Schupp, Flaisch,
Stockburger, & Junghfer, 2006) and is modulated by personality traits. For example, high extra-
version is associated with a potentiated LPP to emotional pictures (Speed et al., 2015); LPP shows
augmented amplitudes in response to faces paired with positive personality than those paired with
neutral personality (Luo, Wang, Dzhelyova, Huang, & Mo, 2016). In adults, enlarged LPP amplitudes
are observed for positive and negative pictures relative to neutral pictures when participants
passively view pictures, and this affective modulation is particularly pronounced for high-arousing
affective pictures (Horan et al., 2012). Consistent with adult findings, children and adolescents
exhibit increased LPP activities while viewing emotional pictures relative to neutral pictures
(Kujawa, Klein, & Hajcak, 2012).
Additionally, LPP varies according to gender in the course of affective processing. In children,
girls aged 7 years show greater LPP amplitudes for negative pictures relative to positive pictures and
greater LPP amplitudes for neutral relative to positive pictures, whereas boys show larger LPP
amplitudes to positive compared to neutral pictures while passively viewing affective pictures
(Solomon, DeCicco, & Dennis, 2012). In adults, females exhibit higher LPP amplitudes to sad
faces compared to males (Orozco & Ehlers, 1998) and show larger LPP amplitudes to negative
emotions contrasted with neutral emotions (Groen, Wijers, Tucha, & Althaus, 2013). Women also
show greater LPP amplitudes to unpleasant compared with pleasant slides while men have greater
LPP amplitudes to pleasant versus neutral slides (Bianchin & Angrilli, 2012). In contrast, male adults
show larger LPP amplitudes for positive pictures than for negative pictures (Syrjnen & Wiens,
2013). These findings in children and adults seems to indicate that males and females show
dissociable LPP sensitivities for positive and negative stimuli, respectively. However, to our knowl-
edge, there has been little research using LPP to study gender differences in affective processing in
adolescents.
During adolescence, the brain undergoes both structural and functional re-arrangement via
increased synaptic pruning and continued intra-cortical myelination (Brenhouse & Andersen,
2011). With the increase in age, adolescents progressively improve their executive attention function,
allowing them to take in additional sources of information and to regulate reactive emotions and
actions (Rothbart et al., 2011). However, these abilities in adolescents are still immature. During
attentional and executive tasks, a shift in regional activation toward anterior networks with age has
been observed (Rubia, Hyde, Halari, Giampietro, & Smith, 2010). Taken together, these age-related
changes indicate that there is a need to study the development of executive network function during
affective processing across adolescence.
The present study aimed to use LPP as an indicator of affective processing to investigate whether
gender differences in electrophysiological response were modulated by individual differences in
temperamental EC in adolescents. We collected ERPs from 46 adolescent students while the
participants viewed positive, negative, and neutral pictures from the Chinese affective picture system
(Bai, Ma, Huang, & Luo, 2005). The arousal intensity of each picture was rated afterwards. After the
 DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 3

experiment, the subjects completed the EC scale taken from the Chinese version of the Early
Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-revised (EATQ-R) (Zhang, Shen, Gao, & Yan, 2008).
Based on the prior results obtained in children and adults (Bianchin & Angrilli, 2012; Groen
et al., 2013; Solomon et al., 2012; Syrjnen & Wiens, 2013), we predicted that relative to neutral
pictures, girls would show smaller LPP amplitudes for positive pictures and larger LPP amplitudes
for negative pictures compared to boys. Considering that the LPP is modulated by personality traits
(Luo et al., 2016; Speed et al., 2015), these gender differences in LPPs would be modulated by
temperamental EC.

Methods
Participants
Forty-eight right-handed adolescents (29 males, 11.5816.27 years old; 19 females, 11.6716.17 years
old) were recruited from four schools near Shanghai Normal University. All of the participants self-
reported normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity and had no history of unstable medical illness,
head injury, or neurological illness. Pubertal status was assessed by the Chinese self-report Pubertal
Development Scale with good reliability and validity (Chan et al., 2010). Although the boys and the
girls were the same age on average, the girls were lower on pubertal status (but not significantly,
p > 0.05). It seems that the girls would be more advanced than the boys at age 1314 (see Table 1).
Overall, all students were classified into Tanner pubertal stage II- IV (from early to late adolescence).
Data from one male and one female participant were excluded due to low-quality EEG collection. All
participants were paid ~$10 for their participation after the experiment. The protocol of this study
was approved by the Ethical Committee of Shanghai Normal University. We obtained informed
written consent from each participant parents or guardians on behalf of the minors/children
enrolled in our study.

Effortful control measure

Temperamental EC was assessed by the EC scale taken from the Chinese version of the EATQ-
R (Zhang et al., 2008), which has satisfactory levels of internal consistency and has been
validated in Chinese adolescents (Zhang et al., 2008). The Chinese version of the EC scale
consists of 14 items that are self-rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = almost always
untrue for you to 5 = almost always true for you. The EC score is the mean value calculated
from three subcomponents of inhibitory control (e.g., Its hard for me not to open presents
before Im supposed to), activation control (e.g., I put off working on projects until right
before theyre due), and attention control (e.g., When trying to study, I have difficulty tuning
out background noise and concentrating). The internal consistency of the EC scale in our
study was good (Cronbachs = 0.81). Because the EC concept was of interest in our study, its
three subconstructs were not analyzed separately.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Whole sample Male adolescents Female adolescents
Variables M SD M SD M SD
Age 13.82 1.77 13.78 1.73 13.81 1.69
Pubertal status 5.91 2.56 6.52 2.34 4.92 1.93
Effortful control 47.42 7.92 46.2 7.5 49.4 7.8
Positive arousal 1.44 0.15 1.52 0.13 1.30 0.11
Negative arousal 1.51 0.16 1.44 0.12 1.56 0.14
Positive LPP 4.35 5.42 5.63 4.67 2.31 5.21
Negative LPP 4.18 5.57 2.56 5.43 5.82 4.71
Note. N = 46 (28 boys and 18 girls). LPP = late positive potential; M = mean; SD = standard deviation.
4 W. ZHANG ET AL.

Stimuli
Ninety pictures were selected from the Chinese affective picture system (Bai et al., 2005), a collection of
standardized photographic materials that were obtained from the international affective pictures
system. Of the 90 images selected for this study, 30 depicted positive events (e.g., a gift), 30 depicted
neutral events (e.g., a cup), and 30 depicted negative events (e.g., a spider). In terms of the normalized
ratings from Chinese college students with a 9-point scale in the Bai et al. (2005) study, the three types
of images differed significantly in the valence dimension (p < 0.001; M SD: Positive = 7.43 0.16;
Neutral = 4.86 0.08; Negative = 2.24 0.13). The positive and negative pictures both differed from
the neutral images in terms of arousal (p < 0.001) but did not significantly differ between each other
(p > 0.05; M SD: Positive = 5.77 0.41; Neutral = 4.67 0.43; Negative = 5.88 0.35). Luminance
(according to PhotoshopTM) and contrast (SD of luminance divided by M of luminance) of the images
did not significantly differ between each other (all p > 0.05; mean luminance and contrast:
Positive = 125.2 and 0.34; Neutral = 123.6 and 0.32; Negative = 124.3 and 0.33, respectively). These
pictures were presented in color on a Pentium IV computer, and E-prime 2.0 software (Psychology
Software Tools Inc., Pittsburgh) was used to control the timing of all stimuli. Each picture was
displayed in the center of the screen and occupied a visual angle of approximately 12 degrees at a
distance of 70 cm.

Procedure
Upon their arrival at the laboratory, usually in the afternoon, all of the participants first turned in
their informed consent forms, which had been signed by their parents. The participants were then
seated in a sound-attenuated and electric shielding room measuring approximately 12 m2, and EEG
sensors were attached. After the participants were given detailed task instructions, the pictures were
presented to the participants while the EEG was recorded. Since continuous presenting of the same
picture type, three or more times, could result in a set response, three pictures (positive, neutral, and
negative pictures) were randomly selected for each experimental block (30 randomized blocks total)
to exclude the order effect of the pictures.
Every trial started with a fixation mark (+) presented for 1000 ms, followed by the Chinese word
View, which appeared for 1500 ms, and then a picture was presented for 1500 ms. Next, the picture
disappeared and the Chinese word Assessment appeared at the center of screen, cuing participants
to rate the arousal intensity of the picture by pressing a button with a Likert scale ranging from 1
(extremely weak) to 9 (extremely strong). Approximately 3000 ms later, the screen went blank for a
randomized period of time (between 1000 and 1500 ms) and the next trial began. The participants
were familiarized with the task off-line before the experiment and completed the EC questionnaire
after the experiment.

Data processing
Raw EEG data were recorded using a Quick-cap with 64 Ag/AgCl electrodes (NeuroScan Inc., USA)
and were referenced to the left mastoid, according to the International 1010 System. Vertical
electro-oculogram activity was monitored from the electrodes located above and below the left
eye, and the horizontal electro-oculogram activity was monitored from electrodes located at the
outer canthus of each eye. Electrode gel was used to generate an impedance of less than 5 k. Signals
were sampled at 1000 Hz and filtered from 0.01 to 100 Hz. EEG data were visually inspected for
common artifacts, e.g., eye movements and muscle activity. The continuous EEG signal was
corrected offline for blink artifacts using a built-in ocular artifact reduction procedure. All of the
data were offline-converted to an average reference and were low-pass filtered at 30 Hz. The EEG
was segmented for each trial, beginning 200 ms before each picture onset and continuing for
1500 ms. The pre-stimulus interval was used for baseline correction. Epochs were excluded from
 DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 5

-12.5

uV

0
-200 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 ms

12.5

Figure 1. Grand-averaged event-related potential waveforms (V). This figure shows grand-averaged waveforms for negative (red
solid line), positive (green dashed line), and neutral (blue dotted line) pictures in 46 adolescents. The late positive potentials are
defined between 400 and 1000 ms. A one-way ANOVA analysis revealed greater LPP for positive and negative pictures compared
with neutral pictures (F (2, 44) = 5.79, p < 0.01).

averaging if they contained activity exceeding 100 V. Overall, there was an average acceptance of
26.36 positive trials (SD of 1.46), 26.12 negative trials (1.49), and 25.09 neutral trials (1.54). There
was no difference in the trial number between positive, negative, and neutral pictures (p > 0.05).
ERPs were constructed by separately averaging three picture types (positive, neutral, and nega-
tive). Eight occipitoparietal electrodes (P3, Pz, P4, PO3, PO4, O1, Oz, O2) were selected for statistical
analysis, consistent with the prior LPP study (Kujawa et al., 2015). With the measurement of mean
amplitude, the LPP amplitude was defined as the average activity of eight electrodes (which consist
of a virtual electrode) during the interval of 400 and 1000 ms (see Figure 1) (Kujawa et al., 2015).

Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were done using SPSS 20.0 software for Windows. The emotional (positive or
negative) minus neutral difference scores were computed and used for regression analyses. Hierarchical
regression analyses were performed with EC, age, and gender added in the first block using forward
selection, puberty status as a covariate, and the interaction terms of age gender, EC age, EC
gender, and age gender EC forced into entry in the second block, to predict arousal intensity and
LPP amplitudes for positive minus neutral and negative minus neutral pictures.

Results
Table 1 shows descriptive statistics and Table 2 shows correlation coefficients between study
measures. Table 3 presents multiple regressions on late positive potential amplitudes for positive
minus neutral and negative minus neutral pictures. As seen in Table 3, age was inversely related to
LPP amplitudes for positive minus neutral pictures ( = 0.409, F(3, 42) = 4.56, p < 0.01) and
negative minus neutral pictures ( = 0.407, F(3, 42) = 4.52, p < 0.01). Relative to neutral pictures,
girls showed smaller LPP amplitudes for positive pictures ( = 0.245, F(3, 42) = 2.98, p < 0.05) and

Table 2. Correlation coefficients among study variables.

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 Gender
2 Age 0.06
3 Pubertal status 0.15 0.35*
4 Effortful control 0.17 0.34* 0.28*
5 Positive arousal 0.23 0.32* 0.14 0.32*
6 Negative arousal 0.25 0.34* 0.16 0.34* 0.16
7 Positive LPP 0.31* 0.40** 0.19 0.47*** 0.29* 0.15 -
8 Negative LPP 0.34* 0.42** 0.21 0.48*** 0.12 0.30* 0.22
Note. N = 46. LPP = late positive potential; Gender is coded as male = 1 and female = 2.
*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001.
6 W. ZHANG ET AL.

Table 3. Multiple regression on late positive potential amplitudes for positive minus neutral and negative minus neutral pictures.
DV IV P R2 Adjusted R2
Positive LPP Age 0.409 0.003 0.612 0.425
Gender 0.245 .0210
EC 0.473 0.001
Age gender 0.157 0.198
EC age 0.116 0.245
EC gender 0.318 0.015
Age gender EC 0.126 0.232
Negative LPP Age 0.407 0.003 0.633 0.439
Gender 0.273 0.016
EC 0.480 0.001
Age gender 0.118 0.242
EC age 0.107 0.248
EC gender 0.343 0.012
EC gender EC 0.143 0.211
Note. N = 46. Gender is coded male = 1 and female = 2. DV = dependent variable; IV = independent variable; LPP = late positive
potential; EC = effortful control.

larger LPP amplitudes for negative pictures ( = 0.273, F(3, 42) = 3.09, p < 0.05) compared to boys.
Moreover, the EC scores negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for positive minus neutral pictures
( = 0.473, F(3, 42) = 6.69, p < 0.001) and negative minus neutral pictures ( = 0.480,
F(3, 42) = 6.75, p < 0.001).
Notably, the interaction between EC and gender negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for
positive minus neutral pictures ( = 0.318, F(3, 42) = 3.21, p < 0.05) and negative minus neutral
pictures ( = 0.343, F(3, 42) = 3.38, p < 0.05). To further clarify this interaction, following-up
regression analyses were performed with recoding male and female variables as dummy variables
(1 0) and (0 1). For positive minus neutral pictures, EC in male adolescents negatively predicted
LPP amplitudes ( = 0.368, F(1, 42) = 4.92, p < 0.01), but EC in female adolescents did not
reach statistical significance ( = 0.071, F(1, 42) = 1.19, p > 0.05)(see Figure 2a). For negative
minus neutral pictures, EC in female adolescents negatively predicted LPP amplitudes
( = 0.427, F(1, 42) = 5.37, p < 0.01), but EC in male adolescents did not reach statistical
significance ( = 0.083, F(1, 42) = 1.24, p > 0.05) (see Figure 2b). No other significant effects
were observed (all p > 0.05).

Figure 2. The interaction between effortful control (EC) and gender on LPP amplitudes. (a) EC in boys negatively predicted LPP
amplitudes for positive minus neutral pictures, but EC in girls did not. (b) EC in girls negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for
negative minus neutral pictures, but EC in boys did not. Boys, blue diamonds and lines; girls, red blocks and lines.
 DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 7

Table 4. Multiple regression on arousal intensity for positive minus neutral and negative minus neutral pictures.
DV IV P R2 Adjusted R2
Positive arousal Age 0.342 0.012 0.279 0.168
Gender 0.081 0.678
EC 0.325 0.014
Age gender 0.123 0.238
EC age 0.106 0.297
EC gender 0.118 0.242
Age gender EC 0.102 0.276
Negative arousal Age 0.351 0.010 0.287 0.183
Gender 0.061 0.864
EC 0.336 0.013
Age gender 0.105 0.253
EC age 0.116 0.245
EC gender 0.120 0.240
Age gender EC 0.096 0.591
Note. N = 46. Gender is coded male = 1 and female = 2. DV = dependent variable; IV = independent variable; LPP = late positive
potential; EC = effortful control.

Similar multiple regressions were performed separately on arousal intensity for positive minus
neutral and negative minus neutral pictures, with EC, age, gender, and their interactions as independent
variables and puberty status as a covariate. As seen in Table 4, age was inversely related to arousal
intensity for positive minus neutral pictures ( = 0.342, F(3, 42) = 3.37, p < 0.05) and negative minus
neutral pictures ( = 0.351, F(3, 42) = 3.48, p < 0.05). EC negatively predicted arousal intensity for
positive minus neutral pictures ( = 0.325, F(3, 42) = 3.26, p < 0.05) and negative minus neutral
pictures ( = 0.336, F(3, 42) = 3.31, p < 0.05). No other significance was observed (all p > 0.05).

Discussion
The present study examined the interaction between temperamental EC and gender differences in
adolescents during the temporal processing of affective pictures. Multiple regression analyses
revealed that age inversely predicted LPP amplitudes for positive or negative pictures.
Temperamental EC negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for positive or negative pictures.
Interestingly, the intensity rating showed parallels to the main effects of age and EC on LPP,
which reflects a significant correlation between LPP and intensity. Thus, these parallels further
confirm the usefulness of LPP as an electrophysiological indicator of affective processing. However,
the main effect of gender and its relevant interactions only emerged at the neural level but not at the
level of self-report, which implies that LPP is a more sensitive measure than intensity rating.
Moreover, LPP amplitudes were distinct in different genders for positive and negative relative to
neutral pictures. The EC gender interaction significantly predicted LPP amplitudes for positive and
negative pictures. These results suggest that gender differences in LPP amplitudes for affective
pictures were modulated by individual differences in temperamental EC in adolescents during the
processing of affective information.
First, larger EC scores in adolescents were significantly correlated with lower LPP amplitudes and
lower arousal ratings for positive or negative pictures. Moreover, age had a negative correlation with
LPP amplitudes or arousal ratings for affective pictures. These age-dependent results are consistent
with previous functional and structural MRI results that reveal a link between EC and cortical
maturation during adolescence (Kanske & Kotz, 2013; Nelson et al., 2005). During this develop-
mental period, the adolescent brain follows a systematic trajectory of frontalization via increased
synaptic pruning that increases cortical efficiency later in development. Additionally, temperamental
EC is thought to reflect the function of the executive attentional network (Posner, 2012). Taken
together, these data suggest that individual differences in the executive attentional network are
involved in the temporal processing of affective information across adolescence.
8 W. ZHANG ET AL.

As predicted, gender differences emerged in the late processing of affective pictures. Consistent
with previous ERP results of children and adults (Bianchin & Angrilli, 2012; Solomon et al., 2012),
male adolescents exhibited larger LPP amplitudes for positive pictures while female adolescents
exhibited larger LPP amplitudes for negative pictures. These results are consistent with the fMRI
findings that female children and adults show a negativity bias whereas counterpart males show a
positivity bias (Solomon et al., 2012; Stevens & Hamann, 2012). Functional neuroimaging studies
have also shown that males exhibit stronger left amygdala activation for positive emotional stimuli
whereas females exhibit a stronger left amygdala response to negative emotional stimuli (Stevens &
Hamann, 2012). Moreover, peripheral physiological measures indicated greater startle potentiation
and cardiac deceleration to unpleasant slides in females versus males, whereas increased appetitive
activation was apparent only in males viewing erotica (Bradley, Codispoti, Sabatinelli, & Lang, 2001).
These data suggest that female adolescents are more sensitive to information with a negative
emotional valence, whereas male adolescents are more sensitive to positive stimuli.
We also observed an interaction between temperamental EC and gender in LPP amplitudes for
affective pictures. Temperamental EC in male adolescents negatively correlated with LPP ampli-
tudes for positive pictures, which means that a lower ability of male adolescents to regulate their
behavior or shift their attention is associated with a higher sensitivity to positive stimuli. In
contrast, the similar phenomenon in female adolescents arises only for negative stimuli. These
results suggest that the EC reflecting the executive function modulates gender differences in the
electrophysiological processing of affective pictures. This finding might be attributed to sex
hormones that are responsible for gender differences in the immature anterior attention network.
During adolescence, overall gray matter volume was negatively associated with estradiol levels in
girls and positively associated with testosterone levels in boys (Peper et al., 2009). Regional
differences for hormonal effects, however, do exist: greater androgen receptor signaling attenuated
age-related decreases in superior parietal lobe in males (Raznahan et al., 2010), while stronger
relationships between the inferior frontal gyrus and estrogen levels in girls (Peper et al., 2009).
During puberty, the onset of activational effects of estradiol augments dopaminergic function in
females while an organizational effect of androgen suppresses dopaminergic function in males
(Kuhn et al., 2010). Dopaminergic circuits in the prefrontal cortex that are important for executive
function and working memory regulate emotions and motivated behaviors through network
connections with subcortical areas (e.g., caudate or hippocampus) (Ernst, Romeo, & Andersen,
2009). The size of hippocampus increases faster in girls than in boys so that girls become more
sensitive to negative stimuli (Brenhouse & Andersen, 2011; Giedd et al., 1996). In contrast, the
caudate in boys undergoes pruning and shrinks faster in size, which increases the efficiency of
positive processing (Teicher, Andersen, & Hostetter Jr, 1995). These developmental changes in
sex-specific corticolimbic activity may underlie some gender differences in motivated behaviors
(Brenhouse & Andersen, 2011, for details). However, we did not measure any sex hormones and,
therefore, we must be cautious in presenting these explanations.
Nevertheless, the present findings have important implications for understanding vulnerability
to psychopathology during adolescence. Our results indicated that temperamental EC was corre-
lated with the temporal course of affective processing. Moreover, the development of EC in
adolescents mediates the association between cortical maturation and psychopathological symp-
toms (Vijayakumar et al., 2014). Specially, female adolescents exhibited a negative correlation
between EC and LPP amplitudes for negative pictures. Additionally, female adolescents become
extremely sensitive to negative social evaluations that lead to increased negative affect
(Westenberg, Drewes, Goedhart, Siebelink, & Treffers, 2004). Thus, female adolescents with low
EC fail to regulate their negative affect, which might increase the likelihood of developing
psychopathology in relation to internalizing symptoms, for example, depression and bulimia
(Kerremans, Claes, & Bijttebier, 2010). However, our study only used general affective pictures
and we did not determine what types of negative affect were elicited. Future studies should use
affective faces (e.g., fear and anger) to answer this question.
 DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY 9

In contrast, male adolescents exhibited a negative correlation between EC and LPP amplitudes for
positive pictures. Furthermore, the positive affect may increase male adolescents engagement in social
interactions and raise their expectations for rewards from participating in risky activities with their
peers (Cunningham, 1988). Thus, low EC might raise the vulnerability of developing psychopathology
related to externalizing symptoms, for example, substance use or drinking (Shoal & Giancola, 2001).
Therefore, poor temperamental EC might represent a trait-like risk factor for psychopathology and
increase gender-specific vulnerability to different types of psychopathologies in adolescents. However,
we must be cautious with these speculations because an actual association of internalizing or externa-
lizing problems to EC was not investigated. Future studies should select clinical samples to clarify the
gender-specific vulnerable pathways for internalizing and externalizing problems.1
In summary, our results indicated that individual differences in temperamental EC were involved in
the temporal processing of affective information during adolescence. Temperamental EC negatively
predicted LPP amplitudes and arousal ratings for positive and negative pictures. Male and female
adolescents exhibited dissociable link patterns between EC and LPP amplitudes for positive and negative
pictures. These observations yield insight into the link between the vulnerability of developing psycho-
pathologies and the psychobiological development of individual differences in temperamental EC.

Note
1. The numbers of the Chinese Affective Picture System pictures used were: positive (004, 012, 014, 015, 018, 020,
022, 028, 029, 039, 040, 045, 073, 078, 088, 094, 102, 117, 118, 121, 138, 139, 430, 432, 437, 461, 478, 640, 675, 781);
neutral (234, 287, 292, 301, 305, 310, 313, 315, 327, 329, 336, 352, 355, 386, 396, 406, 423, 459, 465, 514, 690, 730,
765, 767, 828, 829, 830, 839, 842, 843); negative (146, 158, 173, 178, 185, 187, 188, 191, 193, 199, 206, 210, 229,
233, 238, 243, 244, 246, 270, 273, 271, 276, 522, 539, 544, 572, 573, 611, 616, 624).

Funding
This study was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470997, 81171289, and
31400908) and the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Henan Province, China (2015BJY007).

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