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Meeting Summary

Developmental and Translational Models of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation: Links to Childhood Affective Disorders

April 3, 2006 – April 4, 2006
Bethesda, MD

Sponsored by:
The Division of Pediatric Translational Research and Treatment Development (DPTR), in collaboration with the Division of Services and Intervention Research (DSIR).

On April 3 and 4, 2006, the National Institute of Mental Health sponsored a meeting that brought together basic and clinical scientists in the field of emotion regulation to review current models, identify research gaps, and propose promising directions for future research. The meeting provided a venue for research scientists to explore potential links between basic behavioral science and neuroscience on emotion regulation and clinical research on affective disorders in preadolescent children.

Each participant was charged to address the following questions: (a) How can we gain clarity regarding precise definitions and terminology? (b) Can we develop and adopt a neurodevelopmental model of emotion regulation? (c) What can emotion regulation and dysregulation tell us about risk for depression? (d) How can research in this area be translated into intervention approaches?

The overarching goal of the meeting was to facilitate multidisciplinary dialogue and identify areas ready for translational work.

Major Themes

Listed below are some of the major themes and discussion points that emerged during presentations and/or discussion.

Conceptual/Developmental Issues of Emotion and Emotion Regulation: The workshop highlighted a full range of conceptual and methodological approaches for defining and assessing emotion and emotion regulation including observations of social interaction, physiology, imaging, and genetics.

Neural/Genetic Perspectives: The workshop examined brain mechanisms and neurodevelopmental processes involved in emotion regulation.

Dysregulation and Linkages to Affective Disorders: Participants examined new models of emotion regulation and dysregulation and linkages between regulatory processes and affective disorders.

Translational Implications for Interventions: The workshop addressed early parent child relational approaches and interventions with infants, preschoolers, and school age children.

Conclusions

Significant problems and challenges include limited discussion and cross talk between basic emotion researchers, clinical researchers, and interventionists. Much intervention uses psychoeducation with the assumption that telling or teaching can lead to change. Laboratory measures and normative data can inform assessment of affective disorder. Work on emotion regulation must incorporate more fully what is known about brain plasticity. If we are changing behavior, we are changing the brain. To capture such change, intervention researchers should consider assessments of change for “outcome” indices.

Areas for future research include:

  1. Integrating basic research on emotion and emotion regulation processes and clinical research on affective disorders;
  2. Incorporating emerging neuroscience methods and knowledge of the brain into work on emotion and emotion regulation;
  3. Identifying emotion regulation risk profiles;
  4. Examining regulatory capacities across different developmental systems to determine how emotion control problems, as well as other control difficulties, emerge in affective disorders;
  5. Developing interventions with attention to emotion and emotion regulatory processes as well as interventions that target specific neurobehavioral systems;
  6. Considering the school and preschool context for translational work involving emotions; and (7) creating opportunities to work (and train) across disciplines.