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Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Event-related theta oscillatory substrates for facilitation and interference effects of negative emotion on
Zhongqing Jiang1, Allison C Waters2, Ying Liu1
1School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116021, China.
Abstract:
We investigated the brain oscillatory contribution to emotion-cognition interaction in young children. Five-year-old participants (n=27) underwent EEG recording while engaged in a color identification task. Each trial began with an emotional prime. Response times indicated whether emotional primes facilitated or interfered with performance. Related effects were detected in theta-band power over parietal-occipital cortex, early in the response epoch (<500ms). Children in the emotion facilitation group showed greater theta synchronization for negative stimuli. The opposite trend was observed in the interference group. Results suggest a role for theta oscillations in children's adaptive response to emotional content in cognitive performance.
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