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Updated: Feb 17, 2026
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
EEG Measurement of Emotion Processing in Children with Daytime Urinary Incontinence
Justine Niemczyk1, Monika Equit2, Katja Rieck1
11 Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, Homburg.
Objective:
Daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is common in childhood. The aim of the study was to neurophysiologically analyse the central emotion processing in children with DUI.
Method:
In 20 children with DUI (mean age 8.1 years, 55 % male) and 20 controls (mean age 9.1 years, 75 % male) visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded after presenting emotionally valent (80 neutral, 40 positive, and 40 negative) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as an oddball-paradigm. All children received a full organic and psychiatric assessment.
Results:
Children with DUI did not differ significantly from controls regarding responses to emotional pictures in the frontal, central, and parietal regions and in the time intervals 250-450 ms, 450-650 ms, and 650-850 ms after stimulus onset. The patient group had more psychological symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities than the control group.
Conclusions:
EEG responses to emotional stimuli are not altered in children with DUI. Central emotion processing does not play a major role in DUI. Further research, including a larger sample size, a more homogeneous patient group (regarding subtype of DUI) or brain imaging techniques, could reveal more about the central processing in DUI.
