Emotion Regulation and Neurocognitive Profiles in Adolescents With Selective Mutism

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Background:

• Selective mutism (SM) is often viewed as a childhood anxiety disorder, but its persistence into adolescence and underlying mechanisms are not well understood.
• Longitudinal studies are crucial for understanding the developmental trajectory and neurocognitive underpinnings of SM beyond early childhood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate neurocognitive impairments and emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents with selective mutism.
• To characterize the cognitive-emotional profile of adolescents experiencing SM.

Main Methods:

• Eighty-nine adolescents (42 with SM, 47 healthy controls) aged 11-17 years were assessed.
• Utilized the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery.
• Evaluated attention, inhibition, processing speed, memory, and social cognition.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with SM exhibited greater emotional awareness difficulties and higher inattention/hyperactivity.
• Neurocognitive assessments revealed impaired verbal recall but intact verbal learning and better delayed visual memory.
• SM group showed poorer performance on Stroop tasks (indicating executive function deficits) but fewer errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and higher accuracy on the CPT.

Conclusions:

• Adolescents with SM present a unique cognitive-emotional profile characterized by specific neurocognitive deficits and emotion regulation challenges.
• Findings suggest a dissociation between internal emotional processing and external social sensitivity in adolescents with SM.
• Further longitudinal and neurobiological research is recommended to refine understanding and treatment strategies for SM.