Buimer Elizabeth E L, Pas Pascal, van den Boomen Carlijn, Raemaekers Mathijs, Brouwer Rachel M, Hulshoff Pol Hilleke E
Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 Jan;71:101503. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101503. Epub 2024 Dec 24.
Identification of facial expressions is important to navigate social interactions and associates with developmental outcomes. It is presumed that social competence, behavioral emotion labeling and neural emotional face processing are related, but this has rarely been studied. Here, we investigated these interrelations and their associations with age and sex, in the YOUth cohort (1055 children, 8-11 years old). Using a multistep linear modelling approach, we associated parent-reported social competence, basic emotion labeling skills based on pictures of facial expressions, and neural facial emotion processing during a passive-watching fMRI task with pictures of houses and emotional faces. Results showed better emotion labeling and higher social competence for girls compared to boys. Age was positively associated with emotion labeling skills and specific social competence subscales. These age- and sex-differences were not reflected in brain function. During fMRI, happy faces elicited more activity than neutral or fearful faces. However, we did not find evidence for the hypothesized links between social competence and behavioral emotion labeling, and with neural activity. To conclude, in pre-adolescents, social competence and emotion labeling varied with age and sex, while social competence, emotion labeling and neural processing of emotional faces were not associated with each other.
识别面部表情对于开展社交互动至关重要，且与发育结果相关。据推测，社会能力、行为情绪标记与神经情绪面部加工之间存在关联，但这方面的研究很少。在此，我们在青少年队列（1055名8至11岁儿童）中研究了这些相互关系及其与年龄和性别的关联。我们采用多步线性建模方法，将父母报告的社会能力、基于面部表情图片的基本情绪标记技能，以及在被动观看功能磁共振成像（fMRI）任务中对房屋和情绪面孔图片进行神经面部情绪加工的情况联系起来。结果显示，与男孩相比，女孩的情绪标记能力更强，社会能力更高。年龄与情绪标记技能及特定的社会能力子量表呈正相关。这些年龄和性别差异并未在脑功能中体现出来。在功能磁共振成像期间，与中性或恐惧面孔相比，快乐面孔引发的活动更多。然而，我们没有找到证据支持社会能力与行为情绪标记之间以及与神经活动之间存在假设的联系。总之，在青春期前儿童中，社会能力和情绪标记随年龄和性别而变化，而社会能力、情绪标记与情绪面孔的神经加工之间并无关联。
