title: Pubertal changes in emotional information processing: pupillary, behavioral, and subjective evidence during emotional word identification.
abstract: This study investigated pupillary and behavioral responses to an emotional word valence identification paradigm among 32 pre-/early pubertal and 34 mid-/late pubertal typically developing children and adolescents. Participants were asked to identify the valence of positive, negative, and neutral words while pupil dilation was assessed using an eyetracker. Mid-/late pubertal children showed greater peak pupillary reactivity to words presented during the emotional word identification task than pre-/early pubertal children, regardless of word valence. Mid-/late pubertal children also showed smaller sustained pupil dilation than pre-/early pubertal children after the word was no longer on screen. These findings were replicated controlling for participants' age. In addition, mid-/late pubertal children had faster reaction times to all words, and rated themselves as more emotional during their laboratory visit compared to pre-/early pubertal children. Greater recall of emotional words following the task was associated with mid-/late pubertal status, and greater recall of emotional words was also associated with higher peak pupil dilation. These results provide physiological, behavioral, and subjective evidence consistent with a model of puberty-specific changes in neurobehavioral systems underpinning emotional reactivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. silkj@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Silk
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Siegle
authors.forename: Diana J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Whalen
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ostapenko
authors.forename: Cecile D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Ladouceur
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dahl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011627:Puberty / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012025:Reflex, Pupillary / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013067:Speech Perception