Susan B. Perlman, Kevin A. Pelphrey

The regulation of affective arousal is a critical aspect of children's social  and cognitive development. However, few studies have examined the brain  mechanisms involved in the development of this aspect of hot executive  functioning. This process has been conceptualized as involving prefrontal  control of the amygdala. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging  (fMRI), we investigated the brain mechanisms involved in the development of  affective regulation in typically developing 5- to 11-year-olds and an adult  comparison sample. Children and adults displayed differing patterns of increased  anterior cingulate cortex and decreased amygdala activation during episodes in  which emotion regulation was required. Specifically, amygdala activation  increased in adults but decreased in children during recovery from a frustrating  episode. In addition, we used effective connectivity analyses to investigate  differential correlations between key emotional brain areas in response to the  regulatory task demands. We found reliable increases in effective connectivity  between the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala during periods of  increased demand for emotion regulation. This effective connectivity increased  with age.