Emotion regulation is defined as modulating the valence inte

Emotion regulation is defined as modulating the valence, intensity, or time-course of an emotional experience (Thompson, 1994). These emotional experiences can range across basic and complex emotions, but, in early childhood, the regulation of anger and frustration is particularly salient as children’s goals are often blocked in the name of healthy diets, early bedtimes, or appropriate public behavior (Daniels et al., 2012). In following, irritability, or dispositional variability in anger/frustration regulation (Snaith and Taylor, 1985) represents a salient trait for understanding cognition-emotion interaction. Irritability is a dimensional prostaglandin e present, at some level, in all children, that traverses the normal to abnormal spectrum (Wakschlag et al., 2015). While severe irritability is a symptom of psychopathology (Stringaris, 2011; Wakschlag et al., 2014), expressions of irritability such as temper tantrums and angry mood are common in early childhood (Daniels et al., 2012; Wakschlag et al., 2012). Thus, irritability within the normative range characterizes important individual differences in children’s regulation of anger and frustration that likely interacts with the maturation of cognitive flexibility. There is some evidence to suggest both a behavioral and neural interaction between cognitive flexibility and irritability in both typically developing and clinical populations. Adolescents receiving treatment for abnormally high levels of irritability show poorer cognitive flexibility (Dickstein et al., 2007) and reduced lateral PFC activation (Adleman et al., 2011). In typically developing preschool children, the neural circuitry of irritability shows similarities with that of cognitive flexibility. Perlman et al. (2014) found that DLPFC activation during frustration was positively associated with parent-rated irritability. This finding suggests that, in the non-impaired range of the irritability dimension, the DLPFC may be a neural mechanism by which relatively more irritable children control salient anger and frustration.
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion In the present study, we found evidence Nucleoid left DLPFC activation was associated with cognitive flexibility in typically developing preschool children. Irritability was unrelated to cognitive flexibility performance but was positively associated with cognitive flexibility-related neural activation. Children with relatively higher irritability showed greater activation in both the left and right DLPFC during a cognitive flexibility task. The present study fills in gaps in our understanding of how emotion regulation and the neural correlates of cognitive flexibility may be interwoven in early childhood. Previous studies have shown that, behaviorally, executive functions and emotion regulation are linked in early childhood. For example, Carlson and Wang (2007) found that 4–6 year olds’ ability to suppress negative and positive affect during emotional challenges was positively associated with performance on an inhibitory control battery. Other studies have found that children who can flexibly shift their thoughts, gaze, or attention were able to reduce subjective reports of negative affect or delay a reward longer than peers (Cole et al., 2011; Davis et al., 2010; Mischel and Mischel, 1983). The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to find that individual differences in irritability are associated with cognitive flexibility-related neural functioning. A positive association between irritability and cognitive flexibility, at the neural level, represents novel evidence that specific executive functions and emotion regulation may share some common neural circuitry. It may also represent an ability to employ a specific strategy, implemented through activation of the DLPFC, that is unique to the most irritable children. This finding, therefore, has novel implications for our understanding of how executive functions and emotion regulation develop and transact during the preschool years.