The present study examined the startle reflex as a physiological marker of behavioral
inhibition. Participants were 7to 12-year-old children who had been previously
identified as inhibited or uninhibited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study on
the role of behavioral inhibition in the development of anxiety disorders. Analysis
of their scores on the Behavioral Inhibition Scale revealed that the children were
stable in their behavioral inhibition categorization as compared to the beginning of
the longitudinal study. An experiment was carried out to study startle modulation
effects in response to novel and familiar pictures of threatening and
non-threatening facial expressions in inhibited and uninhibited children. The main
results can be summarized as follows. To begin with, no modulation effect was found.
That is, children did not show the expected (adult-like) startle facilitation while
viewing unpleasant pictures. Second, a habituation effect was found: that is, during
the testing phase children responded more intensely to the first block of slides
than to the second block of slides (irrespective of slide content). Third,
unexpectedly behaviorally inhibited children displayed smaller eye blink magnitudes
in response to novel slides than uninhibited children. Fourth and finally, no
meaningful differences were found in the patterns of startle responses of both genders.
Adamec, R.E.
, &
Stark-Adamec, C.
(1989). Behavioral inhibition and anxiety: Dispositional,
developmental, and neural aspects of the anxious personality of the domestic
cat. In
J.S. Reznick
(Ed.), Perspectives on behavioral inhibition(pp.
93–124).
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press
.
2.
Balaban, M.T.
, &
Taussig, H.N.
(1995).
Salience of fear/threat in the affective modulation of the human startle blink
. Biological Psychology, 38,
117–131
.
3.
Biederman, J.
,
Rosenbaum, J.F.
,
Bolduc-Murphy, E.A.
,
Faraone, S.V.
,
Chaloff, J.
,
Hirshfeld, D.R.
, et al. (1993).
A 3-year follow-up of children with and without behavioral inhibition
. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, 32,
814–821
.
4.
Biederman, J.
,
Rosenbaum, J.F.
,
Hirshfeld, D.R.
,
Faraone, S.V.
,
Bolduc, E.A.
,
Gersten, M.
, et al. (1990).
Psychiatric correlates of behavioral inhibition in young children of
parents with and without psychiatric disorders
. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47,
21–26
.
Cook, E.W.
,
III, Hawk, L.W.
,
Davis, T.L.
, &
Stevenson, V.E.
(1991).
Affective individual differences and startle reflex modulation
. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100,
5–13
.
7.
Cook, E.W.
,
III, Hawk, L.W.
,
Hawk, T.M.
, &
Hummer, K.
(1995).
Affective modulation of startle in children [Abstract]
. Psychophysiology, 33(Suppl. 1),
S31-S31
.
8.
Costello, E.J.
, &
Angold, A.
(1995). Epidemiology. In
J.S. March
(Ed.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (pp.
109–124).
New York: Guilford Press
.
9.
Craske, M.G.
(1997).
Fear and anxiety in children and adolescents
. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 61(Suppl.
A),
A4–A36
.
10.
Ekman, P.
, &
Friesen, W.V.
(1975).Unmasking the face: A guide to recognizing emotions
from facial clues.
Oxford: Prentice-Hall
.
11.
Garcia-Coll, C.
,
Kagan, J.
, &
Reznick, J.S.
(1984).
Behavioral inhibition in young children
. Child Development, 55,
1005–1019
.
12.
Gest, S.D.
(1997).
Behavioral inhibition: stability and associations with adaptation from
childhood to early adulthood
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72,
467–475
.
13.
Grillon, C.
, &
Ameli, R.
(1998).
Effects of threat and safety signals on startle during anticipation of
aversive shocks, sounds, or airblasts
. Journal of Psychophysiology, 12,
329–337
.
14.
Grillon, C.
,
Dierker, L.
, &
Merikangas, K.R.
(1997).
Startle modulation in children at risk for anxiety disorders and/or alcoholism
. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Pscychiatry, 36,
925–932
.
15.
Hitchcock, J.M.
, &
Davis, M.
(1986).
Lesions of the amygdala, but not of the cerebellum or red nucleus, block
conditioned fear as measured with the potentiated startle paradigm
. Behavioral Neuroscience, 100,
11–22
.
16.
Hitchcock, J.M.
, &
Davis, M.
(1987).
Fear-potentiated startle using an auditory conditioned stimulus: Effect of
lesions of the amygdala
. Physiology and Behavior, 39,
403–408
.
17.
Kagan, J.
,
Reznick, J.S.
, &
Snidman, N.
(1988).
Biological basis of childhood shyness
. Science, 240,
167–171
.
18.
Kagan, J.
, &
Snidman, N.
(1991).
Temperamental factors in human development
. American Psychologist, 46,
856–862
.
19.
Kagan, J.
,
Snidman, N.
, &
Arcus, D.
(1993). On the temperamental categories of inhibited and
uninhibited children. In
K.H. Rubin
&
J.B. Asendorpf
(Eds.), Social withdrawal, inhibition,and shyness in childhood
(pp. 19–28).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
.
20.
Kagan, J.
,
Snidman, N.
,
McManis, M.
,
Woodward, S.
, &
Hardway, C.
(2002).
One measure, one meaning: multiple measures, clearer meaning
. Development and Psychopathology, 14,
463–475
.
21.
Lang, P.J.
(1995).
The emotion probe
. American Psychologist, 50,
372–385
.
22.
Lang, P.J.
,
Öhman, A.
, &
Vaitl, D.
(1988). The International Affective Picture System
[photographic slides]. The Center for Research in
Psychophysiology,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
.
23.
March, J.S.
(1995).Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.
New York: Guilford Press
.
Merikangas, K.R.
,
Avenevoli, S.
,
Dierker, L.
, &
Grillon, C.
(1999).
Vulnerability factors among children at risk for anxiety disorders
. Society of Biological Psychiatry, 46,
1523–1535
.
26.
Muris, P.
,
Meesters, C.
, &
Spinder, M.
(2003).
Relationships between childand parent-reported behavioural inhibition and
symptoms of anxiety and depression in normal adolescents
. Personality and Individual Differences, 34,
759–771
.
27.
Muris, P.
,
Merckelbach, H.
,
Schmidt, H.
,
Gadet, B.
, &
Bogie, N.
(2001).
Anxiety and depression as correlates of self-reported behavioural
inhibition in normal children
. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39,
1051–1061
.
28.
Muris, P.
,
Merckelbach, H.
,
Wessel, I.
, &
Van de Ven, M.
(1999).
Psychopathological correlates of self-reported behavioural inhibition in
normal children
. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37,
575–584
.
29.
Ornitz, E.M.
(1999). Startle modification in children and developmental
effects. In
M.E. Dawson
,
A.M. Schell
, &
A.H. Böhmelt
(Eds.), Startle modification: implications for neuroscience, cognitive
science, and clinical science (pp.
245–266).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
30.
Partridge, T.
(2000).
Temperament development modeled as a nonlinear complex adaptive system
. Nonlinear Dynamics in Psychology and Life Sciences,
4,
339–357
.
31.
Reznick, J.S.
,
Hegeman, I.M.
,
Kaufman, E.R.
, &
Woods, S.W.
(1992).
Retrospective and concurrent self-report of behavioral inhibition and their
relation to adult mental health
. Development and Psychopathology, 4,
301–321
.
32.
Schmidt, L.A.
, &
Fox, N.A.
(1998).
Fear-potentiated startle responses in temperamentally different human infants
. Developmental Psychobiology, 32,
113–120
.
33.
Schmidt, L.A.
,
Fox, N.A.
,
Rubin, K.H.
,
Sternberg, E.M.
,
Gold, P.W.
,
Smith, C.C.
, et al. (1997).
Behavioral and neuroendocrine responses in shy children
. Developmental Psychobiology, 30,
127–140
.
34.
Schmidt, L.A.
,
Fox, N.A.
,
Schulkin, J.
, &
Gold, P.W.
(1999).
Behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of self-presentation in
temperamentally shy children
. Developmental Psychobiology, 35,
119–135
.
Schwartz, C.E.
,
Wright, C.I.
,
Shin, L.M.
,
Kagan, J.
,
Whalen, P.J.
,
McMullin, K.G.
, et al. (2003).
Differential amygdalar response to novel versus newly familiar neutral
faces: a functional MRI probe developed for studying inhibited temperament
. Society of Biological Psychiatry, 53,
854–862
.
37.
Snidman, N.
(1989). Behavioral inhibition and sympathetic influence on
the cardiovascular system. In
J.S. Reznick
(Ed.), Perspectives on behavioral inhibition (pp.
51–70).
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press
.
38.
Snidman, N.
, &
Kagan, J.
(1994).
The contribution of infant temperamental differences to acoustic startle
response [Abstract]
. Psychophysiology, 31,
S92–S92
.
39.
Van Brakel, A.M.L.
, &
Muris, P.
(2006).
A brief scale for measuring “behavioral inhibition to the
unfamiliar” in children
. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment,
28,
79–84
.
40.
Van Brakel, A.M.L.
,
Muris, P.
, &
Bögels, S.M.
(2001).
Gedragsinhibitie als risicofactor voor het ontwikkelen van angststoornissen
bij kinderen: Een overzicht [Behavioral inhibition as a risk factor for the
development of anxiety disorders in children: A review]
. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Psychologie en haar
grensgebieden, 56,
57–68
.
41.
Van Brakel, A.M.L.
,
Muris, P.
, &
Bögels, S.M.
(2004).
Relations between parentand teacher-reported behavioral inhibition and
behavioral observations of this temperamental trait
. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology,
33,
579–589
.
42.
Vasa, R.A.
, &
Pine, D.S.
(2004). Neurobiology. In
T.L. Morris
and
J.S. March
(Eds.), Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents (pp.
3–26).
New York: The Guilford Press
.
43.
Woodward, S.A.
,
McManis, M.H.
,
Kagan, J.
,
Deldin, P.
,
Snidman, N.
,
Lewis, M.
, et al. (2001).
Infant temperament and the brainstem auditory evoked response in later childhood
. Developmental Psychology, 37,
533–538
.
