Developmental Psychobiology: Call for Submissions
Methods and Metrics for EEG/ERP Assessment of Emotion and Cognition in Young Children
This is an open call for submissions for a special issue of Developmental Psychobiology on Methods and Metrics for EEG/ERP Assessment of Emotion and Cognition in Young Children. This special issue will be guest-edited by Dr. Rebecca Brooker (Texas A&M University) and Dr. Autumn Kujawa (Vanderbilt University).
Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) methods are well-suited to inform understanding of the development of emotion and cognition beyond what can be gained from subjective and behavioral measures. In recent years, use of EEG/ERP measures in infancy and early childhood has expanded, with many innovative and exciting applications. Yet, most standard protocols, methods, and research on psychometrics is based on adult research, and the extent to which these methods reflect best practices in early childhood remain unclear. Little empirical work has addressed considerations for task design, psychometric properties, or processing/analysis of EEG/ERP data with young children. Noting the need for validated developmental paradigms that can be used to reliably elicit EEG or ERP measures in research with infants and young children, we invite submissions that will aid in the development of best practices and standards for EEG and ERP research in this critical development period. We are interested in research that validates novel paradigms for EEG or ERP elicitation and/or the downward extension of adult paradigms to infant and/or child populations. Research examining methods for reliably engaging young children and capturing attention in emotion and cognition paradigms would be particularly relevant to this special issue. We are also particularly interested in papers that examine psychometric properties of EEG measures (e.g., alpha asymmetry, coupling, etc.) or ERPs in child populations, including cross-context stability, the number of trials needed to create stable estimates, internal consistency within or across developmental stages, and/or longitudinal examinations of properties, including psychometrics, over time. Evidence of low reliability of commonly used neural measures and paradigms would also be of interest. As we intend for the special issue to be a resource for the future conduct of high-quality EEG and ERP work with children, authors should plan to make their paradigms and stimuli publicly available through an online open-access platform.
We welcome research articles, brief reports, and review papers addressing EEG/ERP methods across development. We welcome submissions using new or previously-collected data. Interested authors should submit an abstract that includes a tentative title for the work, a brief description (300 words or less), the perceived overlap of the submission with the aims of the special issue, and a statement of the materials that will be made publicly available upon publication. Abstracts will be evaluated by the special issue guest editors.
Abstracts are due by October 1, 2020; authors will be notified by November 1, 2020 regarding invitations for a full submission. Invited manuscripts will be due by February 1, 2021. Publication date is planned for late 2021/early 2022.
Submit abstracts to the Developmental Psychobiology Editorial Office at [email protected] by October 1, 2020.
Send questions about the special issue to Dr. Rebecca Brooker ([email protected]) and Dr. Autumn Kujawa ([email protected]
Developmental Psychobiology: Call for Submissions
Developmental contexts of threat and safety learning
A special issue of the Journal of Developmental Psychobiology, guest-edited by Kalina Michalska, Ph.D. (UC Riverside), Steve S. Lee, Ph.D. (UCLA), and Elizabeth Moroney, C.Phil (UCLA), will be devoted to articles investigating developmental aspects of threat and safety learning.
Species rely on associative learning mechanisms to adaptively learn which circumstances predict imminent threat and which provide protection from impending danger. This is necessary for survival and self-preservation. Yet, empirical advances in affective learning and treatments of threat-based disorders have largely been developed on the basis of mature circuitry and function. The goal of this special issue is to bring together cutting-edge research and theory regarding how to conceptualize development as an important context in which threat and safety learning occur, with particular interest in studies focusing on biological change that consider interactions with socio-cultural and environmental factors. We also invite submissions examining how learning is potentially affected when normative developmental trajectories are disrupted, for example, by exposure to external stressors, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, early maternal deprivation, discrimination, or violence exposure, which may alter sensitivity to threat-related information in the environment. We are particularly committed to promoting scholarship that addresses inequality and other issues representing underrepresented minority groups. Our issue aims to represent different approaches to the study of threat and safety learning. To that end, cross-species developmental approaches will be encouraged and prioritized. To represent diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, we welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages, from student trainees and postdoctoral researchers to early-career and senior faculty across fields in developmental and clinical psychology, biology, neuroscience, and affiliated fields.
All articles will be expected to provide both novel theoretical contributions and strong empirical methodology. As the goal of this special issue is to encourage scholars to consider how development can be incorporated into the study of threat and safety learning, all authors will be asked to address the following questions in their Introduction and Discussion sections:
- In what ways does your research consider developmental influences for threat and safety learning? Alternatively, what approach does your study take to conceptualizing and operationalizing development and threat and safety learning?
- How does your study present a novel approach to operationalizing or conceptualizing threat and safety learning in developmental research?
- What is the relevance of considering the developmental period/phase of your subjects on research on associative threat and safety learning, particularly as the developmental period relates to your research questions and data interpretations?
- To be addressed in the Discussion section: what specific areas of further research in the area of development as a context for threat and safety learning does the study indicate?
Submission: In order to be considered for the special issue, authors must first submit a 500-word abstract to the Developmental Psychobiology Editorial Office at [email protected], by 10 October 2020. Abstracts will be evaluated by the special issue editors, and invitations for full submission will be sent to the authors by 30 October 2020. Invited manuscripts should be submitted by 30 January 2021 for planned publication toward the end of the year. Inquiries, including questions about appropriate topics, may be sent electronically to Kalina Michalska ([email protected]), Steve Lee ([email protected]), and Elizabeth Moroney ([email protected]).