The Relation between Executive Function and Treatment Outcome in Children with Aggressive Behaviour Problems: An EEG Study

This study examined whether cortical changes underlying treatment for children with aggressive behaviour problems are related to changes in executive function (EF) performance. Fifty-five 8- to 12-year-old clinically-referred children were tested before and after a 14-week treatment intervention. Performance on four EF tasks varying in affective relevance was assessed at each session. EEG was also used to record peak amplitudes for the “inhibitory” N2, an event-related potential, while the children completed an emotion-induction Go/Nogo task. Results showed that changes in N2 amplitudes significantly predicted changes in performance only for the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) – an affectively relevant task. Subsequent analysis revealed that only children who improved with treatment displayed significant decreases in N2 amplitudes and significant improvement in IGT performance from pre- to post-treatment. These findings suggest that cortical changes underlying successful treatment for children’s aggressive behaviour problems tap improvement in executive functions recruited for emotionally demanding events.MAS