Delta-beta coupling is increasingly used to understand early emotional development. However, little is known about the development of the coupling, limiting its utility for identifying normative or aberrant functioning. We used a prospective longitudinal sample (N = 122) to compare measures of within-person and between-person coupling between ages 3 and 5, track the developmental trajectory of coupling, identify individual differences in patterns of development, and explore emotion-related predictors and outcomes of discrete developmental patterns. Within-person measures, limited in overall utility, were most useful when (1) statistical approaches produced more homogenous groups within the overall sample (extreme groups or latent classes) or (2) the full developmental course was considered. We found two trajectories of change in frontal coupling and three trajectories of change in parietal coupling. Coupling trajectories were predicted by observed fear and approach/avoidance at age 3. In addition, high levels of frontal coupling at age 3 that declined and then levelled out through age 5 were associated with lower levels of internalizing by age 5. This work provides a foundation for understanding normative change in delta-beta coupling across the preschool years and useful insight for the use of this metric in future work.

中文翻译：

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推导 delta-beta 耦合的人内估计：一种识别儿童时期情绪和神经功能个体差异的新方法

Delta-beta 耦合越来越多地用于理解早期情绪发展。然而，对耦合的发展知之甚少，限制了它在识别正常或异常功能方面的效用。我们使用了前瞻性纵向样本（N = 122) 比较 3 至 5 岁之间的人内和人际耦合的测量值，跟踪耦合的发展轨迹，识别发展模式中的个体差异，并探索与情绪相关的预测因子和离散发展模式的结果。当（1）统计方法在整个样本（极端组或潜在类别）中产生更多同质组或（2）考虑完整的发展过程时，个人测量在整体效用上是最有用的。我们发现了两个额叶耦合变化轨迹和三个顶叶耦合变化轨迹。通过在 3 岁时观察到的恐惧和接近/回避来预测耦合轨迹。此外，