Attentional bias to threat has been implicated in both internalizing and externalizing disorders. This study utilizes event-related potentials to examine early stages of perceptual attention to threatening (angry or fearful) versus neutral faces among a sample of 200 children ages 6-8 years from a low-income, urban community. Although both internalizing and externalizing symptoms were associated with processing biases, the nature of the bias differed between these two symptom domains. Internalizing symptoms were associated with heightened early attentional selection (P1) and later perceptual processing (P2) of fearful faces. In contrast, externalizing symptoms were associated with reduced early attentional selection (P1) of fearful faces and enhanced perceptual processing (P2) of neutral faces, possibly indicative of a hostile interpretation bias for ambiguous social cues. These results provide insight into the distinct cognitive-affective processes that may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

中文翻译：

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神经生理学证据表明，与儿童内化和外化症状相关的情绪面部处理存在明显偏差

对威胁的注意偏见与内化和外化障碍有关。本研究利用与事件相关的电位来检查来自低收入城市社区的 200 名 6-8 岁儿童样本中对威胁（愤怒或恐惧）与中性面孔的感知注意力的早期阶段。尽管内化和外化症状都与加工偏差有关，但这两个症状域之间偏差的性质不同。内化症状与恐惧面孔的早期注意选择（P1）和后来的知觉处理（P2）增强有关。相比之下，外化症状与恐惧面孔的早期注意选择（P1）减少和中性面孔的感知处理（P2）增强有关，可能表明对模棱两可的社会线索有敌意的解释偏见。这些结果提供了对不同的认知情感过程的洞察，这些过程可能有助于内化和外化精神病理学的病因和维持。