Temperamental Effortful Control Modulates Gender Differences in Late Positive Potentials Evoked by Affective Pictures in Adolescents.

We investigated whether effort control (EC) modulates gender differences in late positive potential (LPP) evoked by affective pictures. We collected EEG data from 46 healthy adolescents while they viewed 90 affective pictures. Relative to neutral pictures, boys showed larger LPP amplitudes for positive pictures compared to girls while girls showed larger LPP amplitudes for negative pictures compared to boys. Temperamental EC in boys negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for positive pictures, whereas EC in girls negatively predicted LPP amplitudes for negative pictures. These observations increase our understanding of the relationship between EC and gender difference in electrocortical maturation.