Proximity and touch are associated with neural but not physiological synchrony in naturalistic mother-infant interactions.
Neuroimage
; 244: 118599, 2021 12 01.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34547452
ABSTRACT
Caregiver touch plays a vital role in infants' growth and development, but its role as a communicative signal in human parent-infant interactions is surprisingly poorly understood. Here, we assessed whether touch and proximity in caregiver-infant dyads are related to neural and physiological synchrony. We simultaneously measured brain activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia of 4-6-month-old infants and their mothers (N=69 dyads) in distal and proximal joint watching conditions as well as in an interactive face-to-face condition. Neural synchrony was higher during the proximal than during the distal joint watching conditions, and even higher during the face-to-face interaction. Physiological synchrony was highest during the face-to-face interaction and lower in both joint watching conditions, irrespective of proximity. Maternal affectionate touch during the face-to-face interaction was positively related to neural but not physiological synchrony. This is the first evidence that touch mediates mutual attunement of brain activities, but not cardio-respiratory rhythms in caregiver-infant dyads during naturalistic interactions. Our results also suggest that neural synchrony serves as a biological pathway of how social touch plays into infant development and how this pathway could be utilized to support infant learning and social bonding.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Tacto
/
Relaciones Madre-Hijo
Tipo de estudio:
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Neuroimage
Asunto de la revista:
DIAGNOSTICO POR IMAGEM
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article