Parent-child physiological synchrony: Concurrent and lagged effects during dyadic laboratory interaction

Individual patterns and synchrony of heart rate variability in adolescent patients with borderline personality psychopathology and their mothers: a case-control study

BACKGROUND

In adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), interactions with caregivers often provoke dysregulation. Vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological marker of regulatory capacities, shows alterations in BPD. Studies on individual and dyadic HRV in adolescents with BPD (BPD-A) and their mothers (BPD-M) are lacking. We examined 1) individual resting state -, reactivity- and recovery- HRV, 2) intrapersonal concordance of interactional quality with HRV, 3) mother-adolescent interpersonal HRV-synchrony and 4) the association of interpersonal HRV-synchrony with behavioral synchrony in a case-control design.

METHODS

Thirty-eight (sub)syndromal BPD-A and BPD-M were compared to 35 healthy control adolescents and their mothers (HC-A/-M). HRV was assessed during a positive interaction, a stress task and resting before and after interactions (recovery). Behavior during interactions was observed and coded using the "Coding Interactive Behavior"- Manual. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling.

RESULTS

BPD-A showed a lower resting HRV than HC-A, while no group differences were found for mothers. From resting to positive interaction, BPD-A/BPD-M/HC-M showed a significant increase in HRV; this increase was not significant for HC-A. HRV-reactivity to stress was not significant in either group but influenced by general emotional and behavioral problems within both adolescent samples. Significant intrapersonal concordance of HRV and behavior could only be found for HC-M during the positive interaction (positive association). For BPD-M, a complete disconnect between behavior and HRV was observed. BPD-dyads and dyads lower in behavioral synchrony displayed HRV-synchrony during stress, in HC-dyads and dyads higher in behavioral synchrony during rest after dyadic interactions.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study is the first investigating altered HRV-reactivity, behavior-HRV-concordance and HRV-synchrony in adolescents with BPD traits and their mothers, adding new insight to physiological regulation and co-regulation in adolescent BPD pathology. Limitations and implications of these results are discussed.

Multimodal interpersonal synchrony: Systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the interplay among neural, physiological, and behavioral interpersonal synchrony. We included studies written in English, comprising human dyads, and reporting data that could be translated to correlation estimates between at least two modalities of synchrony, sourced from PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The initial meta-analysis, examining associations between neural and behavioral synchrony, assessed 37 samples with 1342 participants, revealed a significant medium effect size (r = 0.32, 95 %CI: [0.23, 0.41]) with higher correlations in studies measured frontocentral regions and used the same epoch size for synchrony calculations. The analysis on associations between physiological and behavioral synchrony included 13 samples (369 participants) and identified small effect size (r = 0.18, 95 %CI: [0.06, 0.30]). Due to the limited sample size of three studies involving 150 participants, we conducted a systematic review rather than a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between neural and physiological synchrony. This review revealed inconsistent results, underscoring the need for further research. Future inquiries address greater multimodal integration in certain brain regions and measures, such as frontal and central regions. A theoretical framework that will explain multimodal integration of synchrony will allow us to ascertain if it is a unique aspect of social experiences, or simply a description of synchrony across levels of organization.

Pre-COVID respiratory sinus arrhythmia moderates associations between COVID-19 stress and child externalizing behaviors: Testing neurobiological stress theories

Exposure to stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic contributes to psychopathology risk, yet not all children are negatively impacted. The current study examined a parasympathetic biomarker of stress sensitivity, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), as a moderator of the effects of exposure to pandemic stress on child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a sample of children experiencing economic marginalization. Three to five years pre-pandemic, when children were preschool-aged, RSA during baseline and a challenging parent-child interaction were collected. Mid-pandemic, between November 2020 and March 2021, children's exposure to pandemic stress and internalizing and externalizing behaviors were collected. Results demonstrated that children who, pre-pandemic, demonstrated blunted parasympathetic reactivity (i.e., no change in RSA relative to baseline) during the dyadic challenge exhibited elevated risk for externalizing behaviors mid-pandemic. Further, this risk was greatest for children exposed to high and moderate levels of pandemic stress. Consistent with diathesis stress and polyvagal frameworks, these conditional effects suggest that blunted parasympathetic reactivity in response to stress in early childhood may escalate the development of externalizing behaviors following stress exposure at school age.

Dynamic self-regulation and coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in mother-child and father-child interactions: Moderating effects of proximal and distal stressors

This study examined how proximal and distal familial stressors influenced the real-time, dynamic individual and dyadic regulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in mother-preschooler and father-preschooler interactions in at-risk families (N = 94, Mage = 3.03 years, 47% males, 77% White, 20% Latinx, data collected 2013-2017). Proximal stressors were operationalized as changing task demands (baseline, challenge, recovery) across a dyadic puzzle task. Distal stressors were measured as parent-reported stressful life events. Multilevel models revealed that greater proximal and distal stressors were related to weaker dynamic self-regulation of RSA in mothers, fathers, and children, and more discordant mother-child and father-child coregulation of RSA. Findings affirm that stress is transmitted across levels and persons to compromise real-time regulatory functioning in early, developmentally formative caregiver-child interactions.

Clients' and therapists' parasympathetic interpersonal and intrapersonal regulation dynamics during psychotherapy for depression

OBJECTIVE

The literature on affective regulation in psychotherapy has traditionally relied on explicit client self-report measures. However, both clients' and therapists' affect fluctuate moment-to-moment during a session, highlighting the need for more implicit and continuous indices to better understand these dynamics. This study examined parasympathetic interpersonal and intrapersonal regulation dynamics between therapists and clients with Major Depressive Disorder during Supportive-Expressive Therapy.

METHOD

Data were collected from 52 dyads across five preselected sessions, using the Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) index. We employed a longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, with clients self-reporting their functioning level before and after each session, as the moderator.

RESULTS

Therapists' RSA at one time point negatively associated with clients' RSA at the next, and vice-versa, indicating interpersonal regulation. Clients' RSA at one time point was positively associated with their RSA at the next, indicating intrapersonal regulation. However, only interpersonal regulation was significantly moderated by clients' pre-to-post session functioning. Specifically, sessions where clients led positive dyadic RSA associations showed greater improvement in clients' functioning than those led by therapists.

CONCLUSION

Physiological interpersonal regulation, measured by RSA, may be a catalyst for change in depression treatment. Therapists who are responsive to clients' arousal levels may help clients improve their functioning.

Grandmother-grandchild physiological synchrony in Chinese three-generation families: Links with child emotion regulation

The current study examined the characteristics of physiological synchrony between grandmothers and grandchildren in Chinese three-generation families, and the associations between physiological synchrony and child emotion regulation. The participants included 92 children (age 8-10-year old) and their grandmothers. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was collected from both grandmothers and their grandchildren throughout a collaborative drawing task and a conflict discussion task. Child emotion regulation was measured using the Children's Emotional Management Scale. We found no evidence for an overall pattern of concordant or discordant synchrony within dyads. Instead, there was great variability in patterns of synchrony across dyads. During the collaborative drawing task, concordance in grandmother's RSA and grandchildren's subsequent RSA was linked with better emotion regulation. During the conflict discussion, concordance in grandmother's RSA and grandchildren's simultaneous RSA was linked with poorer emotion regulation. These results suggest that grandmother-grandchild synchrony in different directions, time lags, and contexts has different influences on children's emotion regulation. The findings of this study highlight the importance of contextual physiological co-regulation between Chinese children and their grandmothers for children's social-emotional development.

Integrating Biobehavioral and Environmental Components of Developmental Psychopathology via Interpersonal Dynamics: An RDoC-Advancing Model

Although the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDoC) framework proposes biological and environmental mechanisms intersect in the etiology of psychopathology, there is no guidance on how to define or measure experiences in the environment within the RDoC matrix. Interpersonal dynamics during caregiver-child interactions involve temporal coordination of interacting partners' biobehavioral functioning; repeated experiences of signaling to caregivers and responding to caregivers' signals shape children's subsequent socioemotional and brain development. We begin with a review of the extant literature on caregiver-child dynamics, which reveals that RDoC's units of analysis (brain circuits, physiology, behavior, and self-report) are inextricably linked with moment-to-moment changes in the caregiving environment. We then offer a proof-of-concept for integrating biobehavioral RDoC units and environmental components via caregiver-child dynamics. Our approach uses dynamic structural equation models to estimate within-dyad dynamics involving arousal, social, cognitive, and negative or positive affective processes based on second-by-second changes in parasympathetic activity (RSA) during a conflict discussion and a positive event-planning task. Our results illustrate variation in parent-child RSA synchrony, suggesting differences depending on the driver (i.e., child- or parent-led) and on the unique and intersecting domains involved (e.g., positive or negative affect valence systems). We conclude with recommendations for conducting robust, methodologically rigorous studies of interpersonal dynamics that advance the RDoC framework and provide a summary of the clinical implications of this research. Examining caregiver-child dynamics during and across multiple dyadic interaction paradigms that differentially elicit key domains of functioning can deepen understanding of how caregiver- and child-led interpersonal dynamics contribute to child psychopathology risk.

Emotion contagion and physiological synchrony: The more intimate relationships, the more contagion of positive emotions

The study aimed to explore how interpersonal closeness (friends vs. strangers) and emotion type (positive vs. negative) influenced emotion contagion and physiological synchrony between interacting partners. Twenty-eight friend dyads (n = 56) and 29 stranger dyads (n = 58) participated in an emotion contagion laboratory task. In each dyad, one participant, the 'sender', was randomly asked to watch a film clip (neutral, positive, or negative), while their partner, the 'observer' passively observed the sender's facial expressions. Participants' electrocardiograms (ECG) and facial electromyography (EMG) signals were recorded using the BIOPAC system. Results revealed that observing the sender's facial expressions led to the observer's spontaneous mimicry and emotional contagion, accompanied by enhanced physiological synchrony between interacting partners. In the positive emotion condition, the observers reported more positive emotions and displayed stronger zygomaticus major activity in friend dyads than in stranger dyads. Greater physiological synchrony (heart rate and heart rate variability) between interacting partners was also observed in friend dyads than in stranger dyads in the positive emotion condition. These results indicate that positive emotion contagion is more likely to occur between close partners than negative emotion contagion.

Neurophysiological markers of asymmetric emotional contagion: implications for organizational contexts

Emotions play a vital role within organizations, impacting various crucial aspects of work such as job satisfaction, performance, and employee well-being. Understanding how emotional states spread in organizational settings is therefore essential. Recent studies have highlighted that a leader's emotional state can influence their followers, with significant consequences on job performance. Leaders thus possess the ability to influence their employees' psychological state and, consequently, their well-being. However, the biological underpinnings of emotional contagion from leaders to followers remain unexplored. The field of interpersonal (neuro)physiology, which involves recording brain and peripheral activity of multiple individuals during interactions, holds great potential for investigating this phenomenon. Analyzing the time-lagged synchronization of neurophysiological activity during interactions may serve as a measure of the leader's influence on their followers in organizational contexts. In this "mini review," we examine empirical studies that have employed interpersonal (neuro)physiology to quantify the asymmetrical contagion of emotions in different contexts. Asymmetrical contagion was operationalized as the unidirectional influence exerted by one individual (i.e., the "sender") to another one (i.e., the "receiver"), whereby the receiver's state can be predicted by the sender's one. The reviewed literature reveals that delayed synchronization of physiological states is a widespread phenomenon that may underpin the transmission of emotions. These findings have significant implications for various aspects of organizational life, including leader-to-employee communication, and could drive the development of effective leadership training programs. We propose that Organizational Neuroscience may benefit from including interpersonal neurophysiology in its methodological toolkit for laboratory and field studies of leader-follower dynamics.

Concurrent and lagged physiological synchrony during mother-child interaction and their relationship to positive affect in 8- to 10-year-old children

Mother-child interaction has been characterized by a fine-tuning of behavior and physiological activity. Yet, little is known about the dynamics of mother-child physiological synchrony during early school age and their associations to positive affect. To investigate these processes, 42 mother-child dyads, with children aged 8 to 10 years, played an interactive game while their interbeat intervals (IBI) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured simultaneously. IBI/RSA synchrony was calculated using cross-correlations of the IBI/RSA second-by-second time series for lags - 3 to + 3 seconds. Mother's and child's individual and shared positive affect were microcoded. During the interactive tasks, IBI and RSA synchrony significantly increased compared to control conditions. RSA and affect synchrony were significantly stronger for negative compared to positive lags indicating a stronger child leads/mother follows covariation. Further, dyad's IBI and RSA synchrony were significantly associated to mother's and child's individual positive affect. Our data suggest that in low-risk community samples, mothers may respond to their children's positive affect by matching their own affect and physiology. Investigating these temporally precise, concurrent and lagged synchrony processes may open up new avenues for understanding the ways in which parent-child interactions contribute to child developmental outcomes.

A meta-analysis of mother-child synchrony in respiratory sinus arrhythmia and contextual risk

Biobehavioral frameworks of attachment posit that mother-child dyads engage in physiological synchrony that is uniquely formative for children's neurobiological, social, and emotional development. Much of the work on mother-child physiological synchrony has focused on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, the strength of the existing evidence for mother-child RSA synchrony during interaction is unclear. Using meta-analysis, we summarized results from 12 eligible studies comprising 14 samples and 1201 children ranging from infancy to adolescence (M_age  = 5.68 years, SD = 4.13, range = 0.4-17 years) and their mothers. We found that there was a statistically significant, albeit modest, positive within-dyad association between mother and child fluctuations in RSA. There also was evidence for significant heterogeneity across studies. Less mother-child RSA synchrony was observed in high-risk samples characterized by clinical difficulties, history of maltreatment, or socioeconomic disadvantage. We did not find that mother-child RSA synchrony significantly differed by task context, mean child age, or by epoch length for computing RSA. Collectively, these findings suggest that mother-child dyads show correspondence in their fluctuations in RSA, and that RSA synchrony is disrupted in high-risk contexts. Future directions and implications for the study of parent-child physiological synchrony are discussed.