Autonomic nervous system functioning assessed during the still-face paradigm: A meta-analysis and systematic review of methods, approach and findings

Abstract

Animal and human research suggests that the development of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is particularly sensitive to early parenting experiences. The Still-Face Paradigm (SFP), one of the most widely used measures to assess infant reactivity and emotional competence, evokes infant self-regulatory responses to parental interaction and disengagement. This systematic review of 33 peer-reviewed studies identifies patterns of parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous system activity demonstrated by infants under one year of age during the SFP and describes findings within the context of sample demographic characteristics, study methodologies, and analyses conducted. A meta-analysis of a subset of 14 studies with sufficient available respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) data examined whether the SFP reliably elicited PNS withdrawal (RSA decrease) during parental disengagement or PNS recovery (RSA increase) during reunion, and whether results differed by socioeconomic status (SES). Across SES, the metaanalysis confirmed that RSA decreased during the still-face episode and increased during reunion. When studies were stratified by SES, low-SES or high-risk groups also showed RSA decreases during the still face episode but failed to show an increase in RSA during reunion. Few studies have examined SNS activity during the SFP to date, preventing conclusions in that domain. The review also identified multiple qualifications to patterns of SFP ANS findings, including those that differed by ethnicity, infant sex, parental sensitivity, and genetics. Strengths and weaknesses in the extant research that may explain some of the variation in findings across the literature are also discussed, and suggestions for strengthening future research are provided.

Physiological measurement of emotion from infancy to preschool: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Autonomic nervous system reactivity is assessed as the difference between resting (baseline) heart rate (or a calculated metric, such as heart rate variability) and heart rate during a physical or emotional challenge (e.g., still‐face paradigm; Critchley et al, 2005; Jones‐Mason et al, 2018). Early clinical uses of heart rate variability included identification of fetal distress (Hon, 1958; Lee & Hon, 1958) and contributions of the central nervous system to sudden cardiac death (Wolf, 1967).…”

The analysis of the parenting implications on the emotional closeness of parent-child improvement

“…The children of authoritarian parenting are applied will have difficulty in a particular behavior. Those who grew up in the family tend to be less authoritarian showed curiosity and emotions-positive emotions as well as less likely to be able to get along (Giallo et al, 2018;Gu, 2018;Herbers, Garcia, & Obradović, 2017;Jones-Mason, Alkon, Coccia, & Bush, 2018). In addition to authoritarian parenting that gives a negative impact on children, permissive parenting can also give a negative impact.…”

“…Characteristics of the overprotective parents will be reflected in the behavior of the child, for these traits is her every day a child's behavior raises self-doubts, feelings of insecurity, fear of doing something, be pessimistic, and difficult to socialize/hang out with his friends. The attitude of the overprotective usually occurs on the youngest male, an only child, child adoption, children in need special and orphans, or orphans (Jones-Mason et al, 2018;M. K. Lee, Baker, & Whitebread, 2018;Ma & Grogan-Kaylor, 2017;Piermattei et al, 2017).…”

Biological Embedding of Chronic Stress Across Two Generations Within Marginalized Communities

“…Infants whose mothers experience chronic stress because of their marginalized status may have altered physiological responses to stress (Jacob, Byrne, & Keenan, 2009; Luecken et al, 2013; Luecken, MacKinnon, Jewell, Crnic, & Gonzales, 2015), though no studies have examined this association between experiences of discrimination while pregnant and infant biobehavioral stress responses directly. In research on prenatal stress and infant physiological responses to stress, most participants are White (Gatzke‐Kopp, 2016; Jones‐Mason, Alkon, Coccia, & Bush, 2018). This lack of representativeness is a problem in the field of developmental psychology in general and in psychophysiological research in particular (Gatzke‐Kopp, 2016).…”

“…In a recent meta‐analysis, few studies of infant physiological responses to a mild social stressor, the still‐face paradigm, included racially and ethnically diverse samples (Jones‐Mason et al, 2018). In those studies with enough racial and ethnic diversity, few physiological differences in response to the still face were found.…”