Carrying human infants – An evolutionary heritage

Berecz, Bernadett; Cyrille, Mel; Casselbrant, Ulrika; Oleksak, Sarah; Norholt, Henrik

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101460

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Even though there is preliminary evidence for caregiver-infant INS in non-interactive proximate situations (Azhari et al, 2019;Minagawa, Xu, & Morimoto, 2018), this is the first study to our knowledge to explicitly contrast the same non-interactive joint watching conditions, while the proximity of mother and infant was experimentally manipulated. There is limited empirical evidence on the effects of caregiver-infant proximity (Botero, Langley, & Venta, 2019), even though theoretical accounts maintain that physical contact is beneficial to infants' secure attachment relationship and healthy development (Berecz, Cyrille, Casselbrant, Oleksak, & Norholt, 2020;Norholt, 2020). The proposed mechanisms to physical contact are enhanced caregiver responsiveness to infants and stimulation from parent locomotion (Little, Legare, & Carver, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Nguyen

Abney

Salamander

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Caregiver touch plays a vital role in infants’ growth and development across mammalian species, yet its potential role as a communicative signal in human parent-infant interactions has been sparsely investigated this far. We assessed whether touch enhances neural and physiological synchrony in caregiver-infant dyads. We simultaneously measured brain activity (through functional near-infrared spectroscopy) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (through electrocardiography) of 69 4- to 6-month-old infants and their mothers in distal and proximate non-interactive conditions vs. an interactive condition. Findings revealed that neural synchrony was highest during the interaction, next in the proximate, and lowest in the distal non-interactive condition. Physiological synchrony was highest during the interaction and lower in both non-interactive conditions. Furthermore, maternal affectionate touch during the interaction was positively related to neural but not physiological synchrony. This is the first evidence showing that touch mediates mutual attunement of brain activities in infants and their caregivers in naturalistic interactions.Open Science PracticesPreregistration: https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=6hy5n6

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Nguyen

Abney

Salamander

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“… Berecz, Cyrille, Casselbrant, Oleksak, & Norholt (2020) review the propensity of infants to cling and be carried throughout the evolution of our species. They propose that slings and other infant carriers emerged as encephalization evolved.…”

Section: Infant Holding or Carryingmentioning

confidence: 99%

To have and to hold: Effects of physical contact on infants and their caregivers

Bigelow

Williams

2020

Infant Behavior and Development

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“…Given the role of the attachment system as a regulator of proximity seeking (Simpson and Belsky, 2008), and the previous evidence linking the cradling side to attachment in adults (Malatesta et al, 2019a), a major target should be the search for links among the observed patterns of infant attachment and the aforementioned motor, neural and developmental variables. Furthermore, cradling behavior has coevolved with the infant's proclivity to actively cling onto the caregiver (Berecz et al, 2020), and being held or carried on the left or the right side of the adult's body imposes complementary degrees of freedom on the infant's left and right upper limbs. Thus, a direct effect of adult-infant postural laterality is expected to be manifested in the differential use of arms and hands by the infant.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Lateralization, Maternal Effects and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Malatesta

Marzoli

Prete

et al. 2021

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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In humans, behavioral laterality and hemispheric asymmetries are part of a complex biobehavioral system in which genetic factors have been repeatedly proposed as developmental determinants of both phenomena. However, no model solely based on genetic factors has proven conclusive, pushing towards the inclusion of environmental and epigenetic factors into the system. Moreover, it should be pointed out that epigenetic modulation might also account for why certain genes are expressed differently in parents and offspring. Here, we suggest the existence of a sensitive period in early postnatal development, during which the exposure to postural and motor lateral biases, expressed in interactive sensorimotor coordination with the caregiver, canalizes hemispheric lateralization in the “typical” direction. Despite newborns and infants showing their own inherent asymmetries, the canalizing effect of the interactive context owes most to adult caregivers (usually the mother), whose infant-directed lateralized behavior might have been specifically selected for as a population-level trait, functional to confer fitness to offspring. In particular, the case of the left-cradling bias (LCB; i.e., the population-level predisposition of mothers to hold their infants on the left side) represents an instance of behavioral trait exhibiting heritability along the maternal line, although no genetic investigation has been carried out so far. Recent evidence, moreover, seems to suggest that the reduction of this asymmetry is related to several unfavorable conditions, including neurodevelopmental disorders. Future studies are warranted to understand whether and how genetic and epigenetic factors affect the lateralization of early mother-infant interaction and the proneness of the offspring to neurodevelopmental disorders.

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Carrying human infants – An evolutionary heritage

Cited by 25 publications

References 79 publications

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

Proximity and Touch are associated with Neural but not Physiological Synchrony in Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions

To have and to hold: Effects of physical contact on infants and their caregivers

Human Lateralization, Maternal Effects and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

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