Visualizing the Invisible Tie: Linking Parent-Child Neural Synchrony to Parents’ and Children’s Attachment Representations

Abstract

It is a central tenet of attachment theory that individual differences in attachment representations organize behavior during social interactions. Secure attachment representations also facilitate behavioral synchrony, a key component of adaptive parent-child interactions. Yet, the dynamic neural processes underlying these interactions and the potential role of attachment representations remain largely unknown. A growing body of research indicates that interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) could be a potential neurobiological correlate of high interaction and relationship quality. In this study, we examined whether interpersonal neural and behavioral synchrony during parent-child interaction are associated with parent and child attachment representations. In total, 140 parents (74 mothers and 66 fathers) and their offspring (age 5-6 years; 60 girls and 80 boys) engaged in cooperative versus individual problem-solving. INS in frontal and temporal regions was assessed with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. Attachment representations were ascertained by means of the Adult Attachment Interview in parents and a story-completion task in children, alongside video-coded behavioral synchrony. Findings revealed increased INS during cooperative versus individual problem solving across all dyads and topographic differences pertaining to parental biological sex. Remarkably, individual differences in attachment representations coincided with INS within frontal regions among mother-child dyads, but INS within temporal regions among daughter-parent dyads. Attachment representations were not associated with behavioral synchrony. Our data thus provide further indication for INS as a promising correlate to probe the neurobiological underpinnings of attachment representations in the context of early parent-child interactions.