Relations between family cohesion and adolescent-parent’s neural synchrony in response to emotional stimulations

Abstract

Background The interaction between parent and adolescent is more challenging than in other age periods. Family cohesion seriously impacts parent-adolescent emotional interactions. However, the underlying neural mechanism has not been fully examined. This study examined the differences in the neural synchrony in response to emotional film clips between high and low family cohesion adolescent-parent dyads by using the electroencephalograph (EEG) hyperscanning. Results Simultaneously electroencephalograph (EEG) was recorded while 15 low family cohesion parent-adolescent dyads (LFCs)and 14 high family cohesion parent-adolescent dyads (HFCs)received different emotional induction when viewing film clips. Interbrain phase-locking-value (PLV) in gamma band was used to calculate parent-adolescent dyads’ interbrain synchrony. Results showed that higher gamma interbrain synchrony was observed in the HFCs than the LFCs in the positive conditions. However, there was no significant difference between the HFCs and LFCs in other conditions. Also, the HFCs had significantly higher gamma interbrain synchrony in the positive conditions than in the negative conditions. Conclusion Interbrain synchrony may represent an underlying neural mechanism of the parent-adolescent emotional bonding, which is the core of family cohesion.

The specificity, situational modulations, and behavioral correlates of parent-child neural synchrony

“…In contrast, the INS in negative condition was stronger than that in positive condition for low social anxiety adolescents ( Deng et al, 2022a ). The dyads from low family cohesion showed comparable INS for positive and negative conditions ( Deng et al, 2022b ). Overall, researchers have already realized that in non-interactive situations, the valence of the situation affects parent-child INS.…”

“…Whereas in a later study, Azhari et al (2020) distinguished the valence of the video stimuli but did not report the difference of the mother-child INS between positive and negative situations. With adolescents as participants (10–14 years), Deng et al, 2022a , b asked parent-adolescent dyads to watch emotional pictures or videos during EEG recording. The parent-adolescent INS (PLV in gamma band) was stronger during watching positive stimuli than negative stimuli for high social anxiety adolescents and their parents ( Deng et al, 2022a ) and for the dyads from high family cohesion (i.e., emotion, support, helpfulness, and caring among family members) ( Deng et al, 2022b ).…”

“…With adolescents as participants (10–14 years), Deng et al, 2022a , b asked parent-adolescent dyads to watch emotional pictures or videos during EEG recording. The parent-adolescent INS (PLV in gamma band) was stronger during watching positive stimuli than negative stimuli for high social anxiety adolescents and their parents ( Deng et al, 2022a ) and for the dyads from high family cohesion (i.e., emotion, support, helpfulness, and caring among family members) ( Deng et al, 2022b ). In contrast, the INS in negative condition was stronger than that in positive condition for low social anxiety adolescents ( Deng et al, 2022a ).…”

“…Existing studies have investigated the parent-child INS using fNIRS ( Reindl et al, 2018 ; Azhari et al, 2019 , 2020 , 2021 ; Miller et al, 2019 ; Nguyen et al, 2020a , b , 2021b ; Quiñones-Camacho et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Zhao et al, 2021 ), MEG ( Levy et al, 2017 ), Electroencephalograph (EEG) ( Endevelt-Shapira et al, 2021 ; Deng et al, 2022a , b ; Zivan et al, 2022 ), and Optical topography (OT) ( Bembich et al, 2022 ) to record the brain activities of parent-child dyads simultaneously. The simplest way to calculate the INS is to compute the cross-correlation of the time-series signals between each dyad ( Azhari et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Quiñones-Camacho et al, 2020 ; Zivan et al, 2022 ).…”

“…For MEG or EEG indices, the INS can be calculated as the inter-brain weighted phase lag index (wPLI) reflecting the phase coupling of inter-brain activities from the dyad ( Levy et al, 2017 ; Endevelt-Shapira et al, 2021 ). In addition, the phase-locking-value (PLV) index measuring whether the EEG signals from the two interacting individuals are phase locked across time was also used as the INS index ( Deng et al, 2022a , b ). Further, the INS can be defined as time-aligned or time-lagged neural synchronization.…”