Conference Agenda

Assessments of the neurophysiological correlates of internal working models (IWMs) during social interactions provide insights into aspects of their functioning in real-time that may not be readily accessible via self-reports or behavioral measures. In this presentation, we will focus on two studies embedded within a large-scale project on maltreatment which collected physiological data from two modalities (Study 1: Cardiac Slowing via ECG; Study 2: Neural activation via fMRI) using the Cyberball paradigm that exposes participants to inclusion and exclusion situations. Attachment was measured using two narrative measures, one conducted 5-7 years prior to the physiological assessment (Story-Stems) and one conducted concurrent to the physiological assessment (Friends and Family Interview). Participants were adolescents and young adults, aged 11-24 years with and without maltreatment histories. Preliminary results suggested that representations primarily exert influence on physiological correlates of expectations (cardiac slowing) in the presence of a certain level of fit between a new encounter and an attachment figure, especially among maltreated youth (Study 1). Moreover, higher levels of attachment security in the FFI predicted greater activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during social exclusion within maltreated vs. nonmaltreated youth, indicating a mechanism for more functional emotion regulation and resilience under social distress as a function of attachment security.

The transition to motherhood is a time of neural plasticity in which the brain is expected to undergo change to support the formation of attachment bonds (Swain et al., 2007). Event-related potentials (ERPs) from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings allow evaluation of neural responding to infant facial expressions, including how parents encode (N170) and allocate attention (P300) to infant faces. Although mothers’ ERP responses to infant expressions are associated with caregiving behavior (Patrick et al., 2025), it remains unknown whether neurocognitive processing of infant cues over the transition to motherhood contributes to infant attachment. We examined longitudinal change in women’s ERPs (N170, P300) to infant faces from pregnancy to four months postpartum in relation to infant-mother attachment quality at 12 months.

In the third trimester of pregnancy and 4-months postpartum, women (N = 201) completed an infant emotion categorization task identifying infant facial expressions (happy, neutral, or distressed) while electrophysiologically monitored. At 12 months postpartum, infant attachment was evaluated via Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth et al., 1978).

A repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted with time (pregnancy, 4 months postpartum), emotion (distress, neutral, happy), and attachment status predicting ERP amplitude. Preliminary findings revealed a significant time x emotion x attachment status interaction. Infants classified as avoidant had mothers who exhibited smaller increases in P300 amplitude to infant distress expressions from pregnancy to postpartum (F=5.16, p<.05), whereas infants classified as resistant had mothers who exhibited decreases in P300 amplitude to infant happy expressions (F=3.80, p=.05). Additional analyses will be conducted to examine the N170 amplitude.

This project provides the first evidence that longitudinal changes in maternal brain responding to infant emotions predict infant attachment quality. Findings demonstrate that dampened neural responding to specific infant emotional expressions over the transition to motherhood serve as distinctive diatheses for avoidant versus resistant attachment.

Background: Postpartum depression affects an estimated 12–15% of mothers globally (1) and is associated with reduced mother-infant interaction quality and altered child development (2). Evidence from electroencephalogram (EEG) studies link rightfrontal asymmetry, a marker associated with depression, to children exposed to maternal depression (3). The VIDKIDS program is a nursedelivered videofeedback intervention designed to enhance ‘serve and return’ interactions by improving depressed mothers’ sensitivity and responsiveness to infant cues. Positive mother-infant interactions have been shown to mitigate frontal asymmetry in those exposed to maternal depression (4). MRIbased investigations of how parenting interventions may shape developing neural circuits remain limited.

Methods: The VIDKIDS randomized control trial enrolled 140 mother–infant dyads (75 intervention). Interaction quality (ParentChild Interaction Teaching Scale), maternal depressive symptoms (EPDS), and child developmental outcomes (ASQ3) were assessed at baseline, immediately postintervention, and at a twomonth followup.

A neuroimaging subset included 48 children (31 intervention, 30 male, mean age = 4.9 years). Restingstate functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data will be preprocessed using FSL software. The frontal-parietal functional network will be uncovered using independent component analysis and nodes will serve as seeds for diffusion tractography.

Results: Significantly higher mother-child interaction scores were observed in the intervention group compared to the control, both immediately post-test and 2 months post intervention (5). Images from 36 (23 intervention, 23 male, mean age = 5.3 years) participants were successfully collected. We will examine group differences in the functional and structural connectivity and lateralization of the frontalparietal network as well as correlations with ASQ-3 scores.

Conclusion: VIDKIDS improves early mother–infant interaction quality among mothers experiencing postpartum depression. We will integrate behavioral outcomes of mothers and children with functional and diffusionbased MRI findings to explore how early interventions influence the organization and development of child brain network connectivity.

The preschool years are crucial for preparing children for school with the parent–child attachment relationship providing a foundational context for the acquisition of necessary skills for this transition. Advances in social neuroscience suggest that empirical assessments of interpersonal brain-to-brain processes provide a valuable index of interaction quality, with prior research linking interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) to individual differences in caregiving behavior and attachment.

We examined whether INS during a parent-guided learning task is associated with observed parental behavior and child attachment representations. In total, 93 parents (51 fathers) and their children (age 5-6 years, 48 girls) engaged in a structured interaction where parents were instructed to guide their child through a series of cognitive age-appropriate tasks. INS in frontal and temporal regions was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning. The quality of parental behavior was assessed using NICHD sensitivity scales (i.e., supportive presence, respect for autonomy, quality of assistance, stimulation of cognitive development, hostility) based on video-coded interactions (Figure 1). Child attachment security as indexed by narrative coherence was ascertained by a Picture Story Stem Battery.

Our analyses revealed that both higher respect for autonomy and higher quality of assistance were positively associated with increased INS across all regions in parent–child dyads, whereas hostility was associated with reduced INS in temporo-parietal regions, particularly in mother–child dyads. Child attachment security was positively associated with higher INS in right temporo-parietal regions. Interestingly, children solved more tasks in dyads showing higher INS in the left dlPFC children.

Our findings indicate that effective learning is supported by neural processes linked to parental behavior and child attachment. In this context, INS constitutes a neurobiological correlate of dyadic attunement within the parent–child attachment relationship, indexing both the quality of interaction during critical developmental transitions and the functional efficacy of these interactions in supporting learning processes.