Social Behavior as a Transdiagnostic Marker of Resilience

R150S mutation in the human oxytocin receptor: Gain-of-function effects and implication in autism spectrum disorder

This study investigates the rs547238576 (R150S) missense variant in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene, previously observed through screening of rare variants in Japanese individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Contrary to the anticipated loss-of-function, R150S exhibits gain-of-function effects, enhancing oxytocin (OXT) sensitivity, ligand-binding affinity, and OXT-induced Ca2+ mobilization in vitro. This suggests R150S may alter OXT signaling, potentially contributing to the excitatory/inhibitory imbalance seen in ASD and other psychiatric disorders. Our findings underscore the significance of genetic variations in OXTR on functional activity and highlight the necessity for population-specific genetic study and in vitro analysis to elucidate genetic susceptibilities to neuropsychiatric conditions.

Maternal mind-mindedness and infant oxytocin are interrelated and negatively associated with postnatal depression

Previous studies show that maternal mind-mindedness positively impacts children's social development. In the current studies, we examine the relation between mind-mindedness during parent-child interaction, oxytocin (OT), and postnatal depression in a sample of mothers (N = 62, ages 23-44) and their infant (ages 3-9 months). In Study 1, infant salivary OT was positively correlated with mothers' appropriate mind-related comments, and negatively correlated (at trend level) with maternal depression scores. Mothers experiencing symptoms of depression used fewer appropriate mind-related comments than controls. Study 2 was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, experimental study, in which the same women who participated in Study 1 were administered nasal OT. This did not significantly influence levels of mind-mindedness. Study 2 warrants a larger trial to investigate the effect of OT on mind-mindedness further. Study 1 is the first to demonstrate an association between maternal mind-mindedness and variation in children's OT levels. Since both OT and mind-mindedness have been repeatedly implicated in processes of maternal-infant attachment, this association highlights the centrality of mothers' caregiving representations in facilitating the parent-child relationship and children's early development.

Sensitive infant care tunes a frontotemporal interbrain network in adolescence

Caregiving plays a critical role in children's cognitive, emotional, and psychological well-being. In the current longitudinal study, we investigated the enduring effects of early maternal behavior on processes of interbrain synchrony in adolescence. Mother-infant naturalistic interactions were filmed when infants were 3-4 months old and interactions were coded for maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness with the Coding Interactive Behavior Manual. In early adolescence (Mean = 12.30, SD = 1.25), mother-adolescent interbrain synchrony was measured using hyperscanning EEG during a naturalistic interaction of positive valence. Guided by previous hyperscanning studies, we focused on interbrain connections within the right frontotemporal interbrain network. Results indicate that maternal sensitivity in early infancy was longitudinally associated with neural synchrony in the right interbrain frontotemporal network. Post-hoc comparisons highlighted enhancement of mother-adolescent frontal-frontal connectivity, a connection that has been implicated in parent-child social communication. In contrast, maternal intrusiveness in infancy was linked with attenuation of interbrain synchrony in the right interbrain frontotemporal network. Sensitivity and intrusiveness are key maternal social orientations that have shown to be individually stable in the mother-child relationship from infancy to adulthood and foreshadow children's positive and negative social-emotional outcomes, respectively. Our findings are the first to demonstrate that these two maternal orientations play a role in enhancing or attenuating the child's interbrain frontotemporal network, which sustains social communication and affiliation. Results suggest that the reported long-term impact of maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness may relate, in part, to its effects on tuning the child's brain to sociality.

Severe PTSD is marked by reduced oxytocin and elevated vasopressin

Neuroendocrine analyses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have generally focused on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis alterations. In the present analyses, we examine two additional neuroendocrine factors that have been previously implicated in biological stress responses: oxytocin (OT) and arginine vasopressin (AVP). Here we examined basal neuropeptide status in military veterans clinically diagnosed with PTSD (n = 29) and in two non-traumatized comparison groups with previous stress exposure (n = 11 SWAT trainees and n = 21 ultramarathon runners). PTSD patients showed low levels of plasma OT and high levels of AVP. The ratio of AVP/OT robustly related to PTSD status, and emerged as a statistically plausible mediator of relationships between the number of personal traumatic experiences and subsequent PTSD symptom burden. Over the course of behavioral therapy for PTSD, measures of OT showed a significant but modest normalization. Plasma cortisol levels were not statistically different among the three groups. This study suggests that AVP/OT ratios may represent a neuroendocrine predictor of severe PTSD, as well as a potential treatment response biomarker.

An umbrella review of the characteristics of resiliency-enhancing interventions for children and youth with disabilities

PURPOSE

The current umbrella review aimed to identify key intervention characteristics that have been demonstrated to enhance resiliency in children and youth with disabilities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To identify these key ingredients, using JBI guidelines, we conducted comprehensive searches in the fall of 2022 and searches were re-run in June 2023. Using the PICO format, we searched for peer-reviewed review articles that included children and youth with disabilities (6 to 19 years of age), the intervention targeted resiliency, the context was home, school, or community, and the outcome was resiliency enhancement.

RESULTS

The initial searches produced 1031 articles, of which 4 met our inclusion criteria. These articles collectively had reviewed a total of 247 articles representing approximately 2756 participants. We found a wide range of disabilities represented in the studies and many activities that are included in the existing REIs. Our findings identified engagement, self-regulatory processes, capacity building, positive social connectedness, and a customized intervention approach as evidence-based resiliency enhancing features. We propose a model consolidating these findings into a multi-dimensional resiliency process which may help explain successful adaptation.

CONCLUSION

Our proposed model may be helpful in delineating entry points that different REIs have used to generate positive change.

Mother-infant social and language interactions at 3 months are associated with infants' productive language development in the third year of life

Previous studies underscore the importance of social interactions for child language development-particularly interactions characterized by maternal sensitivity, infant-directed speech (IDS), and conversational turn-taking (CT) in one-on-one contexts. Although infants engage in such interactions from the third month after birth, the prospective link between speech input and maternal sensitivity in the first half year of life and later language development has been understudied. We hypothesized that social interactions embodying maternal sensitivity, IDS and CTs in the first 3 months of life, are significantly associated with later language development and tested this using a longitudinal design. Using a sample of 40 3-month-old infants, we assessed maternal sensitivity during a structured mother-infant one-on-one (1:1) interaction based on a well-validated scoring system (the Coding Interactive Behavior system). Language input (IDS, CT) was assessed during naturally occurring interactions at home using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system. Language outcome measures were obtained from 18 to 30 months of age using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory. Three novel findings emerged. First, maternal sensitivity at 3 months was significantly associated with infants' productive language scores at 18, 21, 24, 27, and 30 months of age. Second, LENA-recorded IDS during mother-infant 1:1 interaction in the home environment at 3 months of age was positively correlated with productive language scores at 24, 27, and 30 months of age. Third, mother-infant CTs during 1:1 interaction was significantly associated with infants' productive language scores at 27 and 30 months of age. We propose that infants' social attention to speech during this early period-enhanced by sensitive maternal one-on-one interactions and IDS-are potent factors in advancing language development.

Parent-child interactive behavior in a German sample of parents with and without a mental illness: model replication and adaption of the Coding Interactive Behavior system

Studies using observational measures often fail to meet statistical standards for both reliability and validity. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) System within a German sample of parent-child dyads. The sample consisted of 149 parents with and without a mental illness and their children [n experimental group (EG) = 75, n control group (CG) = 74] who participated in the larger Children of Mentally Ill Parents at Risk Evaluation (COMPARE) study. The age of the children ranged from 3 to 12 years (M = 7.99, SD = 2.5). Exploratory factor analysis supported a five-factor model of the CIB with items describing 1) parental sensitivity/reciprocity, 2) parental intrusiveness, 3) child withdrawal, 4) child involvement, and 5) parent limit setting/child compliance. Compared to international samples, the model was reduced by two independent dyadic factors. Testing for predictive validity identified seven items with predictive power to differentiate parental group membership. The CIB factors did not seem to be sufficiently sensitive to illustrate differences in interaction within a sample of parents with various mental illnesses. To apply the CIB to the described sample or similar ones in the future, additional measurement instruments may be necessary.

Implicit relational aspects of the therapeutic relationship in psychoanalytic treatments: an examination of linguistic style entrainment over time

OBJECTIVE

In an attempt to operationalize an implicit aspect of the therapeutic relationship, this study assesses reciprocal linguistic style entrainment (rLSM) between the patient and therapist. rLSM is defined as the dynamic adjustment of function word usage to synchronize or to be in rhythm with another person as they change over time.

METHOD

In this exploratory study, levels of rLSM per talk turn were analyzed for 540 sessions of 27 long-term psychoanalytic treatments in relation to treatment outcomes.

RESULTS

Within sessions, rLSM appeared to decrease by the end of sessions and followed a negative linear trajectory, βlinear = -0.0002, SE < .001, t = -13.04, p < .001. Between sessions, rLSM showed significant variability such that neither a linear, nor a quadratic, nor a cubic trend line fit the session-by-session change over treatment. On average, therapist talk turns had significantly lower rLSM than patient talk turns, while accounting for the nested nature of the data using multilevel models βSpeakerT = -0.033, SE = 0.009, t = -3.65, p < .001. Levels of rLSM did not relate to treatment outcome.

CONCLUSION

Most of the rLSM variance was at the within-patient and within-session level. rLSM was no indicator of psychoanalytic treatment outcomes.

Emergence and evolution of developmental resilience science over half a century

This reflection on the history and future of developmental resilience science (DRS) highlights its co-emergence with developmental psychopathology (DP), as well as the roles of this journal and its founding editor, Dante Cicchetti, in the evolution of these intertwined domains of scholarship. A remarkable constellation of scholars at the University of Minnesota shaped the course of both conceptual frameworks and their dissemination. I describe fundamental assumptions common to DP and DRS frameworks that reflect their common roots and the pervasive influence of systems theory on developmental science. I describe four waves of DRS and key principles of DRS at the present time. In conclusion, I consider the possibility that a fifth wave of DRS is emerging with a focus on understanding patterns of multisystem, multilevel processes of resilience and their implications for interventions in the context of interacting, interdependent, and complex adaptive systems. I close this commentary with questions for future research and a hopeful outlook on the future of human resilience.

Breast milk oxytocin and s-IgA modulate infant biomarkers and social engagement; The role of maternal anxiety

Breastfeeding has long been known to improve infants' health and mental development and to enhance the mother-infant bond, but much less research focused on the biological composition of breast milk and its associations with the infant's biomarkers and social development. In this exploratory study, we measured oxytocin (OT) and secretory immunoglobulin-A (s-IgA), the most abundant antibody in breast milk, and evaluated their associations with the same biomarkers in infant saliva and, consequently, with infant social engagement behavior. Fifty-five mother-infant dyads were home-visit and OT and s-IgA were assessed from breast milk and from infant saliva before and after a free-play interaction. Infant social behavior was coded offline using the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) and maternal anxiety self-reported. A path model revealed that mother's breast milk s-IgA impacted child social engagement via its links with child OT. In parallel, maternal breast milk OT was linked with infant social behavior through its association with the infant's immunity. This path was moderated by maternal anxiety; only in cases of high anxiety breast milk OT was positively connected to infant s-IgA. Our study, the first to measure OT and s-IgA in both breast milk and infant saliva in relation to observed social behavior, underscores the need for much further research on the dynamic interplay between breast milk composition, infant biomarkers, maternal mental health, and infant social outcomes. Results may suggest that biological systems in breast milk integrate to prepare infants to function in their social ecology through bio-behavioral feedback loops that signal the degree of stress in the environment.

Brain Similarity as a Protective Factor in the Longitudinal Pathway Linking Household Chaos, Parenting, and Substance Use

BACKGROUND

Socioecological factors such as family environment and parenting behaviors contribute to the development of substance use. While biobehavioral synchrony has been suggested as the foundation for resilience that can modulate environmental effects on development, the role of brain similarity that attenuates deleterious effects of environmental contexts has not been clearly understood. We tested whether parent-adolescent neural similarity-the level of pattern similarity between parent-adolescent functional brain connectivity representing the level of attunement within each dyad-moderates the longitudinal pathways in which household chaos (a stressor) predicts adolescent substance use directly and indirectly via parental monitoring.

METHODS

In a sample of 70 parent-adolescent dyads, similarity in resting-state brain activity was identified using multipattern connectivity similarity estimation. Adolescents and parents reported on household chaos and parental monitoring, and adolescent substance use was assessed at a 1-year follow-up.

RESULTS

The moderated mediation model indicated that for adolescents with low neural similarity, but not high neural similarity, greater household chaos predicted higher substance use over time directly and indirectly via lower parental monitoring. Our data also indicated differential susceptibility in the overall association between household chaos and substance use: Adolescents with low neural similarity exhibited high substance use under high household chaos but low substance use under low household chaos.

CONCLUSIONS

Neural similarity acts as a protective factor such that the detrimental effects of suboptimal family environment and parenting behaviors on the development of adolescent health risk behaviors may be attenuated by neural similarity within parent-adolescent bonds.

Generation WhatsApp: inter-brain synchrony during face-to-face and texting communication

Texting has become one of the most prevalent ways to interact socially, particularly among youth; however, the effects of text messaging on social brain functioning are unknown. Guided by the biobehavioral synchrony frame, this pre-registered study utilized hyperscanning EEG to evaluate interbrain synchrony during face-to-face versus texting interactions. Participants included 65 mother-adolescent dyads observed during face-to-face conversation compared to texting from different rooms. Results indicate that both face-to-face and texting communication elicit significant neural synchrony compared to surrogate data, demonstrating for the first time brain-to-brain synchrony during texting. Direct comparison between the two interactions highlighted 8 fronto-temporal interbrain links that were significantly stronger in the face-to-face interaction compared to texting. Our findings suggest that partners co-create a fronto-temporal network of inter-brain connections during live social exchanges. The degree of improvement in the partners' right-frontal-right-frontal connectivity from texting to the live social interaction correlated with greater behavioral synchrony, suggesting that this well-researched neural connection may be specific to face-to-face communication. Our findings suggest that while technology-based communication allows humans to synchronize from afar, face-to-face interactions remain the superior mode of communication for interpersonal connection. We conclude by discussing the potential benefits and drawbacks of the pervasive use of texting, particularly among youth.

Who makes a better university adjustment wingman: Parents or friends?

The first year of university is one of the most difficult times in a student's life due to numerous changes that occur. This cross-sectional study explores the concept of parental and peer attachment, which has been researched for its ability to predict students' success in higher education. Yet, less research has investigated the mechanisms underpinning the relationship between attachment and university adjustment among first-year students. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of parent and peer attachment on first-year university students, and understand how these attachments can facilitate university adjustment through identity exploration. This investigation is underpinned by Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment theory and Arnett's emerging adulthood theory. Data were collected from 568 first-year students at a public university in Sabah, Malaysia, via adapted questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was employed using SmartPLS Software 3.0 to analyse the data. The study found that identity exploration mediates the relationship between parental trust, peer communication, and university adjustment. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for professionals working with emerging adult clients, especially those in higher education institutions, aiming to enhance the adjustment level among first-year students.

Father contribution to human resilience

Fathers have been an important source of child endurance and prosperity since the dawn of civilization, promoting adaptation to social rules, defining cultural meaning systems, teaching daily living skills, and providing the material background against which children developed; still, the recent reformulation in the role of the father requires theory-building. Paternal caregiving is rare in mammals, occurring in 3-5% of species, expresses in multiple formats, and involves flexible neurobiological accommodations to ecological conditions and active caregiving. Here, we discuss father contribution to resilience across development. Our model proposes three tenets of resilience - plasticity, sociality, and meaning - and discussion focuses on father-specific contributions to each tenet at different developmental stages; newborn, infant, preschooler, child, and adolescent. Father's style of high arousal, energetic physicality, guided participation in daily skills, joint adventure, and conflict resolution promotes children's flexible approach and social competence within intimate bonds and social groups. By expanding children's interests, sharpening cognitions, tuning affect regulation, encouraging exploration, and accompanying the search for identity, fathers support the sense of meaning, enhancing the human-specific dimension of resilience. We end by highlighting pitfalls to paternal contribution, including absence, abuse, rigidity, expectations, and gender typing, and the need to formulate novel theories to accommodate the "involved dad."

Attachment Reminders Trigger Widespread Synchrony across Multiple Brains

Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural and behavioral response in human adults, and such massive allocation of resources attests to the evolutionary significance of the primary attachment. Here, we examined whether attachment reminders also trigger cross-brain concordance and generate greater neural uniformity, as indicated by intersubject correlation. Human mothers were imaged twice in oxytocin/placebo administration design, and stimuli included four ecological videos of a standard unfamiliar mother and infant: two infant/mother alone (Alone) and two mother-infant dyadic contexts (Social). Theory-driven analysis measured cross-brain synchrony in preregistered nodes of the parental caregiving network (PCN), which integrates subcortical structures underpinning mammalian mothering with cortical areas implicated in simulation, mentalization, and emotion regulation, and data-driven analysis assessed brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Results demonstrated widespread cross-brain synchrony in both the PCN and across the neuroaxis, from primary sensory/somatosensory areas, through insular-cingulate regions, to temporal and prefrontal cortices. The Social context yielded significantly more cross-brain concordance, with PCNs striatum, parahippocampal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, ACC, and PFC displaying cross-brain synchrony only to mother-infant social cues. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in mother-infant social synchrony, ranging from episodes of low synchrony to tightly coordinated positive bouts, were tracked online by cross-brain concordance in the preregistered ACC. Findings indicate that social attachment stimuli, representing evolutionary-salient universal cues that require no verbal narrative, trigger substantial interbrain concordance and suggest that the mother-infant bond, an icon standing at the heart of human civilization, may function to glue brains into a unified experience and bind humans into social groups.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Infant stimuli elicit widespread neural response in human adults, attesting to their evolutionary significance, but do they also trigger cross-brain concordance and induce neural uniformity among perceivers? We measured cross-brain synchrony to ecological mother-infant videos. We used theory-driven analysis, measuring cross-brain concordance in the parenting network, and data-driven analysis, assessing brain-wide concordance using whole-brain parcellation. Attachment cues triggered widespread cross-brain concordance in both the parenting network and across the neuroaxis. Moment-by-moment fluctuations in behavioral synchrony were tracked online by cross-brain variability in ACC. Attachment reminders bind humans' brains into a unitary experience and stimuli characterized by social synchrony enhance neural similarity among participants, describing one mechanism by which attachment bonds provide the neural template for the consolidation of social groups.

Continuity of psychopathology v. resilience across the transition to adolescence: role of hair cortisol and sensitive caregiving

BACKGROUND

The transition to adolescence implicates heightened vulnerability alongside increased opportunities for resilience. Contexts of early life stress (ELS) exacerbate risk; still, little research addressed biobehavioral mediators of risk and resilience across the adolescent transition following ELS. Utilizing a unique cohort, we tested biosocial moderators of chronicity in adolescents' internalizing disorders v. resilience.

METHOD

Families exposed to chronic war-related trauma, v. controls, were followed. We utilized data from three time-points framing the adolescent transition: late childhood (N = 177, Mage = 9.3 years ± 1.41), early adolescence (N = 111, Mage = 11 0.66 years ± 1.23), and late adolescence (N = 138, Mage = 15.65 years ± 1.31). In late childhood and late adolescence children's internalizing disorders were diagnosed. At early adolescence maternal and child's hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), maternal sensitivity, and mothers' post-traumatic symptoms evaluated.

RESULTS

War-exposed children exhibited more internalizing disorders of chronic trajectory and mothers were less sensitive and more symptomatic. Three pathways elucidated the continuity of psychopathology: (a) maternal sensitivity moderated the risk of chronic psychopathology, (b) maternal post-traumatic symptoms mediated continuity of risk, (c) trauma exposure moderated the association between child internalizing disorders at late childhood and maternal HCC, which linked with child HCC. Child HCC linked with maternal post-traumatic symptoms, which were associated with child disorders in late adolescence.

CONCLUSION

Results demonstrate the complex interplay of maternal and child's biosocial factors as mediators and moderators of risk chronicity across the adolescent transition following trauma. Findings are first to utilize maternal and child's HCC as biomarkers of chronic stress v. resilience during adolescence, a period of neural reorganization and personal growth that shapes the individual's lifetime adaptation.

Developmental Cascades Link Maternal-Newborn Skin-to-Skin Contact with Young Adults' Psychological Symptoms, Oxytocin, and Immunity; Charting Mechanisms of Developmental Continuity from Birth to Adulthood

Premature birth disrupts the continuity of maternal-newborn bodily contact, which underpins the development of physiological and behavioral support systems. Utilizing a unique cohort of mother-preterm dyads who received skin-to-skin contact (Kangaroo Care, KC) versus controls, and following them to adulthood, we examined how a touch-based neonatal intervention impacts three adult outcomes; anxiety/depressive symptoms, oxytocin, and secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), a biomarker of the immune system. Consistent with dynamic systems' theory, we found that links from KC to adult outcomes were indirect, mediated by its effects on maternal mood, child attention and executive functions, and mother-child synchrony across development. These improvements shaped adult outcomes via three mechanisms; (a) "sensitive periods", where the infancy improvement directly links with an outcome, for instance, infant attention linked with higher oxytocin and lower s-IgA; (b) "step-by-step continuity", where the infancy improvement triggers iterative changes across development, gradually shaping an outcome; for instance, mother-infant synchrony was stable across development and predicted lower anxiety/depressive symptoms; and (c) "inclusive mutual-influences", describing cross-time associations between maternal, child, and dyadic factors; for instance, from maternal mood to child executive functions and back. Findings highlight the long-term impact of a birth intervention across development and provide valuable insights on the mechanisms of "developmental continuity", among the key topics in developmental research.

The neurobiology of hatred: Tools of Dialogue© intervention for youth reared amidst intractable conflict impacts brain, behaviour, and peacebuilding attitudes

Myths, drama, and sacred texts have warned against the fragile nature of human love; the closer the affiliative bond, the quicker it can turn into hatred, suggesting similarities in the neurobiological underpinnings of love and hatred. Here, I offer a theoretical account on the neurobiology of hatred based on our model on the biology of human attachments and its three foundations; the oxytocin system, the "affiliative brain", comprising the neural network sustaining attachment, and biobehavioural synchrony, the process by which humans create a coupled biology through coordinated action. These systems mature in mammals in the context of the mother-infant bond and then transfer to support life within social groups. During this transition, they partition to support affiliation and solidarity to one's group and fear and hatred towards out-group based on minor variations in social behaviour. I present the Tools of Dialogue© intervention for outgroup members based on social synchrony. Applied to Israeli and Palestinian youth and implementing RCT, we measured social behaviour, attitudes, hormones, and social brain response before and after the 8-session intervention. Youth receiving the intervention increased reciprocity and reduced hostile behaviour towards outgroup, attenuated the neural marker of prejudice and increased neural empathic response, reduced cortisol and elevated oxytocin, and adapted attitudes of compromise. These neural changes predicted peacebuilding support 7 years later, when young adults can engage in civil responsibilities. Our intervention, the first to show long-term effects of inter-group intervention on brain and behaviour, demonstrates how social synchrony can tilt the neurobiology of hatred towards the pole of affiliation.

Facilitating dyadic synchrony in psychotherapy sessions: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: This paper highlights the facilitation of dyadic synchrony as a core psychotherapist skill that occurs at the non-verbal level and underlies many other therapeutic methods. We define dyadic synchrony, differentiate it from similar constructs, and provide an excerpt illustrating dyadic synchrony in a psychotherapy session. Method: We then present a systematic review of 17 studies that have examined the associations between dyadic synchrony and psychotherapy outcomes. We also conduct a meta-analysis of 8 studies that examined whether there is more synchrony between clients and therapists than would be expected by chance. Results: Weighted box score analysis revealed that the overall association of synchrony and proximal as well as distal outcomes was neutral to mildly positive. The results of the meta-analysis indicated that real client-therapist dyad pairs exhibited synchronized behavioral patterns to a much greater extent than a sample of randomly paired people who did not actually speak. Conclusion: Our discussion revolves around how synchrony can be facilitated in a beneficial way, as well as situations in which it may not be beneficial. We conclude with training implications and therapeutic practices.

Mother-Infant Brain-to-Brain Synchrony Patterns Reflect Caregiving Profiles

Biobehavioral synchrony, the coordination of physiological and behavioral signals between mother and infant during social contact, tunes the child's brain to the social world. Probing this mechanism from a two-brain perspective, we examine the associations between patterns of mother-infant inter-brain synchrony and the two well-studied maternal behavioral orientations-sensitivity and intrusiveness-which have repeatedly been shown to predict positive and negative socio-emotional outcomes, respectively. Using dual-electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, we measure inter-brain connectivity between 60 mothers and their 5- to 12-month-old infants during face-to-face interaction. Thirty inter-brain connections show significantly higher correlations during the real mother-infant face-to-face interaction compared to surrogate data. Brain-behavior correlations indicate that higher maternal sensitivity linked with greater mother-infant neural synchrony, whereas higher maternal intrusiveness is associated with lower inter-brain coordination. Post hoc analysis reveals that the mother-right-frontal-infant-left-temporal connection is particularly sensitive to the mother's sensitive style, while the mother-left-frontal-infant-right-temporal connection indexes the intrusive style. Our results support the perspective that inter-brain synchrony is a mechanism by which mature brains externally regulate immature brains to social living and suggest that one pathway by which sensitivity and intrusiveness exert their long-term effect may relate to the provision of coordinated inputs to the social brain during its sensitive period of maturation.

Technologically-assisted communication attenuates inter-brain synchrony

The transition to technologically-assisted communication has permeated all facets of human social life; yet, its impact on the social brain is still unknown and the effects may be particularly intense during periods of developmental transitions. Applying a two-brain perspective, the current preregistered study utilized hyperscanning EEG to measure brain-to-brain synchrony in 62 mother-child pairs at the transition to adolescence (child age; M = 12.26, range 10-14) during live face-to-face interaction versus technologically-assisted remote communication. The live interaction elicited 9 significant cross-brain links between densely inter-connected frontal and temporal areas in the beta range [14-30 Hz]. Mother's right frontal region connected with the child's right and left frontal, temporal, and central regions, suggesting its regulatory role in organizing the two-brain dynamics. In contrast, the remote interaction elicited only 1 significant cross-brain-cross-hemisphere link, attenuating the robust right-to-right-brain connectivity during live social moments that communicates socio-affective signals. Furthermore, while the level of social behavior was comparable between the two interactions, brain-behavior associations emerged only during the live exchange. Mother-child right temporal-temporal synchrony linked with moments of shared gaze and the degree of child engagement and empathic behavior correlated with right frontal-frontal synchrony. Our findings indicate that human co-presence is underpinned by specific neurobiological processes that should be studied in depth. Much further research is needed to tease apart whether the "Zoom fatigue" experienced during technological communication may stem, in part, from overload on more limited inter-brain connections and to address the potential cost of social technology for brain maturation, particularly among youth.

Can Translational Social Neuroscience Research Offer Insights to Mitigate Structural Racism in the United States?

Social isolation and conflict due to structural racism may result in human suffering and loneliness across the life span. Given the rising prevalence of these problems in the United States, combined with disruptions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the neurobiology of affiliative behaviors may offer practical solutions to the pressing challenges associated with structural racism. Controlled experiments across species demonstrate that social connections are critical to survival, although strengthening individual resilience is insufficient to address the magnitude and impact of structural racism. In contrast, the multilevel construct of social resilience, defined by the power of groups to cultivate, engage in, and sustain positive relationships that endure and recuperate from social adversities, offers unique insights that may have greater impact, reach, and durability than individual-level interventions. Here, we review putative social resilience-enhancing interventions and, when available, their biological mediators, with the hope to stimulate discovery of novel approaches to mitigate structural racism. We first explore the social neuroscience principles underlying psychotherapy and other psychiatric interventions. Then, we explore translational efforts across species to tailor treatments that increase social resilience, with context and cultural sensitivity in mind. Finally, we conclude with some practical future directions for understudied areas that may be essential for progress in biological psychiatry, including ethical ways to increase representation in research and developing social paradigms that inform dynamics toward or away from socially resilient outcomes.

Sex, love and oxytocin: Two metaphors and a molecule

Dozens of studies, most conducted in the last four decades, have implicated oxytocin, as well as vasopressin and their receptors, in processes that mediate selective sociality and the consequences of early experience. Oxytocin is critical for the capacity to experience emotional safety and healthy sexuality. Oxytocin also plays a central role in almost every aspect of physical and mental health, including the coordination of sociality and loving relationships with physiological reactions to challenges across the lifespan. Species, including prairie voles, that share with humans the capacity for selective social bonds have been a particularly rich source of insights into the behavioral importance of peptides. The purpose of this historical review is to describe the discovery of a central role for oxytocin in behavioral interactions associated with love, and in the capacity to use sociality to anticipate and cope with challenges across the lifespan - a process that here is called "sociostasis."

The effect of perinatal interventions on parent anxiety, infant socio-emotional development and parent-infant relationship outcomes: A systematic review

Background

Infants of parents with perinatal anxiety are at elevated likelihood of experiencing disruption in the parent-infant relationship, as well as difficulties with socio-emotional functioning in later development. Interventions delivered in the perinatal period have the potential to protect the early dyadic relationship and support infants' ongoing development and socio-emotional outcomes. This review primarily aimed to examine the efficacy of perinatal interventions on parent anxiety, infant socio-emotional development/temperament, and parent-infant relationship outcomes. Secondarily, the review sought to understand how interventions focused principally on one member of the dyad affected the outcomes of the other, and which intervention components were common to successful interventions.

Method

Five electronic databases as well as manual search procedures were used to identify randomised controlled trials according to a PICO eligibility criteria framework. Risk of bias assessments were undertaken, and a narrative synthesis was conducted. The review was pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021254799).

Results

Twelve studies were analysed in total, including five interventions focused on the adult, and seven interventions focused on the infant, or the infant's relationship with their parent. Interventions incorporating cognitive behavioural strategies for affective disorders showed reductions in parent anxiety (N = 3), and interventions focusing on altering distorted maternal internal representations showed positive change in parent-child dyadic interactions, and infant outcomes (N = 2). Evidence that interventions focused on one partner of the dyad led to improved outcomes for the other partner was limited. However, evidence was of mixed methodological quality.

Conclusions

It is important to integrate both parents and infants into treatment programmes for perinatal anxiety. Implications for clinical practice and future intervention trials are discussed.

Development of cognitive control during adolescence: The integrative effects of family socioeconomic status and parenting behaviors

Cognitive control is of great interest to researchers and practitioners. The concurrent association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and adolescent cognitive control is well-documented. However, little is known about whether and how SES relates to individual differences in the development of adolescent cognitive control. The current four-year longitudinal investigation (N = 167, 13-14 years at Wave 1) used multi-source interference task performance (reaction time in interference correct trials minus neutral correct trials) and corresponding neural activities (blood oxygen level dependent contrast of interference versus neutral conditions) as measures of cognitive control. SES and parenting behaviors (warmth, monitoring) were measured through surveys. We examined direct and indirect effects of earlier SES on the development of cognitive control via parenting behaviors; the moderating effect of parenting also was explored. Results of latent growth modeling (LGM) revealed significant interactive effects between SES and parenting predicting behavioral and neural measures of cognitive control. Lower family SES was associated with poorer cognitive performance when coupled with low parental warmth. In contrast, higher family SES was associated with greater improvement in performance, as well as a higher intercept and steeper decrease in frontoparietal activation over time, when coupled with high parental monitoring. These findings extend prior cross-sectional evidence to show the moderating effect of the parenting environment on the potential effects of SES on developmental changes in adolescent cognitive control.

The interplay of Criterion A of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders, mentalization and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background and aims

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a worsening of mental health levels in some, while others manage to adapt or recover relatively quickly. Transdiagnostic factors such as personality functioning are thought to be involved in determining mental health outcomes. The present study focused on two constructs of personality functioning, Criterion A of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD, DSM-5) and mentalization, as predictors of depressive symptoms and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. A second focus of the study was to examine whether this relationship was mediated by resilience.

Methods

Linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between personality functioning measured by Criterion A (AMPD, DSM-5) and mentalizing abilities as predictors, and depression and life satisfaction as mental health outcomes. To assess the hypothesis that this relationship is mediated by resilience a structural equation modeling approach was conducted. Data from N = 316 individuals from the general population were collected.

Results

Linear regression models revealed highly significant associations between Criterion A/mentalization and both outcome measures. Structural equation models showed a significant partial mediation by resilience of these relationships.

Conclusion

Our results support the hypothesis that mentalizing serves as a protective function by promoting resilience to the impact of stress and threats. Criterion A and mentalization performed similarly as predictors of mental health outcomes, providing empirically overlapping operationalizations of personality functioning. This finding emphasizes the importance of personality functioning in positive and negative mental health outcomes. Furthermore, our results are consistent with a mediating role of resilience.

Possible oxytocin-related biomarkers in anxiety and mood disorders

Anxiety and mood disorders are prevalent, disabling, and frequently difficult to treat. Such disorders are often comorbid and share similar characteristics. For more accurate diagnosis and improved treatment, a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of anxiety and mood disorders is important. Oxytocin, a neuropeptide synthesized in the hypothalamus, affects human psychology and behaviors such as social and affiliative behaviors, fear and emotion processing, and stress regulation. Thus, oxytocin is believed to exert anxiolytic and antidepressant-like effects. This review article provides an overview of clinical studies on relationships between the oxytocin system and anxiety and mood disorders, focusing on oxytocin-related biomarker findings. Biomarkers used in such studies include central and peripheral oxytocin levels, analysis of oxytocin-related genes, and expression levels of oxytocin and oxytocin receptor genes in postmortem brains. Although a growing number of studies support the presence of oxytocinergic effects on anxiety and mood disorders, study results are heterogeneous and inconclusive. Moderating factors such as the characteristics of study populations, including sex, age, context, early life adversity, and attachment styles in patient cohorts, might affect the heterogeneity of the study results. Limitations in existing research such as small sample sizes, large dependence on peripheral sources of oxytocin, and inconsistent results between immunoassay methods complicate the interpretation of existing findings.

Brains in Sync: Practical Guideline for Parent-Infant EEG During Natural Interaction

Parent-infant EEG is a novel hyperscanning paradigm to measure social interaction simultaneously in the brains of parents and infants. The number of studies using parent-infant dual-EEG as a theoretical framework to measure brain-to-brain synchrony during interaction is rapidly growing, while the methodology for measuring synchrony is not yet uniform. While adult dual-EEG methodology is quickly improving, open databases, tutorials, and methodological validations for dual-EEG with infants are largely missing. In this practical guide, we provide a step-by-step manual on how to implement and run parent-infant EEG paradigms in a neurodevelopmental laboratory in naturalistic settings (e.g., free interactions). Next, we highlight insights on the variety of choices that can be made during (pre)processing dual-EEG data, including recommendations on interpersonal neural coupling metrics and interpretations of the results. Moreover, we provide an exemplar dataset of two mother-infant dyads during free interactions ("free play") that may serve as practice material. Instead of providing a critical note, we would like to move the field of parent-infant EEG forward and be transparent about the challenges that come along with the exciting opportunity to study the development of our social brain within the naturalistic context of dual-EEG.

Asymmetric Prefrontal Cortex Activation Associated with Mutual Gaze of Mothers and Children during Shared Play

Mother–child shared play provides rich opportunities for mutual symmetrical interactions that serve to foster bond formation in dyads. Mutual gaze, a symmetrical behaviour that occurs during direct eye contact between two partners, conveys important cues of social engagement, affect and attention. However, it is not known whether the prefrontal cortical areas responsible for higher-order social cognition of mothers and children likewise exhibit neural symmetry; that is, similarity in direction of neural activation in mothers and children. This study used functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning on 22 pairs of mothers and their preschool-aged children as they engaged in a 10-min free-play session together. The play interaction was video recorded and instances of mutual gaze were coded for after the experiment. Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that neural asymmetry occurred during mother–child mutual gaze, where mothers showed a deactivation of prefrontal activity whereas children showed an activation instead. Findings suggest that mothers and children may employ divergent prefrontal mechanisms when engaged in symmetrical behaviours such as mutual gaze. Future studies could ascertain whether the asymmetric nature of a parent–child relationship, or potential neurodevelopmental differences in social processing between adults and children, significantly contribute to this observation.

Personality metatraits predict resilience among family caregivers responsible for a dependent youth's chronic respiratory management

Background

Family caregivers of children and youth with severe neurodisabilities that require chronic respiratory management often report a compromised quality of life. In this cross-sectional study, we used DeYoung’s (Psychol Inq 21(1): 26–33, 2010. 10.1080/10478401003648674) conceptualization of two personality metatraits, Alpha and Beta, to test their theorized role in facilitating resilience among these family caregivers. We expected higher Alpha and Beta would exhibit direct, beneficial effects on caregiver mental and physical health quality of life (QoL), and they would operate through self-reported resilience and coping to exert positive, indirect effects on caregiver QoL.

Methods

Family caregivers of children and youth at an outpatient chronic respiratory management clinic were informed of the study. Of the 68 who consented, 61 provided complete data on measures of personality traits, coping styles, and physical and mental health-related QoL. Factor analytic techniques verified the two personality metatraits, consistent with the DeYoung model. The metatraits were then used as predictor variables in a path model to predict physical and mental health-related QoL. Self-reported resilience and a coping variable were examined as possible mediators of the personality-QoL relationship.

Results

Correlational analyses isolated a coping variable that met criteria as a possible mediator. The path model exhibited good fit to the data. The Alpha metatrait—characterized by emotional stability, self-regulation, perseverance, and intrinsic motivation—was directly predictive of caregiver mental health. The Beta metatrait, reflecting a disposition for adaptive flexibility, responsiveness, and interpersonal initiative, demonstrated significant indirect effects to physical and mental health through its positive association with coping efforts to maintain social support and a sense of self.

Conclusions

Consistent with DeYoung’s conceptualization, higher Alpha and Beta predicted caregiver resilience, albeit through different pathways. The emotional stability, perseverance and emotional regulation associated with Alpha likely accounted for its positive association with caregiver mental health. Beta, in contrast, may operate through their adaptive flexibility, personal resourcefulness and social engagement to augment coping efforts that involve others and support family activities, which, in turn, promote their own physical and mental health. Limitations of the cross-sectional design, and potential theoretical and clinical implications of the personality metatraits and their relation to resilience are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-022-00791-y.

Investigating default mode network connectivity disruption in children of mothers with depression

BACKGROUND

Exposure to maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) bears long-term negative consequences for children's well-being; to date, no research has examined how exposure at different stages of development differentially affects brain functioning.

AIMS

Utilising a unique cohort followed from birth to preadolescence, we examined the effects of early versus later maternal MDD on default mode network (DMN) connectivity.

METHOD

Maternal depression was assessed at birth and ages 6 months, 9 months, 6 years and 10 years, to form three groups: children of mothers with consistent depression from birth to 6 years of age, which resolved by 10 years of age; children of mothers without depression; and children of mothers who were diagnosed with MDD in late childhood. In preadolescence, we used magnetoencephalography and focused on theta rhythms, which characterise the developing brain.

RESULTS

Maternal MDD was associated with disrupted DMN connectivity in an exposure-specific manner. Early maternal MDD decreased child connectivity, presenting a profile typical of early trauma or chronic adversity. In contrast, later maternal MDD was linked with tighter connectivity, a pattern characteristic of adult depression. Aberrant DMN connectivity was predicted by intrusive mothering in infancy and lower mother-child reciprocity and child empathy in late childhood, highlighting the role of deficient caregiving and compromised socio-emotional competencies in DMN dysfunction.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings pinpoint the distinct effects of early versus later maternal MDD on the DMN, a core network sustaining self-related processes. Results emphasise that research on the influence of early adversity on the developing brain should consider the developmental stage in which the adversity occured.

Intranasal oxytocin administration improves mood in new mothers with moderate low mood but not in mothers with elevated symptoms of postnatal depression: A randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide hormone that has anxiolytic and antidepressant effects, and positive effects on social affiliation and behaviour, particularly in parenting and attachment relationships. In women with postnatal depression (PND), each of these are reduced. This study investigated if OT administration reduces low mood in new mothers with PND and across the low mood spectrum.

DESIGN

A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised controlled-trial, within-subjects, cross-over design was conducted.

PARTICIPANTS

Mothers (N = 58) between 3 and 9 months postpartum. Participants were screened for traits of PND on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and assigned into 2 groups: probable PND cases (N = 26, scoring ≥9) and controls (N = 32, scoring ≤9).

METHOD

Participants rated their current mood on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) at Baseline (before nasal administration), Condition 1 (after first OT/Placebo administration) and Condition 2 (after second OT/Placebo administration).

RESULTS

OT administration did not affect mood in women with PND scores above the cut-off point but significantly reduced negative mood in those scoring below the cut-off point. To explore if a subgroup was driving this, we compared participants with mild, moderate and severe scores on the EPDS. OT administration significantly reduced negative mood in women with moderate low mood scores on the EPDS.

LIMITATIONS

PND was assessed by the EPDS, rather than a clinical diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

These results illustrate individual differences in response to OT administration and suggest that OT administration may offer treatment benefit to new mothers who report moderate sub-clinical levels of depression.

The Neural Basis of Human Fatherhood: A Unique Biocultural Perspective on Plasticity of Brain and Behavior

With the growing involvement of fathers in childrearing and the application of neuroscientific tools to research on parenting, there is a need to understand how a father's brain and neurohormonal systems accommodate the transition to parenthood and how such neurobiological changes impact children's mental health, sociality, and family functioning. In this paper, we present a theoretical model on the human father's brain and the neural adaptations that take place when fathers assume an involved role. The neurobiology of fatherhood shows great variability across individuals, societies, and cultures and is shaped to a great extent by bottom-up caregiving experiences and the amount of childrearing responsibilities. Mechanisms of mother-father coparental brain coordination and hormonal correlates of paternal behavior are detailed. Adaptations in the father's brain during pregnancy and across the postpartum year carry long-term implications for children's emotion regulation, stress management, and symptom formation. We propose a new conceptual model of HEALthy Father Brain that describes how a father's brain serves as a source of resilience in the context of family adversity and its capacity to "heal", protect, and foster social brain maturation and functionality in family members via paternal sensitivity, attunement, and support, which, in turn, promote child development and healthy family functioning. Father's brain provides a unique model on neural plasticity as sustained by committed acts of caregiving, thereby affording a novel perspective on the brain basis of human affiliation.

Oxytocin and love: Myths, metaphors and mysteries

Oxytocin is a peptide molecule with a multitude of physiological and behavioral functions. Based on its association with reproduction - including social bonding, sexual behavior, birth and maternal behavior - oxytocin also has been called "the love hormone." This essay specifically examines association and parallels between oxytocin and love. However, many myths and gaps in knowledge remain concerning both. A few of these are described here and we hypothesize that the potential benefits of both love and oxytocin may be better understood in light of interactions with more ancient systems, including specifically vasopressin and the immune system. Oxytocin is anti-inflammatory and is associated with recently evolved, social solutions to a variety of challenges necessary for mammalian survival and reproduction. The shared functions of oxytocin and love have profound implications for health and longevity, including the prevention and treatment of excess inflammation and related disorders, especially those occurring in early life and during periods of chronic threat or disease.

Organization of the social cognition network predicts future depression and interpersonal impairment: a prospective family-based study

Deficits in social cognition and functioning are common in major depressive disorder (MDD). Still, no study into the pathophysiology of MDD has examined the social cognition-related neural pathways through which familial risk for MDD leads to depression and interpersonal impairments. Using resting-state fMRI, we applied a graph theoretical analysis to quantify the influence of nodes within the fronto-temporo-parietal cortical social cognition network in 108 generation 2 and generation 3 offspring at high and low-risk for MDD, defined by the presence or absence, respectively, of moderate to severe MDD in generation 1. New MDD episodes, future depressive symptoms, and interpersonal impairments were tested for associations with social cognition nodal influence, using regression analyses applied in a generalized estimating equations approach. Increased familial risk was associated with reduced nodal influence within the network, and this predicted new depressive episodes, worsening depressive symptomatology, and interpersonal impairments, 5-8 years later. Findings remained significant after controlling for current depressive/anxiety symptoms and current/lifetime MDD and anxiety disorders. Path-analysis models indicate that increased familial risk impacted offspring's brain function in two ways. First, high familial risk was indirectly associated with future depression, both new MDD episodes and symptomatology, via reduced nodal influence of the right posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). Second, high familial risk was indirectly associated with future interpersonal impairments via reduced nodal influence of right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Finally, reduced nodal influence was associated with high familial risk in (1) those who had never had MDD at the time of scanning and (2) a subsample (n = 52) rescanned 8 years later. Together, findings reveal a potential pathway for the intergenerational transmission of vulnerability via the aberrant social cognition network organization and suggest using the connectome of neural network related to social cognition to identify intervention and prevention targets for those particularly at risk.

Neural Representation of the Parent-Child Attachment from Infancy to Adulthood

Attachment theory is built on the assumption of consistency; the mother–infant bond is thought to underpin the life-long representations individuals construct of attachment relationships. Still, consistency in the individual’s neural response to attachment-related stimuli representing his or her entire relational history has not been investigated. Mothers and children were followed across two decades and videotaped in infancy (3–6 months), childhood (9–12 years) and young adulthood (18–24 years). In adulthood, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to videos of own mother–child interactions (Self) vs unfamiliar interactions (Other). Self-stimuli elicited greater activations across preregistered nodes of the human attachment network, including thalamus-to-brainstem, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula and temporal cortex. Critically, self-stimuli were age-invariant in most regions of interest despite large variability in social behavior, and Bayesian analysis showed strong evidence for lack of age-related differences. Psycho–physiological interaction analysis indicated that self-stimuli elicited tighter connectivity between ACC and anterior insula, consolidating an interface associating information from exteroceptive and interceptive sources to sustain attachment representations. Child social engagement behavior was individually stable from infancy to adulthood and linked with greater ACC and insula response to self-stimuli. Findings demonstrate overlap in circuits sustaining parental and child attachment and accord with perspectives on the continuity of attachment across human development.

From mothers to children and back: Bidirectional processes in the cross-generational transmission of anxiety from early childhood to early adolescence

BACKGROUND

Maternal psychopathology and caregiving behavior are linked with child anxiety and these associations may be particularly salient when families face mass trauma together and members influence each other's symptomatology and resilience. Despite the well-known mother-to-child effects, less research addressed the longitudinal bidirectional effects of maternal and child's anxiety symptoms on each other.

METHODS

Mothers and children exposed to chronic war-related trauma from Sderot, Israel, and comparison group were followed at three time-points; Early childhood (T1:N = 232, M_Age  = 2.76 years), late childhood (T3:N = 176, M_Age  = 9.3 years), and early adolescence (T4:N = 110, M_Age  = 11.66 years). At each time-point maternal and child's anxiety symptoms were evaluated via questionnaires and maternal sensitivity was coded from videotaped observations of parent-child interactions. Bidirectional associations were examined using traditional cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and CLPM with random intercepts (RI-CLPM).

RESULTS

Trauma-exposed mothers and children exhibited more anxiety symptoms and lower maternal sensitivity. Cross-lagged panel models revealed cross-time bidirectional associations between maternal anxiety and child anxiety from early to late childhood. Child anxiety at each time-point predicted maternal anxiety and maternal sensitivity at the next stage; however, maternal sensitivity did not show longitudinal associations with child anxiety, highlighting children's role in shaping caregiving.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings demonstrate bidirectional cross-generational influences of mother and child on each other's anxiety in contexts of trauma and pinpoint early childhood as a sensitive period for such mutual influences. Children's increased anxiety following trauma appears to be further exacerbated via its impact on increasing maternal anxiety and compromising sensitive caregiving, underscoring the potential benefits of parental and mother-child interventions for trauma-exposed populations.

Social processes and social environment during development

Social behavior involves many processes including cognitive functions. Altered social behaviors associated with many psychiatric disorders might have alterations in the processes. Poor social environment affects development and maturation of cognitive functions that are important for social cognition, possibly introducing social stress as well as vulnerability to the stress into the developing brain. Adolescence and early adulthood have higher sensitivity to social stress, which may be linked to the onset of psychiatric disorders during this time period. Understanding social behavioral processes in detail will be crucial for elucidating mechanisms of emerging the social behavior phenotypes in psychiatric disorders and for devising therapeutic and preventive interventions to introduce the resilience for the onset of psychiatric disorders through modulation of social circuitries.

Neural Rhythmic Underpinnings of Intergroup Bias: Implications for Peace-Building Attitudes and Dialogue

Intergroup bias is a ubiquitous socio-cognitive phenomenon that, while sustaining human dependence on group living, often leads to prejudice, inequity, and violence; yet, its neural underpinnings remain unclear. Framed within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and targeting youth, this study utilized magnetoencephalography to describe intrinsic neural oscillatory processes that represent the intergroup bias and may link with engagement in peacemaking in order to shed further light on the neural mechanisms underpinning intergroup conflict. Across the oscillatory spectrum, from very low to very high frequency bands, the only rhythm found to underlie the intergroup bias was the alpha rhythm. Alpha was continuously activated across the task and integrated a rapid perceptual component in occipital cortex with a top-down cognitive-control component in medial cingulate cortex. These components were distinctly associated with real-life intergroup dialog style and expressed attitudes that promote active engagement in peacemaking. Our findings suggest that the cortical alpha rhythm plays a crucial role in sustaining intergroup bias and address its impact on concrete intergroup experiences. Results highlight the need to provide opportunities for active peace-building dialog to youth reared amidst intractable conflicts.

Social dialogue triggers biobehavioral synchrony of partners' endocrine response via sex-specific, hormone-specific, attachment-specific mechanisms

Social contact is known to impact the partners' physiology and behavior but the mechanisms underpinning such inter-partner influences are far from clear. Guided by the biobehavioral synchrony conceptual frame, we examined how social dialogue shapes the partners' multi-system endocrine response as mediated by behavioral synchrony. To address sex-specific, hormone-specific, attachment-specific mechanisms, we recruited 82 man–woman pairs (N = 164 participants) in three attachment groups; long-term couples (n = 29), best friends (n = 26), and ingroup strangers (n = 27). We used salivary measures of oxytocin (OT), cortisol (CT), testosterone (T), and secretory immuglobolinA (s-IgA), biomarker of the immune system, before and after a 30-min social dialogue. Dialogue increased oxytocin and reduced cortisol and testosterone. Cross-person cross-hormone influences indicated that dialogue carries distinct effects on women and men as mediated by social behavior and attachment status. Men's baseline stress-related biomarkers showed both direct hormone-to-hormone associations and, via attachment status and behavioral synchrony, impacted women's post-dialogue biomarkers of stress, affiliation, and immunity. In contrast, women's baseline stress biomarkers linked with men's stress response only through the mediating role of behavioral synchrony. As to affiliation biomarkers, men's initial OT impacted women's OT response only through behavioral synchrony, whereas women's baseline OT was directly related to men's post-dialogue OT levels. Findings pinpoint the neuroendocrine advantage of social dialogue, suggest that women are more sensitive to signs of men's initial stress and social status, and describe behavior-based mechanisms by which human attachments create a coupled biology toward greater well-being and resilience.

Major depression, temperament, and social support as psychosocial mechanisms of the intergenerational transmission of parenting styles

In this three-generation longitudinal study of familial depression, we investigated the continuity of parenting styles, and major depressive disorder (MDD), temperament, and social support during childrearing as potential mechanisms. Each generation independently completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), measuring individuals' experiences of care and overprotection received from parents during childhood. MDD was assessed prospectively, up to 38 years, using the semi-structured Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS). Social support and temperament were assessed using the Social Adjustment Scale - Self-Report (SAS-SR) and Dimensions of Temperament Scales - Revised, respectively. We first assessed transmission of parenting styles in the generation 1 to generation 2 cycle (G1→G2), including 133 G1 and their 229 G2 children (367 pairs), and found continuity of both care and overprotection. G1 MDD accounted for the association between G1→G2 experiences of care, and G1 social support and temperament moderated the transmission of overprotection. The findings were largely similar when examining these psychosocial mechanisms in 111 G2 and their spouses (G2+S) and their 136 children (G3) (a total of 223 pairs). Finally, in a subsample of families with three successive generations (G1→G2→G3), G2 experiences of overprotection accounted for the association between G1→G3 experiences of overprotection. The results of this study highlight the roles of MDD, temperament, and social support in the intergenerational continuity of parenting, which should be considered in interventions to "break the cycle" of poor parenting practices across generations.