Associations between mother-infant behavioral synchrony and mother-infant relationship quality.

• Grant number: 25/11324-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Physiological Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Alexandra Caldas Osório
• Grantee: Julia Marcondes de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06693-4 - The importance of social touch for infant social-emotional development: integrating neuroimaging, psychophysiological, endocrine, and behavioral evidence, AP.JP2

Abstract

Touch is fundamental to establishing emotional bonds between people and to their well-being. The study of interpersonal touch is particularly important in early childhood, as it is the most fundamental form of parental care. However, the study of this sensory modality remains surprisingly neglected. More specifically, little is known about the perception and processing of social touch, as well as its impact on adaptive responses to stress in infants. This FAPESP Young Researcher proposal (Phase 2) is organized into four studies that address complementary research questions and methods that will contribute substantially to the advancement of scientific knowledge about social touch in childhood. Study 1 aims to clarify the patterns of neural activation in response to social touch in infants, while Study 2 will analyze the impact of partner identity (mother versus unknown woman) on neural and cardiac responses to social touch in the first year of life. In turn, Study 3 aims to clarify the potential mediating role of these cardiac and neural activation patterns in the relationship between maternal touch behaviors and endocrine and behavioral responses to stress in the infant. Finally, Study 4 will be dedicated to the development of a new hyperscanning protocol with fNIRS for application in infant-caregiver interactions, which, in turn, will allow the assessment of neural and cardiac synchrony of the dyad during a touch interaction. The studies that comprise this proposal aim to significantly expand scientific knowledge about the characterization and importance of social touch, integrating evidence from functional neuroimaging, psychophysiology, endocrinology, and behavior at a critical age of socio-emotional development.