Background
Parent–child interpersonal brain synchrony (IBS) has been suggested to play an important role in children’s socio-emotional functioning and may be relevant to oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Yet, empirical evidence regarding IBS deficits between parents and ODD children remains limited, as well as their association with ODD symptoms within different emotional parenting contexts. Therefore, the present study investigated the IBS among mother–child dyads by utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and the moderating role of maternal meta-emotion philosophy between IBS and ODD symptoms.
Methods
We initially recruited 72 mother–child dyads and included data from 63 dyads in the final analyses after data quality checks, including 29 ODD children and 34 typically developing (TD) children. Each dyad was measured for IBS while completing a computer-based game, including cooperative and independent conditions. The children’s ODD symptoms and maternal meta-emotion philosophy were measured using questionnaires.
Results
The IBS deficits of left postcentral gyrusm-left dorsal superior frontal gyrusc, left middle frontal gyrusm-right postcentral gyrusc, and right angular gyrusm-right dorsal superior frontal gyrusc were revealed among ODD mother–child dyads across multiple time-lags. In addition, IBS negatively predicted ODD symptoms when mothers were involved in their children’s emotions and positively predicted ODD symptoms when mothers were not involved in their children’s emotions.
Conclusions
These findings suggested a potential “Other-(Social) Cognition—Self-Regulation” IBS network, wherein “Other-Cognition” involves social cognitive processing of information from others, and “Self-Regulation” consists of the regulation of oneself. Furthermore, the deficits within this IBS network among ODD mother–child dyads are prospectively predictive of children’s later ODD symptoms. Additionally, our research indicated that whether the mother is involved in the child’s emotions is crucial when considering the impact of IBS on the development of ODD symptoms.