Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 17, 2025

Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Neural synchrony in mother-child conversation: Exploring the role of conversation patterns
Trinh Nguyen1, Hanna Schleihauf2,3,4, Ezgi Kayhan5,6
1Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria.
Abstract:
Conversations are an essential form of communication in daily family life. Specific patterns of caregiver-child conversations have been linked to children's socio-cognitive development and child-relationship quality beyond the immediate family environment. Recently, interpersonal neural synchronization has been proposed as a neural mechanism supporting conversation. Here, we present a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning study looking at the temporal dynamics of neural synchrony during mother-child conversation. Preschoolers (20 boys and 20 girls, M age 5;07 years) and their mothers (M age 36.37 years) were tested simultaneously with fNIRS hyperscanning while engaging in a free verbal conversation lasting for 4 min. Neural synchrony (using wavelet transform coherence analysis) was assessed over time. Furthermore, each conversational turn was coded for conversation patterns comprising turn-taking, relevance, contingency and intrusiveness. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that turn-taking, but not relevance, contingency or intrusiveness predicted neural synchronization during the conversation over time. Results are discussed to point out possible variables affecting parent-child conversation quality and the potential functional role of interpersonal neural synchronization for parent-child conversation.
More Related Videos
08:08Author Spotlight: Capturing Infant-Caregiver Interactions Through Synchronized Multimodal Data Collection
Published on: May 31, 2024
11:14A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
Published on: October 4, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Relationship with Parents: Attachment
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Neuronal Communication
Nature and Nurture
Nonconscious Mimicry