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Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Author Spotlight: Unlocking New Insights in fNIRS Studies - A Novel Framework for Inter-Brain Synchrony Analysis
Published on: October 6, 2023
Children's oppositional defiant disorder symptoms and neural synchrony in mother-child interactions: An fNIRS study
Wenrui Zhang1, Ting He1, Nan Zhou2
1Institute of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Insights
Mothers and children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) show reduced interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) during interactions. Lower INS in ODD dyads suggests altered brain connectivity, offering insights into ODD
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) is vital for social bonding.
- Parent-child interactions influence oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) development.
- Neurocognitive mechanisms of ODD in parent-child dyads remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To measure INS between mothers and children during interactions.
- To explore the association between INS and ODD symptoms.
- To investigate the neurocognitive underpinnings of ODD in mother-child dyads.
Main Methods:
- Simultaneous functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure brain activity.
- Seventy-two mother-child dyads (35 with ODD, 37 controls) participated.
- Phase-locked value, K-means, and k-space alignment tests analyzed synchrony patterns.
Main Results:
- Distinct INS patterns were observed across free-play and discussion tasks.
- The ODD group exhibited significantly lower INS compared to controls.
- Lower INS negatively correlated with ODD symptom severity.
Conclusions:
- ODD mother-child dyads demonstrate reduced neural synchrony in interactions.
- INS alterations may indicate underlying neural and socio-environmental factors in ODD.
- INS offers novel insights into the neurobiology of ODD.
Abstract:
Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) between mothers and children responds to the temporal similarity of brain signals in joint behavior between dyadic partners and is considered an important neural indicator of the formation of adaptive social interaction bonds. Parent-child interactions are particularly important for the development and maintenance of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in children, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are unknown. Therefore, in the current study we measured INS between mothers and children in interactions by using simultaneous functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), and explored its association with ODD symptoms in children. Seventy-two mother-child dyads were recruited to participate in the study, including 35 children with ODD and 37 healthy children to be used as a control. Each mother-child dyad was measured for neural activity in frontal, parietal, and temporal lobe regions while completing free-play as well as positive, and negative topic discussion tasks. We used Phase-locked value to calculate the synchrony strength and then used the K-means algorithm and k-space based alignment tests to confirm the specific patterns of parent-child synchrony in different brain areas. The results showed that, in free-play (right MFG and bilateral SFG), positive (left TPJ and bilateral SFGdor), and negative (bilateral SFGmed, right ANG, and left MFG) topic discussions, the mother-child pairs showed different patterns of INS. These specific INS patterns were significantly lower in the ODD group compared to the control group and were negatively associated with ODD symptoms in children. Network analyses showed that these INS patterns were connected to different nodes in the ODD symptom network. Our findings suggest that ODD mother-child dyads exhibit lower neural synchrony across a wide range of parent-child interactions. Neural synchrony in the context of interpersonal interactions provides new insights into understanding the neural mechanisms of ODD and can be used as an indicator of neural and socio-environmental factors in the network of psychological disorder symptoms.
