Author: Trinh Nguyen1, Stefanie Hoehl2, Bennett I Bertenthal3, Drew H Abney4
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria; Neuroscience of Perception and Action Lab, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: trinh.nguyen@iit.it.
<sup>2</sup> Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: stefanie.hoehl@univie.ac.at.
<sup>3</sup> Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, 1101 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405, United States. Electronic address: bbertent@indiana.edu.
<sup>4</sup> Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, 110 Hooper Street, Athens, GA 30602, United States. Electronic address: drew.abney@uga.edu.
Conference/Journal: Dev Cogn Neurosci
Date published: 2022 Nov 30
Other:
Volume ID: 58 , Pages: 101184 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101184. , Word Count: 214
Self-regulation is an essential aspect of healthy child development. Even though infants depend on their caregivers for co-regulation during the first years, they begin to gain regulatory abilities through social interactions as well as their own developing agency and inhibitory control. These early regulatory abilities continue to increase with the development of both the prefrontal cortex and the vagal system. Importantly, theoretical accounts have suggested that the prefrontal cortex and the vagal system are linked through forward and backward feedback loops via the limbic system. Decreased coupling within this link is suggested to be associated with psychopathology. The primary goal of this study was to examine whether intrapersonal coupling of prefrontal brain activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia is evident in infancy. Using the simultaneous assessment of functional near-infrared spectroscopy and electrocardiography, we used Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis to assess the coupling of prefrontal brain activity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia in 69 4- to 6-month-old infants and their mothers during a passive viewing condition. However, we did not find significant coupling between the PFC and RSA in infants and adult caregivers. Future studies could examine social contexts associated with greater emotional reactivity to deepen our understanding of the pathways involved in self-regulation.
Keywords: Brain-body connection; Prefrontal cortex; Respiratory-sinus arrhythmia; Self-regulation; Vagus nerve; fNIRS.
PMID: 36495790 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101184