Abstract
Stress resilience in parenting depends on the parent's capacity to understand subjective experiences in self and child, namely intersubjectivity, which is intimately related to mimicking other's affective expressions (i. e., mirroring). Stress can worsen parenting by potentiating problems that can impair intersubjectivity, e.g., problems of “over-mentalizing” (misattribution of the child's behaviors) and “under-coupling” (inadequate child-oriented mirroring). Previously we have developed Mom Power (MP) parenting intervention to promote maternal intersubjectivity and reduce parenting stress. This study aimed to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying the effects of MP with a novel Child Face Mirroring Task (CFMT) in functional magnetic-resonance-imaging settings. In CFMT, the participants responded to own and other's child's facial pictures in three task conditions: (1) empathic mirroring (Join), (2) non-mirroring observing (Observe), and (3) voluntary responding (React). In each condition, each child's neutral, ambiguous, distressed, and joyful expressions were repeatedly displayed. We examined the CFMT-related neural responses in a sample of healthy mothers (n = 45) in Study 1, and MP effects on CFMT with a pre-intervention (T1) and post-intervention (T2) design in two groups, MP (n = 19) and Control (n = 17), in Study 2. We found that, from T1 to T2, MP (vs. Control) decreased parenting stress, decreased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) during own-child-specific voluntary responding (React to Own vs. Other's Child), and increased activity in the frontoparietal cortices, midbrain, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala during own-child-specific empathic mirroring (Join vs. Observe of Own vs. Other's Child). We identified that MP effects on parenting stress were potentially mediated by T1-to-T2 changes in: (1) the left superior-temporal-gyrus differential responses in the contrast of Join vs. Observe of own (vs. other's) child, (2) the dmPFC-PAG (periaqueductal gray) differential functional connectivity in the same contrast, and (3) the left amygdala differential responses in the contrast of Join vs. Observe of own (vs. other's) child's joyful vs. distressed expressions. We discussed these results in support of the notion that MP reduces parenting stress via changing neural activities related to the problems of “over-mentalizing” and “under-coupling.” Additionally, we discussed theoretical relationships between parenting stress and intersubjectivity in a novel dyadic active inference framework in a two-agent system to guide future research.
Highlights
Parent-child interactions are crucial for child development and sources of joyful or distressed experiences in the dyad
We found that the T1-to-T2 increases in parenting stress was associated with the T1-to-T2 increases in the Maternal Mirroring Response (MMR)(all)-dependent psychological-physiological interaction (PPI) between the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (dmPFC) seed and the Periaquaductal Gray (PAG) ([−2, 32, −20], 178 voxels, Z = 4.36, p = 0.002 s.v.c., Figure 8A); the T1-to-T2 reduction in parenting stress was associated with T1-to-T2 increases in the MMR(all)-dependent PPI between the dmPFC seed and bilateral Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) ([6, 6, −4], 40 voxels, Z = 3.39, p = 0.020 s.v.c., Figure 8B)
By running mediation analysis separately for the three potential mediators, M1 [the MMR(all) in the left Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG)], M2 [the MMR(all)-dependent PPI between the dmPFC-PAG], and M3 [the MMR(j-d) in the left amygdala], we found that each of them potentially mediated the indirect effect of Mom Power (MP) treatment (X) on dPSI (Y), with
Summary
Parent-child interactions are crucial for child development and sources of joyful or distressed experiences in the dyad. Synonymous to interpersonal understanding [5] and some, but not all, definitions of empathy [6], parental intersubjectivity lies in the core of several parenting-related constructs, such as parental empathic attunement [7], parental reflective functioning [8, 9], parental sensitivity [10, 11], and parental embodied mentalizing [12]. All these complex constructs point to a parent’s capacity to utilize dyadic interactions to achieve valid attributions of the child’s covert states underlying overt behaviors. In lieu of other terms, the term intersubjectivity is used here to emphasize its reliance on person-person interactions (the prefix, inter) and its focus on the awareness of self and other’s lived experiences (subjectivity)
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