Emotional and biobehavioral mechanisms of parent-infant emotional synchrony

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia $248,999 on September 2, 2026, under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research Projects program (CFDA 93.865).

The award funds research training to develop expertise in emotional and biobehavioral mechanisms of parent-infant emotional synchrony. The principal investigator will pursue advanced training in mother-infant electrocardiogram and electroencephalography recording, qualitative interview methods, multimodal data integration combining qualitative and quantitative approaches with neurobiological and behavioral measures, biostatistics, psychology, and neuroscience. The training aims to prepare the investigator to lead an independent research program studying the origins of social cognition through parent-infant dyadic emotional synchrony, with ultimate application to development of targeted interventions promoting early relational health and optimal child socioemotional functioning.

Performance is located in New York, New York. The award runs through August 31, 2029. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, operating as Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, is the recipient.

Abstract

My career goal is to lead a transdisciplinary research team that investigates multi-level mechanisms leading to optimal child socioemotional development from the perspective of early-life dyadic emotional synchrony. The overarching goal will be to implement translational, mechanistic and clinical research to uncover the emotional and biobehavioral origins of parent-infant emotional synchrony and the pathways through which early dyadic interactions lead to socioemotional functioning across the life course. Ultimately this work will lead to the development of appropriately targeted interventions to promote early relational health and optimal child socioemotional functioning. To effectively establish and lead this research program, I require additional training in mother-infant ECG/EEG, qualitative interviews of subjective experiences, multimodal data integration (qualitative-quantitative, neuro-BIO-behavior, longitudinal), biostatistics, psychology and neuroscience. My training to date has provided me with a strong foundation of skills in intervention research, experimental designs and early relational health from the lens of parental sensitivity. My career development plan expands on this skill set to provide essential further training in human dyadic face-to-face interactions, electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), analyses of biobehavioral synchrony, qualitative methods and biostatistics. By engaging in this protected training time, I will enter my independent stage of research well prepared to lead a research team purposefully established to study the origins of social cognition from the lens of parent-infant dyadic emotional synchrony. Studies have found that parent-infant dyads synchronize their heart rhythms and brain activity during episodes of face-to-face matched behaviors (behavioral synchrony). Biobehavioral synchrony, i.e., coordination of brain, heart and behavioral signals between parents and infants when engaging in face-to-face interaction, provides a basis for studying parent-infant dyadic interactions in the first 12 months as a mechanism leading to improved socio-emotional functioning in later years. The mechanisms underlying biobehavioral synchrony are still relatively unknown. Here, we hypothesize that emotional synchrony may be a vehicle strengthening biobehavioral synchrony. The K99 study aims to identify the biobehavioral (aim 1) and emotional (aim 2) correlates of mother-infant emotional synchrony. The R00 study (aim 3) will expand the K99 aims to mother-infant and father-infant dyads, and link emotional and biobehavioral synchrony to later child socioemotional functioning.