Samadani Ali, Kim Song, Moon Jae, Kang Kyurim, Chau Tom
Philips, Cambridge, MA, United States.
School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Front Neurosci. 2021 Apr 30;15:531915. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.531915. eCollection 2021.
Although physiological synchronization has been associated with the level of empathy in emotionally meaningful relationships, little is known about the interbrain synchrony between non-speaking children with severe disabilities and their familial caregivers. In a repeated measures observational study, we ascertained the degree of interbrain synchrony during music therapy in 10 child-parent dyads, where the children were non-speaking and living with severe motor impairments. Interbrain synchrony was quantified via measurements of spectral coherence and Granger causality between child and parent electroencephalographic (EEG) signals collected during ten 15-min music therapy sessions per dyad, where parents were present as non-participating, covert observers. Using cluster-based permutation tests, we found significant child-parent interbrain synchrony, manifesting most prominently across dyads in frontal brain regions within and low frequencies. Specifically, significant dyadic coherence was observed contra-laterally, between child frontal right and parental frontal left regions at and lower bands in empathy-related brain areas. Furthermore, significant Granger influences were detected bidirectionally (from child to parent and vice versa) in the same frequency bands. In all dyads, significant increases in session-specific coherence and Granger influences were observed over the time course of a music therapy session. The observed interbrain synchrony suggests a cognitive-emotional coupling during music therapy between child and parent that is responsive to change. These findings encourage further study of the socio-empathic capacity and interpersonal relationships formed between caregivers and non-speaking children with severe physical impairments.
尽管生理同步性与情感意义重大的关系中的共情水平有关，但对于重度残疾的非言语儿童与其家庭照顾者之间的脑间同步性却知之甚少。在一项重复测量观察性研究中，我们确定了10对儿童-父母二元组在音乐治疗期间的脑间同步程度，这些儿童为非言语儿童，且患有严重的运动障碍。通过测量每对二元组在十个15分钟音乐治疗疗程中收集的儿童和父母脑电图（EEG）信号之间的频谱相干性和格兰杰因果关系，对脑间同步性进行了量化，其中父母作为不参与的隐蔽观察者在场。使用基于聚类的置换检验，我们发现了显著的儿童-父母脑间同步性，最明显地体现在前额脑区的二元组中，频率范围在[具体频率范围未给出]和低频范围内。具体而言，在共情相关脑区的[具体频率范围未给出]和更低频段，在儿童右前额叶和父母左前额叶区域之间观察到了显著的对侧二元相干性。此外，在相同频段双向检测到了显著的格兰杰影响（从儿童到父母，反之亦然）。在所有二元组中，在音乐治疗疗程的时间过程中观察到特定疗程的相干性和格兰杰影响显著增加。观察到的脑间同步性表明，在音乐治疗期间儿童和父母之间存在一种对变化有反应的认知-情感耦合。这些发现鼓励进一步研究照顾者与患有严重身体障碍的非言语儿童之间形成的社会共情能力和人际关系。
