Zhang Lu, Liontos Daniel, Olsson Craig A, Evans-Whipp Tracy, McIntosh Jennifer E, Painter Felicity, Harverson Jacquelyn, Whittle Sarah
Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, 35 Poplar Road, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.
Orygen, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2025 Sep 17. doi: 10.1007/s10567-025-00545-3.
The formation of secure parent-child bonds in early life, hereto referred to as early relational health, plays a central role in healthy development. However, the evidence on how early relational health 'gets under the skin' to impact the developing brain remains unclear. Here, we provide a scoping review of the extant literature and synthesize evidence on the link between relational health from conception to age three and subsequent brain structure, function, and connectivity. Literature searches in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Embase databases yielded 7156 studies. Screening of studies was conducted on the Living Knowledge System (an AI-assisted screening tool), which resulted in 79 studies being included in the review. Results were synthesized based on the type of relational health examined, type of imaging modality (e.g., electroencephalogram, structural, and functional magnetic resonance imaging), and developmental stage. We identified studies of the relationship between early relational health and brain structure, function, and connectivity that spanned from childhood to young adulthood, with no research beyond this age period. There was evidence for early relational health to be associated with patterns of brain activation that may reflect the experience of more positive emotions and reduced risk for psychopathology. However, few studies examined longitudinal changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity. Even fewer have examined relational health beyond the mother-infant bond. Future research is needed to improve understanding of the impact of relational health on brain development and to ascertain whether such impacts reflect a mechanism linking relational health with health and wellbeing across the lifespan.
早期生活中安全的亲子关系的形成，在此称为早期关系健康，在健康发展中起着核心作用。然而，关于早期关系健康如何“深入肌肤”影响发育中的大脑的证据仍不明确。在此，我们对现有文献进行了范围综述，并综合了从受孕到三岁的关系健康与随后的脑结构、功能和连通性之间联系的证据。在MEDLINE、PsycINFO和Embase数据库中进行文献检索，共获得7156项研究。在Living Knowledge System（一种人工智能辅助筛选工具）上对研究进行筛选，最终有79项研究被纳入综述。根据所考察的关系健康类型、成像方式类型（如脑电图、结构和功能磁共振成像）以及发育阶段对结果进行了综合。我们确定了从童年到青年期关于早期关系健康与脑结构、功能和连通性之间关系的研究，在此年龄阶段之后没有相关研究。有证据表明，早期关系健康与大脑激活模式有关，这可能反映了更积极情绪的体验和心理病理学风险的降低。然而，很少有研究考察脑结构、功能和连通性的纵向变化。甚至更少有人研究母婴关系之外的关系健康。未来需要开展研究，以增进对关系健康对大脑发育影响的理解，并确定这种影响是否反映了一种将关系健康与一生的健康和幸福联系起来的机制。
