Exploring inter-brain coherence between fathers and infants during
maternal storytelling: an fNIRS hyperscanning study
Abstract
The current study examined the inter-brain coherence (IBC) between 34
dyads of fathers and infants 7-9 months of age using functional
near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We specifically focused on
father-infant IBC to broaden the empirical base beyond the mother-infant
connections, as the former has received limited attention. There were
three conditions: a baseline condition, and two task conditions when the
infant and the adult participant jointly listened to maternal
storytelling in Cantonese in infant-directed speech (IDS) and
adult-directed speech (ADS). Father-infant IBC was compared with
stranger-infant IBC in the same experimental settings. Our results found
that father-infant IBC was greater in the baseline and ADS conditions
but not in the IDS condition, compared to stranger-infant IBC. Further,
stranger-infant dyads showed greater IBC in the IDS condition than in
the ADS condition, with no significance in father-infant IBC between the
two speech conditions. These results identified different IBC mechanisms
between the two dyads. The IBC pattern in stranger-infant dyads is
driven by neural entrainment to mothers’ speech, whereas father-infant
IBC is more resistant to mothers’ behaviors in the co-presence of both
parents.