The Biology of Love and Roots of Resilience: Biobehavioral Synchrony from Science to Intervention

The talk will present our affiliative neuroscience perspective on resilience, which contends that for young mammals, who are born with immature brains and require caregiving do develop mechanisms of stress management and sociality, systems that participate in bonding are those that sustain resilience.  I show how the biology of love and its core process biobehavioral synchrony underpin attachment and promote resilience. I describe how synchrony – the coordination of biology and behavior during social contact – emerges within the parent-infant bond, grows to integrate more complex, symbolic, and reciprocal components of resonance, and expands to other attachments the child will form throughout life, impacting mental health up to adulthood. I address studies on brain-to-brain synchrony within the parent-child relationship and how they are altered by aspects of humans’ co-presence, including chemosignals and technologically-assisted remote communication.  Translational implications are highlighted with the InSynch intervention for mothers suffering post-partum depression and its effects on symptom reduction, caregiving behavior, and inter-brain coordination.  The talk will conclude by contemplating how synchrony enables the transfer from the intimacy of the parent-infant bond to life within social groups and supports human endurance, cooperation, and the capacity for transcendence.

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RUTH FELDMAN, PhD

Ruth Feldman, PhD is the Simms-Mann Professor of Developmental Social Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzlia with joint appointment at Yale Child Study Center.