Facial imprints of autonomic contagion in mother and child: A thermal imaging study

The present study aimed at investigating whether maternal empathy is accompanied by a synchrony in autonomic responses. We simultaneously recorded, in an ecological context with contact free methodology, the facial thermal imprints of mother and child, while the former observed the latter when involved in a distressing situation. The results showed a situation-specific parallelism between mothers' and children's facial temperature variations, providing preliminary evidence for a direct affective sharing involving autonomic responding. These findings support a multidimensional approach for the comprehension of emotional parent-child relationships. Thermal infrared imaging offers the possibility of recording non-verbal interactions among individuals, thus paving the way to new studies and methodologies in neuropsychology.