Assessing similarity in functional brain connectivity patterns of parent-child dyads during mentalizing

Intergenerational transfer effects describe the transmission of traits, skills, or biology from parents to their offspring. Through genetic and environmental influences parents, for example, impact their children’s ability for perspective-taking (i.e., mentalizing), which is linked to an individuals’ healthy social functioning. Mentalizing is supported by a network of brain regions, including bilateral temporoparietal junction, precuneus, and prefrontal cortex. The neural correlates reflecting on parent-child similarity have yet to be studied. Here, we describe task-based functional connectivity (FC) strength during mentalizing and test dyadic similarity in 76 healthy parent-child dyads (81 children:6-14y, 29 girls; 74 parents, 58 mothers). Children and adults’ group-wise ROI-to-ROI FC (FDR-corrected) and average network strength were computed. Next, familial mother-child and non-familial adult-child brain similarity was calculated. Familial and non-familial adult-child similarity was compared using cocor, testing whether similarity was specific for biologically related dyads. Significant FC similarity was inferred using a Fisher’s combined probability test in familial (X2(152,N=76)=777.14, p<.001) and non-familial dyads (X2(9244, N=4622)=46969, p<.001). Familial specificity was not confirmed. With age, FC similarity between female children and their parents significantly increased (r=.36,p=0.04; Fig.1B), possibly reflecting an earlier network development in girls. Overall, the mentalizing network strength in children (r=.33) was significantly weaker than in adults (r=.42,p=<.01; Fig.1A), which is likely due to ongoing maturation in the children’s group. Future analyses will focus on connections of interest (e.g., long-range connections) and test whether child-to-child FC similarity exhibits more variability than adult-to-adult FC similarity, due to ongoing developmental changes in the children’s group.