Functional MRI and parental responsiveness: a new avenue into parental psychopathology and early parent-child interactions?

Abstract

The advent of functional neuroimaging techniques has led to great advances in our understanding of some of the biological aspects of psychiatric disorders. Tools such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow us to complement research from genetic, animal and clinical studies by providing information about the patterns of brain activation underlying particular behaviours, and have even begun to challenge current theories and treatments. For example, the finding that hypoperfusion of Broca's area occurs during symptom provocation in post-traumatic stress disorder suggests that these patients might find it difficult to label and describe their emotions; ‘talking therapies’ might therefore be of limited value during some phases of post-traumatic stress disorder (Hull, 2002). However, certain fields of research, despite an extensive ‘non-imaging’ literature, appear so far to have escaped the neuroimaging revolution. One field of great relevance to psychiatry is that of parental responsiveness and parent–child interactions. At first glance, the lack of research in this area may be explained by the apparent absurdity of trying to study these issues within, for example, the confines of an MRI scanner. However, on closer inspection, relatively straightforward functional neuroimaging studies could be conducted that would help to illuminate the neural processes underlying parental emotional responses to children. Furthermore, because distortions from ‘normal’ interactions (especially in the context of parental psychiatric disorder) might adversely influence child development, it is important that this line of research be pursued.