Parent-Infant Communication and the Neurobiology of Emotional Development.

The interactive creation of an attachment bond of affective communication between the psychobiologically attuned primary caregiver and the infant is central to human emotional development. These emotional transactions directly influence the experience-dependent maturation of the infant's early developing right hemisphere, which is in a growth spurt in the first year-and-a-half of life and is dominant for the first 3 years of life. This paper examines attachment processes and emotional communications, the neurobiology and psychobiology of attachment, and the organization of an attachment regulatory system in the right brain. The paper notes that, as opposed to a secure attachment, early misattuned interactional environments generate an insecure attachment and a right brain regulatory system that is limited in its capacity to cope with stress. This neurodevelopment outcome represents a high risk for later-forming emotional disorders. It is suggested that Early Head Start interventions that focus on social-emotional development would thus have enduring effects on the adaptive coping capacities of the individual throughout the lifespan. (Contains 96 references.) (Author/KB)