Cardiac interaction between mother and infant: enhancement of heart rate variability

The vagal activity of infants is represented by heart rate variability (HRV) and associated with both growth and socioemotional development. The enhancement of an infant’s vagal tone activity might be beneficial for development. This study explored whether HRV in infants aged 3–8 months can be enhanced by influencing HRV in mothers (40 dyads). The power of the low frequency (LF) component of maternal HRV was facilitated using slow-paced breathing. We investigated whether the change in maternal HRV affected the LF component in infants held by their mothers. In older infants (N = 14, 6–8 months) the LF power showed an increase during maternal paced breathing, whereas a delayed increase occurred after termination of maternal paced breathing in younger infants (N = 16, 3–5 months). These results show that the effects of maternal cardiac activity on the infant’s HRV are age-dependent. This age-dependent reactivity of the infant’s HRV could be due to the development of the inner model in infants which regulates physiological functions, including cardiac activity. This finding might help develop efficient methods for enhancing vagal nerve activity in infants.