The relevance of physiological and social-affective aspects of tonal synchrony in a context of postnatal depression

This symposium is connected to the workshop "Parent-infant bonding by means of music: The strength of shared vitality affects." Both the symposium and the workshop are the result of a 2-years intensive cooperation between researchers of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and Universidad Nova Lisbon (Portugal) who developed a mother-infant group therapy that makes use of music to enhance dyadic maternal-infant intersubjectivity in a context of postnatal depression. This therapy was elaborated in a pilot-project that was conducted in a Residential Mother-Baby Unit. The program joined the strengths of the musical characteristics of a mother-infant relationship (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2008; Van Puyvelde et al., 2013) and the vital dynamics of a group process. A state of depression is the opposite of a state of vitality (Aitken & Trevarthen, 1997). Mothers with severe postnatal depression tend to express themselves with flattened and uncoordinated affect which may result in a recurrent pattern of mismatches or failed affect repair (e.g., Tronick & Reck, 2009). These persistent experiences of failed affect repair carry the risk of developing into a cycle of negative reciprocities that may block the intuitive competencies of self-efficacy in both mother and infant, ultimately affecting their intersubjective prospects (Papou?ek, 2007; Trevarthen, 2011). Moreover, postnatal depressed mothers are reported to be in need for supportive encounters with other mothers (Martin-Knudson & Silverstein, 2009). Therefore, this therapy makes use of music and encourages shared vitality affects and a spirit of liveliness in a group context. On a macro-level, the project was inspired by two recent parent-infant projects, "BebéBabá" and "Opus Tutti" that combined music and group aspects (Rodrigues et al., 2008, 2010). On a micro-level, it was based on the research of Van Puyvelde et al., (2010, 2013) who demonstrated that a specific expression of communicative musicality, i.e., tonal synchrony, on the level of maternal-infant vocal pitches is related with crucial micro-moments of affect repair. In this symposium we will 1/ present an intersubjective developmental paradigm as a framework for our interdisciplinary research and practice in early mother-infant interaction (Loots et al., 2003, 2005), 2/ explain and demonstrate the principles of BebéBabá and Opus Tutti, 3/ demonstrate the phenomenon of tonal synchrony with its social-affective function and physiological expression, and 4/ report micro-analyses of our sessions in terms of intersubjectivity on a dyadic as well as group level.

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