7 185 Summary and general discussion Figure 7.1 Schematic summary of the activations in response to the parent-child bond from the perspective of parents and adolescents in the eye contact task and parents in the parental empathy task. CEM = Childhood emotional maltreatment, dlPFC = Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dmPFC = Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, IFG = Inferior frontal gyrus, STG = Superior temporal gyrus, TPJ = Temporoparietal junction, vmPFC = Ventromedial prefrontal cortex. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS Chapter 2 investigated parents’ neural and affective (i.e., mood and feelings of connectedness) responses when making prolonged eye contact with their own child versus unknown others. The first key finding was that engaging in prolonged eye contact boosted parents’ feelings of connectedness with others more compared to the short presentation of a picture. In addition, they reported a better mood and felt more connected after a direct versus an averted gaze of others. Effects were amplified for unknown targets, which is probably due to the already high mood and connectedness ratings at baseline when seeing their own child. While no evidence was
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