ArticleDevelopmental review : DR2018
Autonomic nervous system functioning assessed during the Still-Face Paradigm: A meta-analysis and systematic review of methods, approach and findings.
Article in Developmental review : DR, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Development of 24-Hour Rhythms in Cortisol Secretion Across Infancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Pooled it
- Physiological measurement of emotion from infancy to preschool: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Mutual positive engagement with mother is uniquely associated with increases in human infant heart rate variability.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Variation in Everyday Maternal Sensitivity Predicts Infants' Real-Time Physiological Regulation.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Biobehavioral synchrony between three to four months old infants and psychologically healthy mothers during the face-to-face still-face paradigm.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A Protocol to Acquire Infant Heart Rate Variability in the Rohingya Camps and Surrounding Communities in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Prenatal Psychosocial Distress Interacting with Postnatal Maternal Sensitivity in Shaping Infant Observed Affect and RSA Profiles.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Inter-neural co-regulation before and after an interactive perturbation in mother-infant dyads.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mother-Infant Physiological Coregulation Is Associated With Infant Developmental Status Among Families With Experienced Adversity.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Early Life Stress Effects on Children's Biology, Behavior, and Health: Evidence, Mediators, Moderators, and Solutions.Annual review of psychology · 2026Review
- Mother-infant interactive processes and infant behavioral and vagal stress recovery: Associations at 3, 6, and 9 months of age.Developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Infant emotion regulation in the context of stress: Effects of heart rate variability and temperament.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2024Article
- Effects of prenatal opioid exposure on infant sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity.Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Preliminary Technical Validation of LittleBeats™: A Multimodal Sensing Platform to Capture Cardiac Physiology, Motion, and Vocalizations.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Pregnant women's autonomic responses to an infant cry predict young infants' behavioral avoidance during the still-face paradigm.Developmental psychology · 2023Article
- Spontaneous infant crying modulates vagal activity in real time.Developmental psychobiology · 2023Article
- Associations among maternal lifetime trauma, psychological symptoms in pregnancy, and infant stress reactivity and regulation.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Vagal Flexibility Moderates the Links between Observed Sensitive Caregiving in Infancy and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Middle Childhood.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2023Article
- Dynamics of mother-infant parasympathetic regulation during face-to-face interaction: The role of maternal emotion dysregulation.Psychophysiology · 2023Article
- Unique Contributions of Maternal Prenatal and Postnatal Emotion Dysregulation on Infant Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Animal and human research suggests that the development of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is particularly sensitive to early parenting experiences. The Still-Face Paradigm (SFP), one of the most widely used measures to assess infant reactivity and emotional competence, evokes infant self-regulatory responses to parental interaction and disengagement. This systematic review of 33 peer-reviewed studies identifies patterns of parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous system activity demonstrated by infants under one year of age during the SFP and describes findings within the context of sample demographic characteristics, study methodologies, and analyses conducted. A meta-analysis of a subset of 14 studies with sufficient available respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) data examined whether the SFP reliably elicited PNS withdrawal (RSA decrease) during parental disengagement or PNS recovery (RSA increase) during reunion, and whether results differed by socioeconomic status (SES). Across SES, the meta-analysis confirmed that RSA decreased during the still-face episode and increased during reunion. When studies were stratified by SES, low-SES or high-risk groups also showed RSA decreases during the still face episode but failed to show an increase in RSA during reunion. Few studies have examined SNS activity during the SFP to date, preventing conclusions in that domain. The review also identified multiple qualifications to patterns of SFP ANS findings, including those that differed by ethnicity, infant sex, parental sensitivity, and genetics. Strengths and weaknesses in the extant research that may explain some of the variation in findings across the literature are also discussed, and suggestions for strengthening future research are provided.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.