Multimodal analysis of mother–child interaction using hyperscanning and diffusion maps

The current work aims to reveal mother–child synchronization patterns using several interaction modalities and combining them using the diffusion maps method. Twenty-two Hebrew-speaking toddlers (ages = 33 ± 5.38 months, 17 males) and their mothers (ages = 35 ± 5.79 years) participated in two interaction conditions while data was collected from several modalities, i.e. EEG, joint attention (measured through video coding of looking behavior), and motion analysis. Dimension reduction and data fusion of these modalities were performed using diffusion maps to enable a comprehensive assessment of mother–child synchronization dynamics. This multimodal approach allows better characterization of mother–child interaction and examining the associations between interaction patterns and maternal parenting style and their importance to the child’s long-term language abilities.