Fig. 3: A context-dependent and value-based model of resilience facilitation through flexible biobehavioral synchrony after maltreatment.

Figure 3 shows our proposed model in which RF is crucially dependent on the individual’s capability to flexibly synchronize with and segregate from another’s cognitive-affective, behavioral, and physiological states, known as ‘biobehavioral synchrony’. Such an adaptive interpersonal skill is rooted in i. the early caregiving experience and its regulatory effects on an individual’s physiological stress reactivity, as well as ii. the development of SOD which can be affected by childhood maltreatment. Flexible biobehavioral synchrony exerts its effects on RF in direct (i.e., synchrony profiles guided by cost-benefit analyses), as well as indirect ways (e.g., interplay with an individual’s neural function and social architecture). Assuming a cascading effect on domains of SOD we hypothesize that experiences of maltreatment impact an individual’s capacity to flexibly deploy interpersonal synchrony according to situational and developmental demand (synching or segregating), increasing the risk for emotional fusion or cut-off with others and subsequent relational difficulties and stress throughout an individual’s life.