Social Neuroscience of Human Attachment Lab

Our SoNeAt Lab (Department of Psychology at University of Essex) is very excited to be part of this year's Teachers and Advisers Conference to be held at the University of Essex on 18 June 2026.

We will deliver a CPD session on "The Attachment-Informed Classroom: Building a Secure Space for Learning and Creativity".

In this CPD session, we will first make participants aware of the most prevalent issues surrounding attachment. Subsequently, we will introduce them to the latest insights into attachment theory and the social neuroscience of human attachment (SoNeAt). Based on these insights, we will then demonstrate how an attachment-informed classroom can be created as a safe and secure space that enables and fosters exploration, learning and creativity for everybody.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We are looking forward to meeting you soon!

We are welcoming teachers, advisers, counsellors and colleagues from schools and colleges to join us on Thursday 18 June for our Annual Teachers and Advisors Conference 2026.

Visit our Colchester Campus for a day of CPD sessions led by academics from across our departments, including Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, Sociology and Criminology, Government, and Language and Linguistics.

Alongside essential updates from in-person guest speakers representing UCAS and Student Finance England, providing essential updates to help you stay fully informed on the latest developments in higher education, admissions and funding.

You’ll have the opportunity to network with colleagues over lunch and share best practice.

For full details and to book your place, please visit our webpage: https://essex.pulse.ly/lkor5ti8hw

In their first post on Attachment-Informed Leadership ( ), our PI Dr Pascal Vrticka and Jonathan Wolf-Phillips have explored how is fundamentally an anchored in the biological imperative for and .

They subsequently illustrated that can only truly optimise their and by looking beneath the surface of simple tasks and behaviours and instead at the physiological and neural mechanics of human .

Their latest post focuses on Interpersonal Neural (INS) and Bio-Behavioural Synchrony (BBS) as the invisible threads that weave a collection of individuals into a high-performing ‘super-organism’ and thereby enable social fostering under pressure.

INS and BBS are also a primary focus of our current SoNeAt Lab's research in the area of AIL, which aims to further explore and refine organisational processes and interpersonal functioning in the boardroom.

The structure is as follows:
1. The Brain’s Metabolic Mandate: Allostasis through Active Inference
2. Attachment: Highest-Order Prediction Priors
3. Relational Neuroscience: Decoding INS and BBS
4. INS and BBS as Catalysts for Resilience
5. The Shadow Side: Potential Pitfalls of High Synchrony
6. Research into INS and BBS in the Boardroom

👉🏻 https://attachmentinformedleadership.substack.com/p/the-role-of-ins-and-bbs

It is our aim to pave the way of this new and exciting field of research by establishing our SoNeAt Lab as the world-leading laboratory for the investigation of AIL in the corporate boardroom through the lens of INS and BBS. To realise this ambitious goal, we are actively looking for corporate partners and private funders. Please get in touch if you are interested in learning more and getting involved in the next step of this unique endeavour.

Psychology at University of Essex
University of Essex

The Role of Interpersonal Neural and Bio-Behavioural Synchrony for Attachment-Informed Leadership In our first post on Attachment-Informed Leadership (AIL), we have explored how leadership is fundamentally an attachment relationship anchored in the biological imperative for safety and security.

We are still accepting submissions for our 2026 SoNeAt Lab workshop (Psychology at University of Essex/ University of Essex) taking place in ( ) on 01 & 02 September 2026.

🚨 The deadline for filling in the attendance request and abstract submission form has now been extended to 15 May 2026 🚨

Attendance is possible both remotely (one day) and in person (two days).

More information is available here: https://pvrticka.com/2026-soneat-lab-fnirs-hyperscanning-workshop/

Please share widely. Thank you 🙏🏻

Our Department of Psychology at University of Essex / University of Essex (Colchester, United Kingdom) has the opportunity to support applications as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call (open since 9 April 2026, deadline 9 September 2026).

If you are in possession of a doctoral degree (received after 09/09/2018, less than 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research), have previous experience with fNIRS (hyperscanning) and are interested in our SoNeAt Lab's research (for more information, see here: https://www.essex.ac.uk/departments/psychology/facilities/soneat-lab), we would be happy to discuss this opportunity with you.

In preparation of a possible application, the UK National Contact Point for the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is organising an information webinar for organisations and individuals interested in the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 call. It will take place on 14 May 2026 from 10:00-12:00 UK time. To register, please see here: 87e33c77-65e2-4164-a6a4-03e48d726034@8bb7e08e-daa4-4a8e-927e-fca38db04b7e." rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/87e33c77-65e2-4164-a6a4-03e48d726034@8bb7e08e-daa4-4a8e-927e-fca38db04b7e.

👉🏻 https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/funding/msca-postdoctoral-fellowships-2026

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD and who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships will be open to excellent researchers of....

#37: The nighttime parenting gap

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Why do often take the ‘night shift’ with new ? A common belief is that are naturally more sensitive to than . However, a recent study suggests that may not be the primary driver behind this uneven split. Let’s have a closer look!

The study involved three parts. First, researchers tested 140 non-parents who slept at home using a smartphone app that played infant cries and alarm sounds at increasing volumes.

Whereas women were found to be 14% more likely than men to wake up at the very lowest sound volumes, this difference quickly disappeared with increasing sound volumes.

Furthermore, at lowest sound volumes, women’s increased sensitivity was present for both infant cries and alarm sounds and thus represented a more general waking arousal effect.

Together, these data suggest that both men and women are biologically able to hear infant cries at night.

Next, when the researchers tracked 117 first-time parent couples for a week, they found a significant gap. Mothers were three times more likely to respond to their infants at night than fathers, handling about 76% of the .

Finally, the researchers used a computer simulation of 500 virtual couples assuming that nighttime care was determined solely by who woke up first when a cry started at a low volume and gradually got louder.

Their results indicated that the significant biological differences at very low sound volumes were insufficient to explain the 3-to-1 ratio seen in real homes.

The study concluded that the ‘nighttime gap’ likely stems from social and environmental and not biological factors.

In many countries, mothers take significantly more and earlier than fathers, which usually allows them to gain more experience and ‘on-the-job’ sensitivity to their infant's signals.

Other factors, like and societal , may also contribute.

Together, the division of nighttime care is likely a result of how we organise early parenting and leave, rather than an inherent biological ‘maternal instinct’ for waking up.

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For more insights and references, see: https://pvrticka.com/attachment-insights/ #37

🌏 Our SoNeAt Lab PI Dr Pascal Vrticka is very excited and grateful to be back in , , this time together with Dr Amanda Lucas, the Founding Director of the -based Babygro (https://babygro.org/).

🤝 As part of a wonderful collaboration with Winnie Chao and her team from DeYu Education Group 德瑜教育集團 & 育家圓familyforever and Shinmin Wang from 國立臺灣師範大學 National Taiwan Normal University, and supported by an International Impact Fund by the University of Essex, we have the great privilege to run four sessions of Babygro's and Workshops based on our Lab's research at the Department of Psychology at University of Essex with local .

🌱 We hope that our current visit can inspire a more sustained collaboration in the future for the benefit of as many families as possible.

The National Lottery Community Fund
Cornwall Community Foundation

🚨 Our (Psychology at University of Essex, University of Essex) is very happy to announce the 2026 SoNeAt Lab Workshop 🚨

📍 The workshop will take place at our campus on September 01 and 02, 2026.

🎓 Our workshop is mainly aimed at and , , and early-career researchers who are beginners or relatively new to fNIRS hyperscanning.

🗓️ This year, we offer a two-day in-person option with lots of demos and hands-on data acquisition and analysis sessions as well as opportunities to present information about planned, already running or completed studies and for networking. We also offer a one-day listener only option to remotely attend the plenary talks (with asynchronous and extended access to talk recordings).

🗣️ We will have Dr Sara De Felice as our special invited guest speaker and Artinis/NIRx as our industry partner.

‼️ Spaces for in-person attendance are limited and will be based on a selection process by a dedicated evaluation committee. To secure a spot, please fill in the Attendance Request and Abstract Submission Form at your earliest convenience (Deadline: 30 April 2026). Selection decisions will be sent out by 01 June 2026 the latest.

👉🏻 More information is available here: https://pvrticka.com/2026-soneat-lab-fnirs-hyperscanning-workshop/

❓ Please let us know if you have any questions, and feel free to share widely. Thank you 🙏🏻.

Congratulations to Matt from South Benfleet for winning our February Amazon £50 prize draw 🎉

If you have a child currently in Reception you can sign up here and we will send you the questionnaire:
https://tinyurl.com/SWITCHUKP

Once you complete the questionnaire, you will be entered into the prize draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher.

Only 13 days to go until the March draw closes - Good Luck 😊