SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1614379
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Influence of Flourishing and its Associated Factors on the Mental Health and Well-Being of IndividualsView all 10 articles
Physiological attunement and flourishing: understanding the influence of relationships on health
Provisionally accepted
Marco A. Vinhosa Bastos Jr.1*
Danilo Faria Braz1Ana Laura Manzan Porto1Khadija S. da Silva Cordeiro1Renata Boschi Portella1
Douglas Alan Granger2- 1Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil
- 2University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
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Flourishing can be defined as the experience of life going well, a combination of feeling good and functioning effectively. High-quality relationships are essential to flourishing and long-term health. Physiological attunement refers to the temporal alignment of two or more people`s physiological states. The synchronization of autonomic and endocrine systems has been proposed as a mechanism supporting emotion regulation and social bonding. This scoping review maps the existing literature on physiological attunement in adult dyadic relationships. The review protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/295GE) and followed JBI methodology for scoping reviews. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched. Eligible studies were original, quantitative, peer-reviewed articles published in English that examined physiological attunement in adult human relationships. Two reviewers independently screened and selected the studies. A total of 62 studies were included. Attunement was observed in romantic partners, friends, strangers, and groups, involving heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, respiration, alpha-amylase, and cortisol. Attunement was shaped by relational context, emotional tone, individual traits (e.g., empathy, attachment style), and interaction features (e.g., touch, conflict, cooperation). While often linked to satisfaction, intimacy, and co-regulation, attunement also appeared in distress contexts, sometimes reflecting stress contagion or co-dysregulation. Physiological attunement appears to be a contextsensitive process that may support or hinder wellbeing. It may represent a key biobehavioral pathway linking relationships to flourishing.
Keywords: Adult, physiologic interdependence, cortisol, relationship, flourishment, wellbeing
Received: 18 Apr 2025; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bastos Jr., Braz, Porto, Cordeiro, Portella and Granger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marco A. Vinhosa Bastos Jr., Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.