The neural substrates of social emotion perception and regulation are modulated by adult attachment style

Neural correlates of distress and comfort in individuals with avoidant, anxious and secure attachment style: an fMRI study

Despite a growing literature, experiments directly related to attachment are still needed. We explored brain processes involved in two aspects of attachment, distress and comfort. Seventy-eight healthy adult males with different attachment styles (secure, avoidant, and anxious) viewed distress, comfort, complicity-joy and neutral images (picture database BAPS-Adult) in an fMRI block design. ROIs from the modules described in the functional Neuro-Anatomical Model of Attachment (Long et al. 2020) were studied. Secure participants used more co- and self-regulation strategies and exhibited a higher activation of the reward network in distress and comfort viewing, than insecure participants. Avoidant participants showed the lower brain activations. Their approach and reward modules were the least activated in distress and comfort. Anxious participants presented both higher activations of the approach and aversion modules during complicity-joy. In addition, comfort and complicity-joy were processed differently according to attachment styles and should be differentiated among positive stimuli to disentangle attachment processes.

Could Relationship-Based Learnt Beliefs and Expectations Contribute to Physiological Vulnerability of Chronic Pain? Making a Case to Consider Attachment in Pain Research

Pain is an interpersonal and inherently social experience. Pain perception and administration of medical treatment all occur in a particular environmental and social context. Early environmental influences and early learning experiences and interactions condition the body's response to different threats (like pain), ultimately shaping the underlying neurophysiology. These early interactions and experiences also determine what situations are perceived as threatening, as well as our belief in our own ability to self-manage, and our belief in others to offer support, during perceived threats. These beliefs intrinsically drive the combination of behaviors that emerge in response to perceived threats, including pain. Such behaviors can be categorized into attachment styles. In this interdisciplinary review, we synthesize and summarize evidence from the neurobiological, psychobiological, psychosocial, and psychobehavioral fields, to describe how these beliefs are embedded in the brain's prediction models to generate a series of expectations/perceptions around the level of safety/threat in different contexts. As such, these beliefs may predict how one experiences and responds to pain, with potentially significant implications for the development and management of chronic pain. Little attention has been directed to the effect of adult attachment style on pain in research studies and in the clinical setting. Using interdisciplinary evidence, we argue why we think this interaction merits further consideration and research. PERSPECTIVE: This review explores the influence of attachment styles on pain perception, suggesting a link between social connections and chronic pain development. It aligns with recent calls to emphasize the social context in pain research and advocates for increased focus on adult attachment styles in research and clinical practice.

Neuromodulation of safety and surprise in the early stages of infant development: affective homeostatic regulation in bodily and mental functions

Developing a sense of internal safety and security depends mainly on others: numerous neuromodulators play a significant role in the homeostatic process, regulating the importance of proximity to a caregiver and experiencing feelings that enable us to regulate our interdependence with our conspecifics since birth. This array of neurofunctional structures have been called the SEPARATION DISTRESS system (now more commonly known as the PANIC/ GRIEF system). This emotional system is mainly involved in the production of depressive symptoms. The disruption of this essential emotional balance leads to the onset of feelings of panic followed by depression. We will focus on the neuropeptides that play a crucial role in social approach behavior in mammals, which enhance prosocial behavior and facilitate the consolidation of social bonds. We propose that most prosocial behaviors are regulated through the specific neuromodulators acting on salient intersubjective stimuli, reflecting an increased sense of inner confidence (safety) in social relationships. This review considers the neurofunctional link between the feelings that may ultimately be at the base of a sense of inner safety and the central neuromodulatory systems. This link may shed light on the clinical implications for the development of early mother-infant bonding and the depressive clinical consequences when this bond is disrupted, such as in post-partum depression, depressive feelings connected to, addiction, neurofunctional disorders, and psychological trauma.

Emotion regulation unveiled through the categorical lens of attachment

BACKGROUND

Emotion regulation, the process by which individuals manage and modify their emotional experiences, expressions, and responses to adaptively navigate and cope with various situations, plays a crucial role in daily life. Our study investigates the variations in emotion regulation strategies among individuals with different attachment styles (AS). Specifically, we examine how individuals with secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful attachment styles effectively utilize cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to regulate their emotions.

METHODS

A total of n = 98 adults were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in an experimental emotion regulation task. After completing the task, participants rated the valence and arousal elicited by the images. Attachment styles were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire and then categorized into four AS.

RESULTS

Our study revealed that individuals with secure AS (n = 39) effectively reduced displeasure through cognitive reappraisal but experienced levels of displeasure with expressive suppression. Anxious AS (n = 16) individuals successfully reduced displeasure using cognitive reappraisal but struggled to regulate arousal and effectively use expressive suppression. Avoidant AS (n = 24) individuals could reduce displeasure with both strategies but experienced high arousal during suppression attempts. Fearful AS (n = 19) individuals effectively regulated both displeasure and arousal using either strategy. However, Secure AS individuals showed superior reappraisal efficacy, significantly reducing arousal levels compared to the Fearful AS group. Both Secure and Avoidant AS groups experienced higher valence during reappraisal relative to a baseline, indicating a decrease in displeasure.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with different AS exhibit variations in the effectiveness of their use of emotion regulation strategies. Our findings reinforce the significance of AS in shaping emotion regulation processes and emphasize the need for tailored approaches to support individuals with different attachment orientations.

Enhancing EEG-based attachment style prediction: unveiling the impact of feature domains

Introduction

Attachment styles are crucial in human relationships and have been explored through neurophysiological responses and EEG data analysis. This study investigates the potential of EEG data in predicting and differentiating secure and insecure attachment styles, contributing to the understanding of the neural basis of interpersonal dynamics.

Methods

We engaged 27 participants in our study, employing an XGBoost classifier to analyze EEG data across various feature domains, including time-domain, complexity-based, and frequency-based attributes.

Results

The study found significant differences in the precision of attachment style prediction: a high precision rate of 96.18% for predicting insecure attachment, and a lower precision of 55.34% for secure attachment. Balanced accuracy metrics indicated an overall model accuracy of approximately 84.14%, taking into account dataset imbalances.

Discussion

These results highlight the challenges in using EEG patterns for attachment style prediction due to the complex nature of attachment insecurities. Individuals with heightened perceived insecurity predominantly aligned with the insecure attachment category, suggesting a link to their increased emotional reactivity and sensitivity to social cues. The study underscores the importance of time-domain features in prediction accuracy, followed by complexity-based features, while noting the lesser impact of frequency-based features. Our findings advance the understanding of the neural correlates of attachment and pave the way for future research, including expanding demographic diversity and integrating multimodal data to refine predictive models.

Close(d) to you? Avoidant attachment is associated with attenuated pupil responsivity to social stimuli

Insecure attachment is thought to impair romantic relationships, presumably also contributing to mental health problems. Previous research has suggested a link to biased automatic processing of social information, potentially reflected in pupil dilation responses. To address this hypothesis, 37 adults were presented with attachment-related, emotional pictures of erotic couples, everyday couples, or interpersonal violence after assessment with the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale. Considerable variation in self-reported attachment behaviors regarding both attachment anxiety and avoidance was observed in our sample. Overall, pupil dilation was most pronounced during viewing of erotica and violence-related pictures. Relative to nature pictures as control, attachment avoidance was associated with attenuated pupillary responses to social content. However, this was not significant with erotica. For pictures of violence, this avoidant bias was also evident in reduced subjective arousal. In contrast, attachment anxiety was unrelated to differential pupil dilation. Our findings, although preliminary, suggest that previous attachment-related experiences may bias the processing of social stimuli, which in turn may be reflected in altered patterns of pupillary responses.

Attachment style, emotional feedback, and neural processing: investigating the influence of attachment on the P200 and P400 components of event-related potentials

Understanding the interplay between attachment style, emotional processing, and neural responses is crucial for comprehending the diverse ways individuals function socially and emotionally. While previous research has contributed to our knowledge of how attachment style influences emotional processing, there is still a gap in the literature when it comes to investigating emotional feedback using event-related potentials (ERPs) within a cognitive framework. This study aims to address this gap by examining the effects of attachment style and feedback valence on ERP components, specifically focusing on the P200 and P400. The findings reveal significant effects of attachment style and feedback valence on both components. In insecure attachment styles, noticeable shifts in relative energy are observed during the transition from negative to positive feedback for both the P200 and P400. Conversely, individuals with secure attachment styles exhibit minimal to moderate variations in relative energy, consistently maintaining a lower P200 energy level. Additionally, both secure and insecure individuals demonstrate heightened intensity in the P400 component in response to positive feedback. These findings underscore the influential role of attachment style in shaping emotional reactivity and regulation, emphasizing the significance of attachment theory in understanding individual differences in social and emotional functioning. This study provides novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of attachment style on emotional processing within the context of cognitive task performance. Future research should consider diverse participant samples, employ objective measures of attachment, and utilize longitudinal designs to further explore the neural processes associated with attachment.

Emotion regulation strategies and the two-dimensional model of adult attachment: a pilot study

Introduction

Emotion Regulation plays a crucial role in human's daily lives. Extensive research has shown that people with different attachment orientations exhibit divergencies in how they perform emotion regulation strategies.

Methods

44 adults performed an experimental emotion regulation task in which they were instructed to attend, reappraise, or suppress their emotions while viewing negative and neutral images taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Afterward, participants rated valence, arousal, and emotional dominance elicited by the images. Additionally, attachment orientations were measured using the ECR-12 questionnaire.

Results

Results showed a relationship between attachment avoidance and the level of arousal during the reappraisal condition; specifically, the higher attachment avoidance levels, the greater the emotional intensity during the implementation of cognitive reappraisal strategy. Such results suggest an association between failing in downregulate intense emotions using cognitive reappraisal when there are higher levels of attachment avoidance. Consistently, we also found that lower dominance during reappraisal was associated with more levels of avoidance.

Conclusion

These results indicate that people with higher levels of attachment avoidance experience difficulties when using the cognitive reappraisal strategy to reduce the emotional impact produced by negative emotional stimuli. Our findings reinforce the idea that avoidant people experience high physiological activation when experience emotions.

Association between attachment anxiety and the gaze direction-related N170

Attachment theory suggests that interindividual differences in attachment security versus insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) contribute to the ways in which people perceive social emotional signals, particularly from the human face. Among different facial features, eye gaze conveys crucial information for social interaction, with a straight gaze triggering different cognitive and emotional processes as compared to an averted gaze. It remains unknown, however, how interindividual differences in attachment associate with early face encoding in the context of a straight versus averted gaze. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and recording event-related potentials (ERPs), specifically the N170 component, the present study (N = 50 healthy adults) measured how the characteristics of attachment anxiety and avoidance relate to the encoding of faces with respect to gaze direction and head orientation. Our findings reveal a significant relationship between gaze direction (irrespective of head orientation) and attachment anxiety on the interhemispheric (i.e. right) asymmetry of the N170 and thus provide evidence for an association between attachment anxiety and eye gaze processing during early visual face encoding.

Brain responses to social cues of attachment in mid-childhood

Physical separation from caregivers activates attachment-related behaviors. However, neural underpinnings of this biological mechanism in humans and their development are poorly understood. We examined via functional MRI brain responses to pictorial representations of separation as a function of attachment-security, attachment-avoidance, and attachment-anxiety measured using the Child-Attachment-Interview, in 30 typically developing children (9-11 years). Attachment-related stimuli elicited enhanced activation in the precuneus, temporoparietal junction area, and medial superior frontal gyrus (described as mentalization network). More negatively rated attachment stimuli yielded increased activity in the inferior frontal gyrus/anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex/ACC. Furthermore, ACC responses to attachment-related as compared to control stimuli were positively correlated with attachment-security and negatively correlated with attachment-avoidance. Our findings suggest that processing of separation cues elicits increased mentalization-related processing in children and activation of the salience network with increased negative valence of stimuli. Avoidant vs. securely attached children differentially activate ACC-dependent processes of affective evaluation.

Rethinking the Architecture of Attachment: New Insights into the Role for Oxytocin Signaling

Social attachments, the enduring bonds between individuals and groups, are essential to health and well-being. The appropriate formation and maintenance of social relationships depend upon a number of affective processes, including stress regulation, motivation, reward, as well as reciprocal interactions necessary for evaluating the affective state of others. A genetic, molecular, and neural circuit level understanding of social attachments therefore provides a powerful substrate for probing the affective processes associated with social behaviors. Socially monogamous species form long-term pair bonds, allowing us to investigate the mechanisms underlying attachment. Now, molecular genetic tools permit manipulations in monogamous species. Studies using these tools reveal new insights into the genetic and neuroendocrine factors that design and control the neural architecture underlying attachment behavior. We focus this discussion on the prairie vole and oxytocinergic signaling in this and related species as a model of attachment behavior that has been studied in the context of genetic and pharmacological manipulations. We consider developmental processes that impact the demonstration of bonding behavior across genetic backgrounds, the modularity of mechanisms underlying bonding behaviors, and the distributed circuitry supporting these behaviors. Incorporating such theoretical considerations when interpreting reverse genetic studies in the context of the rich ethological and pharmacological data collected in monogamous species provides an important framework for studies of attachment behavior in both animal models and studies of human relationships.

Insecure adult attachment and reflective functioning as mechanisms of the relationship between traumatic life events and suicidal ideation: A path analysis

The relationship between traumatic life events and increased suicide risk has been well reported in literature. However, the complex nature of suicidality phenomena still hinders our ability to comprehend the mediation mechanism underlying this association. In this study, we examined the mediating role of adult attachment and reflective functioning in the relationship between traumatic life events and suicidal ideation. Nine hundred and fifty Italian adults completed an online survey evaluating traumatic life events, adult attachment, reflective functioning and suicidal ideation. The path analysis showed that the positive relationship between traumatic life events and suicidal ideation was partially mediated by attachment anxiety and reflective functioning. From a clinical point of view, these results support the relevance of evaluating and improving patients’ ability to mentalize as a part of psychotherapeutic intervention aimed at reducing suicidality in people with a history of traumatic experiences and attachment anxiety.

Attachment style dimensions are associated with neural activation during projection of mental states

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between attachment dimensions and neural correlates in response to the Rorschach inkblots. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited for the electroencephalographic registration during a visual presentation of the Rorschach inkblots and polygonal shapes. The Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) was administered to participants. Correlations between the ASQ scores and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) intensities were performed. The Rorschach inkblots elicited several projective responses greater than the polygonal shapes (distortions, human and total movements, and embellishments). Only during the Rorschach inkblots presentation, discomfort with closeness and relationships as secondary subscales were negatively correlated with the activation of right hippocampus, parahippocampus, amygdala, and insula; need for approval subscale was negatively correlated with the activation of orbital and prefrontal cortex and left hippocampus. Moreover, the correlations between attachment dimensions and neural activation during the Rorschach inkblots were significantly higher compared to the same correlations in response to polygonal shapes. These findings suggest that attachment style can modulate brain activation during the projective activity of the Rorschach inkblots.

Childhood trauma increases vulnerability to attempt suicide in adulthood through avoidant attachment

BACKGROUND

Childhood trauma and affective disorders are known risk factors for adult suicidal behavior. Studies have shown a mediating effect of insecure attachment on the effect of childhood trauma and suicidal behavior but so far it is not clear whether this effect is related to an attachment dimension (anxiety, avoidance).

AIM

The present study sought to examine the mediating effect of attachment anxiety and avoidance on suicidal behavior.

METHODS

We analyzed data on childhood trauma, attachment style, depression severity, presence of prior suicide attempts and current suicide ideation from 96 patients diagnosed with an affective disorder. Two mediation analyses were conducted to assess the effect of childhood trauma on 1) prior suicide attempts and 2) current suicidal ideation through its effect on attachment.

RESULTS

We found that childhood trauma had a complete mediated effect on the presence of prior suicide attempts through its effect on avoidant attachment (a1b1 = 0.0120, 95%-CI [0.0031, 0.0276]). However, only emotional abuse had a direct influence on suicidal ideation (c' = 0.0273, p < 0.01) without any indirect effect of anxious or avoidant attachment.

LIMITATIONS

Variables were not assessed in a prospective way and sample size was small.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that individuals with avoidant attachment and childhood trauma are likely to present a high suicide risk. Since avoidant attachment is associated with altered perceptions and eventual rejection of social support, we recommend to screen for attachment early and to engage patients in therapeutical approaches focusing on the client-therapist alliance.

Infant Social Withdrawal Behavior: A Key for Adaptation in the Face of Relational Adversity

As a result of evolution, human babies are born with outstanding abilities for human communication and cooperation. The other side of the coin is their great sensitivity to any clear and durable violation in their relationship with caregivers. Infant sustained social withdrawal behavior (ISSWB) was first described in infants who had been separated from their caregivers, as in Spitz's description of “hospitalism” and “anaclitic depression.” Later, ISSWB was pointed to as a major clinical psychological feature in failure-to-thrive infants. Fraiberg also described freezing behavior as one of the earliest modes of infant defense in the face of adverse situations threatening the infant's ability to synchronize with caregivers. We hypothesize that ISSWB behaviors are associated with poor vagal brake functioning and that an impaired social engagement system is induced by an impoverished and/or dangerous environment. Recent research using animal models highlight the neurobiology and the genetics of the social Approach/Withdrawal Behavior in infants. The present paper is therefore a plea for social withdrawal behavior to be attributed a more important role as a major psychological defensive mechanism in infancy, and for research into early development and early intervention to make more practical and theoretical use of this concept, thus decreasing the challenge of translation in social neurosciences. This work presents several situations involving developmental hazards in which assessment of ISSWB by means of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) has proven useful, i.e., malnutrition, effects of major maternal depression and or traumatization, assessing social withdrawal in infants with an chronic organic illness (congenital heart disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, cleft lip and/or palate Prader-Willy syndrome, Fetal alcohol syndrome) or assessing ISSWB in out of home placed infants during parental visitation. Relationships between ISSWB and other biophysiological behavioral systems are discussed, particularly links with attachment processes and Porges's polyvagal theory.

Insecure Adult Attachment Style and PTSD Symptom Severity among Firefighters: The Role of Distress Tolerance

Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among firefighters are prevalent and well-documented. Insecure adult attachment style (AAS) and distress tolerance (DT) present two factors with demonstrated relevance to the etiology and maintenance of PTSD. Few studies have examined these constructs in relation to PTSD symptomatology among firefighter populations. The present investigation examined the indirect effect of insecure romantic AAS (i.e., anxious AAS, avoidant AAS) on PTSD symptom severity through DT among firefighters. Exploratory analyses examined this model with each of the PTSD symptom clusters as outcomes. The sample was comprised of 105 firefighters (Mage=40.43, SD=9.15, 95.2% male) recruited from various departments in the southern U.S. An indirect effect was calculated using 10,000 bootstrapped samples. Indirect effects models in the primary analyses were significant when both anxious AAS (β=.20, SE=.10, CI=.06-.43) and avoidant AAS (β=.28, SE=.12, CI=.08-.54) were evaluated as predictors. Effects were evident after accounting for gender, relationship status, years of fire service, and trauma load (i.e., number of potentially traumatic event types experienced). Exploratory analyses revealed that anxious and avoidant AAS are both indirectly related to the PTSD intrusion, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity symptom clusters through DT. Anxious AAS also demonstrated an indirect association with PTSD avoidance symptoms through DT. Attachment styles may influence PTSD symptoms among firefighters through a firefighter's perceived ability to withstand emotional distress. This line of inquiry has potential to inform specialized intervention programs for firefighters. Clinical and empirical implications are discussed.

Neural correlates of attachment in adolescents with trauma: a preliminary study on frustrative non-reward

Despite the proposed early life origins of attachment style and its implications for risk for psychopathology, little is known about its neurodevelopmental course. Adolescence represents a key transition period when neural substrates of emotion regulation and reward undergo dramatic maturational shifts. Thus, maladaptive coping strategies associated with insecure attachment styles may have an exaggerated effect during adolescence. The current study, therefore, examined the neural correlates of insecure attachment in a diverse sample of adolescents using a frustrative non-reward task (i.e. repeatedly being denied an expected reward). Although there were no significant interactions in the whole-brain activation averaged over the course of the task, the use of complementary analytic approaches (connectivity, change in activation over the course of the task) revealed widespread alterations associated with avoidant attachment during the immediate reaction to, and ensuing recovery from, being denied a reward. Most strikingly, increased avoidant attachment, adjusting for anxious attachment, predicted functional connectivity and change in activity over time in amygdala-prefrontal and frontostriatal networks to reward blocked vs received trials. These patterns were in the opposite direction compared to those exhibited by adolescents lower in avoidant attachment. The findings suggest that negative emotional experiences, such as receiving frustrating feedback, may be uniquely aversive internal experiences for avoidantly attached adolescents and provide preliminary evidence that early coping strategies may persist into adolescence in the form of altered emotion- and reward-related neural patterns.

Ability Emotional Intelligence, Attachment Models, and Reflective Functioning

Previous studies have reported a significant positive association between ability emotional intelligence (EI) and attachment security. However, these studies may, to some extent, be misleading because they relied on self-report measures of attachment security. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated the relationship between ability EI and mentalization, operazionalized as reflective functioning (RF), although EI and RF were assumed to be “conceptual cousins.” In an attempt to overcome some of the limitations of the previous research, the current study investigated the relationships between ability EI, attachment security, and mentalization measured via the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Ninety-three volunteer participants from an Italian community population (49.5% males), aged from 27 to 55 years (M = 39.44; SD = 6.84), took part in the study. Significant positive correlations were found between ability EI, attachment security, and RF. The results shed some light on the relationship between different attachment strategies and ability EI. Hyperactivating attachment strategies correlated negatively with ability EI, while the correlation between ability EI and attachment deactivating strategies depend on which defensive strategy is used: avoiding the painful emotional contact with the memory of unpleasant childhood attachment experiences positively correlated with experiential EI, whilst the resort to derogation of the attachment needs correlated with impairment in EI. Findings from the current study suggest that future studies in developmental psychology are needed to investigate the development of the ability EI in relation to the quality of the attachment models more in-depth.

Individual differences in social attachment: A multi-disciplinary perspective

Social behavior varies across both individuals and species. Research to explain this variation falls under the purview of multiple disciplines, each with its own theoretical and empirical traditions. Integration of these disciplinary traditions is key to developing a holistic perspective. Here, we review research on the biology of social attachment, a phenomena in which individuals develop strong affective connections to one another. We provide a historical overview of research on social attachment from psychological, ethological and neurobiological perspectives. As a case study, we describe work on pair-bonding in prairie voles, a socially monogamous rodent. This specific topic takes advantage of many biological perspectives and techniques to explain social bonds. Lastly, we conclude with an overview of multi-dimensional conceptual frameworks that can be used to explain social phenomena, and we propose a new framework for research on individual variation in attachment behavior. These conceptual frameworks originate from philosophy, physics, ethology, cognitive science and neuroscience. The application and synthesis of such frameworks offers a rich opportunity to advance understanding of social behavior and its mechanisms.

Activating the attachment system modulates neural responses to threat in refugees with PTSD

Social attachment systems are disrupted for refugees through trauma and forced displacement. This study tested how the attachment system mitigates neural responses to threat in refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Refugees with PTSD (N = 28) and refugee trauma-exposed controls (N = 22) viewed threat-related stimuli primed by attachment cues during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Group differences and the moderating effects of avoidant or anxious attachment style and grief related to separation from family on brain activity and connectivity patterns were examined. Separation grief was associated with increased amygdala but decreased ventromedial prefrontal cortical (VMPFC) activity to the attachment prime and decreased VMPFC and hippocampal activity to attachment primed threat in the PTSD (vs trauma-exposed control) group. Avoidant attachment style was connected with increased dorsal frontoparietal attention regional activity to attachment prime cues in the PTSD group. Anxious attachment style was associated with reduced left amygdala connectivity with left medial prefrontal regions to attachment primed threat in the PTSD group. Separation grief appears to reduce attachment buffering of threat reactivity in refugees with PTSD, while avoidant and anxious attachment style modulated attentional and prefrontal regulatory mechanisms in PTSD, respectively. Considering social attachments in refugees could be important to post-trauma recovery, based within changes in key emotion regulation brain systems.

Dynamic functional brain networks underlying the temporal inertia of negative emotions

Affective inertia represents the lasting impact of transient emotions at one time point on affective state at a subsequent time point. Here we describe the neural underpinnings of inertia following negative emotions elicited by sad events in movies. Using a co-activation pattern analysis of dynamic functional connectivity, we examined the temporal expression and reciprocal interactions among brain-wide networks during movies and subsequent resting periods in twenty healthy subjects. Our findings revealed distinctive spatiotemporal expression of visual (VIS), default mode (DMN), central executive (CEN), and frontoparietal control (FPCN) networks both in negative movies and in rest periods following these movies. We also identified different reciprocal relationships among these networks, in transitions from movie to rest. While FPCN and DMN expression increased during and after negative movies, respectively, FPCN occurrences during the movie predicted lower DMN and higher CEN expression during subsequent rest after neutral movies, but this relationship was reversed after the elicitation of negative emotions. Changes in FPCN and DMN activity correlated with more negative subjective affect. These findings provide new insights into the transient interactions of intrinsic brain networks underpinning the inertia of negative emotions. More specifically, they describe a major role of FPCN in emotion elicitation processes, with prolonged impact on DMN activity in subsequent rest, presumably involved in emotion regulation and restoration of homeostatic balance after negative events.

When Love Just Ends: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Dysfunctional Behaviors, Attachment Styles, Gender, and Education Shortly After a Relationship Dissolution

Much information is known about the long-term consequences of separation and divorce, whereas there is a paucity of studies about the short-term consequences of such experiences. This study investigates the adoption of dysfunctional behaviors (e.g., insistent telephone calls and text messages, verbal threats, and sending unwanted objects) shortly after a relationship dissolution. A total of 136 participants who declared to have been left by their former partner in the previous 6 months were included in this study (i.e., females: n = 84; males: n = 52; mean age = 30.38; SD = 4.19). Attachment styles were evaluated as explanatory variables when facing a relationship dissolution, in connection with a set of (1) demographic variables (i.e., gender, education, and current marital/relationship status), (2) dysfunctional behaviors, and (3) motivations on the basis of those behaviors. Results showed that a secure or dismissing attachment style, a higher education, and currently married (but awaiting separation) status were the protective factors in adopting such dysfunctional behaviors, while the preoccupied and fearful-avoidant subjects, especially females, tended to adopt dysfunctional behaviors (i.e., communication attempts and defamation) and reported fear of abandonment and need for attention as underlying motivations. Future study on longitudinal aspects of the relationship dissolution processes is required to have deeper insights into this phenomenon. This study sheds light on the relationship between adult attachment styles and the motivations behind the adoption of dysfunctional behaviors after a relationship dissolution.

Romantic love affects emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli: An EEG/ERP study using a love induction task

The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) the neural correlates of a love induction task (LIT) including listening to love-related songs and thinking about the romantic relationship, and (b) the effects of romantic love on the emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli during a passive viewing task. The EEG was recorded in two groups of university students: people in love (Love Group, LG, N = 22, 19 F) and people not in love (Control Group, CG, N = 20, 15 F). The LIT induced higher pleasantness and arousal in the LG than in the CG, as well as higher alpha activity in occipital-right electrodes, suggesting active mental imagery and internal focused attention. During the picture viewing task, the LG displayed larger N1 amplitudes than the CG in response to unpleasant pictures, and lower amplitudes of the late positive potential to both pleasant and unpleasant pictures at frontal sites. Overall, these results suggest an early attentional modulation of the neural responses to unpleasant, mood-incongruent cues, followed by an implicit emotional down-regulation of arousing stimuli, which might have important implications for everyday attitudes and behaviors.

Neural basis underlying the trait of attachment anxiety and avoidance revealed by the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and resting-state functional connectivity

Background

Attachment theory demonstrates that early attachment experience shapes internal working models with mental representations of self and close relationships, which affects personality traits and interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Although research has focused on brain structural and functional underpinnings to disentangle attachment styles in healthy individuals, little is known about the spontaneous brain activity associated with self-reported attachment anxiety and avoidance during the resting state.

Methods

One hundred and nineteen individuals participated in the study, completing the Experience in Close Relationship scale immediately after an 8-min fMRI scanning. We used the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) signal of the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and resting-state functional connectivity to identify attachment-related regions and networks.

Results

Consequently, attachment anxiety is closely associated with the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the right posterior cingulate cortex, over-estimating emotional intensity and exaggerating outcomes. Moreover, the functional connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and fusiform gyrus increases detection ability for potential threat or separation information, facilitating behavior motivation. The attachment avoidance is positively correlated with the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation in the bilateral lingual gyrus and right postcentral and negatively correlated with the bilateral orbital frontal cortex and inferior temporal gyrus. Functional connection with attachment avoidance contains critical nodes in the medial temporal lobe memory system, frontal-parietal network, social cognition, and default mode network necessary to deactivate the attachment system and inhibit attachment-related behavior.

Conclusion and implications

These findings clarify the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and resting-state functional connectivity neural signature of attachment style, associated with attachment strategies in attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance individuals. These findings may improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of the attachment-related disorder.

Neural correlates of sex-related differences in attachment dimensions

The purpose of this study was to investigate sex-related differences in the electrophysiological response to socioemotional stimuli (positive, negative, and ambiguous) depicting couple interactions. The associations between anxiety and avoidance attachment dimensions (measured with the Experiences in Close Relationships–Revised questionnaire) and the strength of cortico-limbic circuit intensity was explored, recorded using a 256-Hydrocel Geodesic Sensor-Net. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) data were analyzed for a total sample of 74 participants. Regression analyses showed that the women presented increased brain intensity compared with that in men, and the avoidance score was positively associated with brain intensity, particularly in response to negative socioemotional stimuli. The interaction sex per avoidance was a significant predictor of intensity in many brain areas, with women displaying significantly more pronounced positive associations between avoidance and brain intensity than men. In conclusion, the findings of the present study showed that women appeared to be more emotionally involved during the socioemotional task. Avoidance was positively associated with intensity of the cingulate and prefrontal regions, and these associations were more pronounced in women than in men. These findings suggested that avoidance seems to represent two different socioemotional strategies, in which women appear to activate an avoidant strategy to modulate increased emotional involvement in relationships, whereas men appear to adopt avoidance with a more intense emotional suppression.

Lower cognitive reappraisal capacity is related to impairments in attachment and personality structure in poly-drug use: an fMRI study

Insecure attachment, impaired personality structure and impaired emotion regulation figure prominently in substance use disorders. While negative emotions can trigger drug-use and relapse, cognitive reappraisal may reduce emotional strain by promoting changes in perspective. In the present study, we explored behavioral and neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal in poly-drug use disorder by testing individuals' capability to generate cognitive reappraisals for aversive events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test). 18 inpatients with poly-drug use disorder and 16 controls completed the Adult Attachment Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Wonderlic Personnel Test, and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis Structure Questionnaire, as well as two versions of the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test (during fMRI and outside the lab). Compared to controls, polydrug inpatients reported impaired personality structure, attachment and emotion regulation abilities. In the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test, poly-drug inpatients were less flexible and fluent in generating reappraisals for anger-eliciting situations. Corresponding to previous brain imaging evidence, cognitive reappraisal efforts of both groups were reflected in activation of left frontal regions, particularly left superior and middle frontal gyri and left supplemental motor areas. However, no group differences in neural activation patterns emerged. This suggests that despite cognitive reappraisal impairments on a behavioral level, neural reflections of these deficits in poly-drug use disorder might be more complex.

Brain functional connectivity dynamics at rest in the aftermath of affective and cognitive challenges

Carry-over effects on brain states have been reported following emotional and cognitive events, persisting even during subsequent rest. Here, we investigated such effects by identifying recurring co-activation patterns (CAPs) in neural networks at rest with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared carry-over effects on brain-wide CAPs at rest and their modulation after both affective and cognitive challenges. Healthy participants underwent fMRI scanning during emotional induction with negative valence and performed cognitive control tasks, each followed by resting periods. Several CAPs, overlapping with the default-mode (DMN), salience, dorsal attention, and social cognition networks were impacted by both the preceding events (movie or task) and the emotional valence of the experimental contexts (neutral or negative), with differential dynamic fluctuations over time. Temporal metrics of DMN-related CAPs were altered after exposure to negative emotional content (compared to neutral) and predicted changes in subjective affect on self-reported scores. In parallel, duration rates of another attention-related CAP increased with greater task difficulty during the preceding cognitive control condition, specifically in the negative context. These findings provide new insights on the anatomical organization and temporal inertia of functional brain networks, whose expression is differentially shaped by emotional states, presumably mediating adaptive homeostatic processes subsequent to behaviorally challenging events.

Attachment and autobiographical memory retrieval: Event-related potential evidence from strategic information processing

This article presents two studies using event-related potentials combined with an autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval task and a lexical judge task to explore differences in AM retrieval among differently attached individuals and to further explore whether the source of these differences is the schematic information processing mode or strategic information processing mode. The effectiveness of the information processing mode is also studied. The results revealed that differences in the AM extraction of different attachment styles were due to the strategic information processing mode, while no differences were found in the schematic information processing used by individuals with different attachment styles. Further, the strategic information processing used by the securely attached group was more flexible and efficient than that used by the insecurely attached group; moreover, the strategic information processing mode used by the avoidantly attached group was more stable and consistent than that used by the anxiously attached group.

State attachment moderates the maternal-related neural responses to infant faces

Adult attachment is particularly known for the modulating role of caregiving motivation and behavior. Although most studies consider attachment style relatively stable, it may also be affected by various situational factors, and these temporary fluctuations are related to meaningful behaviors. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study aims to examine whether neural responses to infant faces are moderated by participants' state attachment. The results indicated that state attachment security was positively associated with increased inferior orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and insula activation to infant crying. State attachment anxiety was positively associated with increased insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation to infant crying as well as enhanced cuneus activation to infant joy. In contrast, state attachment avoidance was negatively associated with amygdala activity in response to both infant joy and crying as well as insula and ACC activation in response to infant joy. Moderation analysis found that the relationship between the prediction effect of state attachment avoidance on ACC activity was gradually weakened with the attenuation of participants' trait attachment avoidance. These results demonstrate that neural responses to infant faces are moderated by individual differences in state attachment, thereby demonstrating that state attachment is an effective measure to capture the variation in maternal ability.

Stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves the memory representation of threats among individuals with high avoidant attachment

Prior research has suggested that individuals with high avoidant attachment may demonstrate a vigilant attentional bias and selective attentional avoidance towards attachment-related negative information (threat information). Similarly, some evidence suggests that impairment of hot working memory (WM) or emotional-related WM occurs in highly avoidant individuals. Moreover, functional MRI studies have demonstrated that the less-activated left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC) is related to the impairment of cognitive control for threat stimuli in individuals with high avoidant attachment. Therefore, in the present study, the causal role of the L-DLPFC on hot WM presentation was investigated by the high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) technique, and cognitive control for internal mental representations in WM was measured by the Internal Shift Task (IST). The results showed that the highly avoidant participants performed faster on the emotional IST than low avoidant participants in the sham condition. In the emotional IST, highly avoidant participants were slower after receiving anodal HD-tDCS than in the sham condition. Moreover, the switching cost of the emotional IST was significantly smaller in the highly avoidant group than low avoidant group under the sham HD-tDCS condition. Interestingly, in the emotional IST, the switching cost of highly avoidant individuals was significantly greater in the anodal stimulation group than the sham stimulation group. Conversely, the switching cost of low avoidant individuals was significantly smaller with anodal stimulation than for sham stimulation. The findings indicate that anodal HD-tDCS over the L-DLPFC can effectively enhance the ability of memory representation towards threat information in highly avoidant individuals. This study extends causal research by showing that the L-DLPFC is an important brain region for hot WM representations.

The Role of Attachment in Poly-Drug Use Disorder: An Overview of the Literature, Recent Findings and Clinical Implications

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) represent a worldwide epidemic with extensive costs to the individual and to society. Occasionally described as an attachment disorder, they have been linked to various impairments in self-regulation and social functioning. However, while there have been significant advances in the development and validation of treatment strategies for SUD in recent years, the components of these treatment approaches have yet to be fully explored. The characteristics of polydrug use disorder (PUD) especially need to be addressed in more detail, as this diagnosis is highly common in individuals seeking treatment, while simultaneously being associated with poor treatment success. Aim and Scope: This review aims at further exploring the relevance of attachment in PUD and its treatment. To this end, this review provides a concise summary of relevant theories on the development and treatment of SUD in general, including related parameters of attachment, emotion regulation, and neuroscience. Furthermore, several studies focused specifically on PUD are described in more detail. These studies explored the connections between attachment, personality structure, primary and higher emotions (including spirituality), as well as structural and functional neural parameters in inpatients with PUD as well as in healthy controls. Most notably, the described studies highlight that insecure attachment and impairments in personality structure are present in inpatients with PUD. In addition, these characteristics are paralleled by extensive impairments in white matter integrity, especially in tracts connected to facets of emotion regulation. Conclusions: Based on our findings, we emphasize conceptualization of PUD as an Attachment Disorder, on a behavioral as well as on a neural level. Furthermore, we point out the importance of an integrated bio-psycho-social approach in this research area. Consequently, future studies might more closely focus on the influence of attachment-based interventions on emotion regulation abilities as well as a potentially related neuroplasticity. Neuroplastic changes, which are still rather unexplored, might represent important parameters for the assessment of treatment outcomes especially in long-term SUD treatment.

Disentangle the neural correlates of attachment style in healthy individuals

Since its development and theorisation in the 60s, attachment theory has greatly influenced both clinical and developmental psychology suggesting the existence of complex dynamics based on the relationship between an infant and its caregiver, that affects personality traits and interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Many studies have been conducted to explore the association between attachment styles and psychosocial functioning and mental health. By contrast, only a few studies have investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of attachment style, showing mixed results. Therefore, in this review, we described current evidence from structural and functional imaging studies with the final aim to disentangle the neural correlates of attachment style in healthy individuals. Overall, different attachment styles have been correlated with volumetric alterations mainly in the cingulate cortex, amygdala, hippocampus and anterior temporal pole. Consistently, functional imaging studies suggested patterns of activations in fronto-striatal-limbic circuits during the processing of social and attachment-related stimuli. Further studies are needed to clarify the neurobiological signature of attachment style, possibly taking into consideration a wide range of demographic, psychosocial and clinical factors that may mediate the associations between the style of attachment and brain systems (e.g., gender, personality traits, psychosocial functioning, early-life experience).

Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Monitoring social threat is essential for maintaining healthy social relationships, and recent studies suggest a neural alarm system that governs our response to social rejection. Frontal-midline theta (4–8 Hz) oscillatory power might act as a neural correlate of this system by being sensitive to unexpected social rejection. Here, we examined whether frontal-midline theta is modulated by individual differences in personality constructs sensitive to social disconnection. In addition, we examined the sensitivity of feedback-related brain potentials (i.e., the feedback-related negativity and P3) to social feedback. Sixty-five undergraduate female participants (mean age = 19.69 years) participated in the Social Judgment Paradigm, a fictitious peer-evaluation task in which participants provided expectancies about being liked/disliked by peer strangers. Thereafter, they received feedback signaling social acceptance/rejection. A community structure analysis was employed to delineate personality profiles in our data. Results provided evidence of two subgroups: one group scored high on attachment-related anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, whereas the other group scored high on attachment-related avoidance and low on fear of negative evaluation. In both groups, unexpected rejection feedback yielded a significant increase in theta power. The feedback-related negativity was sensitive to unexpected feedback, regardless of valence, and was largest for unexpected rejection feedback. The feedback-related P3 was significantly enhanced in response to expected social acceptance feedback. Together, these findings confirm the sensitivity of frontal midline theta oscillations to the processing of social threat, and suggest that this alleged neural alarm system behaves similarly in individuals that differ in personality constructs relevant to social evaluation.

Neural Responses to Faces of Attachment Figures and Unfamiliar Faces: Associations With Organized and Disorganized Attachment Representations

The neural response to faces of attachment figures compared with unfamiliar faces still remains elusive. In particular, the modulation of the neural response by the organized (secure, insecure) compared with disorganized attachment representation of the subject investigated is unknown. For the present study, 38 healthy participants (age range, 21-71 years) were recruited. Three attachment groups (secure, n = 14; insecure, n = 15; disorganized, n = 9) were assessed using the Adult Attachment Projective. The participants were shown pictures of the faces of attachment figures (romantic partner/parents) and unfamiliar faces in a blocked factorial design, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Showing pictures of attachment figures activated parts of a neural social judgment network, important for inferring others' affective and cognitive mental states (e.g., inferior parietal lobe/superior temporal gyrus) in securely attached healthy individuals. In contrast, disorganized attached individuals with the experience of unresolved attachment trauma in their biography showed deactivations in these areas.

Regulating emotion through distancing: A taxonomy, neurocognitive model, and supporting meta-analysis

Distancing is a type of emotion regulation that involves simulating a new perspective to alter the psychological distance and emotional impact of a stimulus. The effectiveness and versatility of distancing relative to other types of emotion regulation make it a promising tool for clinical applications. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of this tactic are unclear, and inconsistencies in terminology and methods across studies make it difficult to synthesize the literature. To promote more effective research, we propose a taxonomy of distancing within the broader context of emotion regulation strategies; review the effects of this tactic; and offer a preliminary neurocognitive model describing key cognitive processes and their neural bases. Our model emphasizes three components-self-projection, affective self-reflection, and cognitive control. Additionally, we present results from a supporting meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of distancing. These efforts are presented within the overarching goals of supporting effective applications of distancing in laboratory, clinical, and other real-world contexts, and advancing understanding of the relevant high-level cognitive functions in the brain.

Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin and glucocorticoid receptor genes is linked to attachment avoidance in young adults

Attachment in the context of intimate pair bonds is most frequently studied in terms of the universal strategy to draw near, or away, from significant others at moments of personal distress. However, important interindividual differences in the quality of attachment exist, usually captured through secure versus insecure - anxious and/or avoidant - attachment orientations. Since Bowlby's pioneering writings on the theory of attachment, it has been assumed that attachment orientations are influenced by both genetic and social factors - what we would today describe and measure as gene by environment interaction mediated by epigenetic DNA modification - but research in humans on this topic remains extremely limited. We for the first time examined relations between intra-individual differences in attachment and epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) gene promoter in 109 young adult human participants. Our results revealed that attachment avoidance was significantly and specifically associated with increased OXTR and NR3C1 promoter methylation. These findings offer first tentative clues on the possible etiology of attachment avoidance in humans by showing epigenetic modification in genes related to both social stress regulation and HPA axis functioning.

Attachment orientations and emotion regulation

According to attachment theory, individual differences in the availability and responsiveness of close relationship partners, beginning in infancy, and the resulting formation of fairly stable attachment orientations are crucial for understanding the ways people experience and regulate emotions. In this article, we review what has been learned during the last decade about attachment-related individual differences in emotion regulation. We begin with a brief account of the hypothesized links between different forms of attachment insecurity (anxiety, avoidance) and strategies people use in regulating distress and coping with threatening events. We then review findings from correlational and experimental studies showing that individual differences in attachment orientation are reflected in cognitive, behavioral, and neural patterns of emotion regulation.

Brain activity underlying negative self- and other-perception in adolescents: The role of attachment-derived self-representations

One of teenagers’ key developmental tasks is to engage in new and meaningful relationships with peers and adults outside the family context. Attachment-derived expectations about the self and others in terms of internal attachment working models have the potential to shape such social reorientation processes critically and thereby influence adolescents’ social-emotional development and social integration. Because the neural underpinnings of this developmental task remain largely unknown, we sought to investigate them by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We asked n = 44 adolescents (ages 12.01–18.84 years) to evaluate positive and negative adjectives regarding either themselves or a close other during an adapted version of the well-established self-other trait-evaluation task. As measures of attachment, we obtained scores reflecting participants’ positive versus negative attachment-derived self- and other-models by means of the Relationship Questionnaire. We controlled for possible confounding factors by also obtaining scores reflecting internalizing/externalizing problems, schizotypy, and borderline symptomatology. Our results revealed that participants with a more negative attachment-derived self-model showed increased brain activity during positive and negative adjective evaluation regarding the self, but decreased brain activity during negative adjective evaluation regarding a close other, in bilateral amygdala/parahippocampus, bilateral anterior temporal pole/anterior superior temporal gyrus, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest that a low positivity of the self-concept characteristic for the attachment anxiety dimension may influence neural information processing, but in opposite directions when it comes to self- versus (close) other-representations. We discuss our results in the framework of attachment theory and regarding their implications especially for adolescent social-emotional development and social integration.

Functional connectivity changes following interpersonal reactivity

Attachment experiences substantially influence emotional and cognitive development. Narratives comprising attachment-dependent content were proposed to modulate activation of cognitive-emotional schemata in listeners. We studied the effects after listening to prototypical attachment narratives on wellbeing and countertransference-reactions in 149 healthy participants. Neural correlates of these cognitive-emotional schema activations were investigated in a 7 Tesla rest-task-rest fMRI-study (23 healthy males) using functional connectivity (FC) analysis of the social approach network (seed regions: left and right Caudate Nucleus, CN). Reduced FC between left CN and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) represented a general effect of prior auditory stimulation. After presentation of the insecure-dismissing narrative, FC between left CN and bilateral temporo-parietal junction, and right dorsal posterior Cingulum was reduced, compared to baseline. Post-narrative FC-patterns of insecure-dismissing and insecure-preoccupied narratives differed in strength between left CN and right DLPFC. Neural correlates of the moderating effect of individual attachment anxiety were represented in a reduced CN-DLPFC FC as a function of individual neediness-levels. These findings suggest specific neural processing of prolonged mood-changes and schema activation induced by attachment-specific speech patterns. Individual desire for interpersonal proximity was predicted by attachment anxiety and furthermore modulated FC of the social approach network in those exposed to such narratives.

Adult Attachment Styles Associated with Brain Activity in Response to Infant Faces in Nulliparous Women: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Adult attachment style is a key for understanding emotion regulation and feelings of security in human interactions as well as for the construction of the caregiving system. The caregiving system is a group of representations about affiliative behaviors, which is guided by the caregiver's sensitivity and empathy, and is mature in young adulthood. Appropriate perception and interpretation of infant emotions is a crucial component of the formation of a secure attachment relationship between infant and caregiver. As attachment styles influence the ways in which people perceive emotional information, we examined how different attachment styles associated with brain response to the perception of infant facial expressions in nulliparous females with secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment styles. The event-related potentials of 65 nulliparous females were assessed during a facial recognition task with joy, neutral, and crying infant faces. The results showed that anxiously attached females exhibited larger N170 amplitudes than those with avoidant attachment in response to all infant faces. Regarding the P300 component, securely attached females showed larger amplitudes to all infant faces in comparison with avoidantly attached females. Moreover, anxiously attached females exhibited greater amplitudes than avoidantly attached females to only crying infant faces. In conclusion, the current results provide evidence that attachment style differences are associated with brain responses to the perception of infant faces. Furthermore, these findings further separate the psychological mechanisms underlying the caregiving behavior of those with anxious and avoidant attachment from secure attachment.

Attachment in the Psychiatric Curriculum

Psychiatric trainees are expected to learn the fundamental concepts of psychodynamic psychotherapy, but they often struggle to understand and appreciate the relevance of this work. An introduction to attachment theory can go a long way toward assisting our trainees in understanding the relevance of psychodynamic psychiatry. To help programs develop this component of their curriculum, we summarize the history of the development of the attachment paradigm including the Strange Situation and Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), useful tools to teach these concepts, as well as ramifications of this work. We provide a summary of information regarding the evidence base connected to this paradigm, potential clinical relevance, health implications, work from neuroscience, and infant intervention models to assist in bringing psychodynamic concepts to life. Exposure to the attachment paradigm provides a model of intervention, prevention, and hope for our trainees as they transition from learning phenomenologic models of psychiatric diagnostics to other paradigms of human development and intervention.

How Does Adult Attachment Affect Human Recognition of Love-related and Sex-related Stimuli: An ERP Study

In the present study, we investigated the relationship among three emotion-motivation systems (adult attachment, romantic love, and sex). We recorded event-related potentials in 37 healthy volunteers who had experienced romantic love while they viewed SEX, LOVE, FRIEND, SPORT, and NEUTRAL images. We also measured adult attachment styles, level of passionate love and sexual attitudes. As expected, results showed that, firstly, response to love-related image-stimuli and sex-related image-stimuli on the electrophysiological data significantly different on N1, N2, and positive slow wave (PSW) components. Secondly, the different adult attachment styles affected individuals’ recognition processing in response to love-related and sex-related images, especially, to sex-related images. Further analysis showed that voltages elicited by fearful attachment style individuals were significantly lower than voltages elicited by secure and dismissing attachment style individuals on sex-related images at frontal sites, on N1 and N2 components. Thirdly, from behavior data, we found that adult attachment styles were not significantly related to any dimension of sexual attitudes but were significantly related to passionate love scale (PLS) total points. Thus, the behavior results were not in line with the electrophysiological results. The present study proved that adult attachment styles might mediate individuals’ lust and attraction systems.

Oxytocin receptor polymorphism and childhood social experiences shape adult personality, brain structure and neural correlates of mentalizing

INTRODUCTION

The oxytocin system is involved in human social behavior and social cognition such as attachment, emotion recognition and mentalizing (i.e. the ability to represent mental states of oneself and others). It is shaped by social experiences in early life, especially by parent-infant interactions. The single nucleotid polymorphism rs53576 in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene has been linked to social behavioral phenotypes.

METHOD

In 195 adult healthy subjects we investigated the interaction of OXTR rs53576 and childhood attachment security (CAS) on the personality traits "adult attachment style" and "alexithymia" (i.e. emotional self-awareness), on brain structure (voxel-based morphometry) and neural activation (fMRI) during an interactive mentalizing paradigm (prisoner's dilemma game; subgroup: n=163).

RESULTS

We found that in GG-homozygotes, but not in A-allele carriers, insecure childhood attachment is - in adulthood - associated with a) higher attachment-related anxiety and alexithymia, b) higher brain gray matter volume of left amygdala and lower volumes in right superior parietal lobule (SPL), left temporal pole (TP), and bilateral frontal regions, and c) higher mentalizing-related neural activity in bilateral TP and precunei, and right middle and superior frontal gyri. Interaction effects of genotype and CAS on brain volume and/or function were associated with individual differences in alexithymia and attachment-related anxiety. Interactive effects were in part sexually dimorphic.

CONCLUSION

The interaction of OXTR genotype and CAS modulates adult personality as well as brain structure and function of areas implicated in salience processing and mentalizing. Rs53576 GG-homozygotes are partially more susceptible to childhood attachment experiences than A-allele carriers.