Comparison of Brain Activity Correlating with Self-Report versus Narrative Attachment Measures during Conscious Appraisal of an Attachment Figure

Lack of mental integration and emotion dysregulation as a possible long-term effect of dysfunctional parenting: An EEG study of functional connectivity before and after the exposure to attachment-related stimuli

Dysfunctional parenting (DP) is a factor of vulnerability and a predictive risk factor for psychopathology. Although previous research has shown specific functional and structural brain alterations, the neural basis of DP remains understudied. We therefore investigated EEG functional connectivity changes within the Salience Network before and after the exposure to attachment-related stimuli in individuals with high and low perceived DP. Participants (N = 82) were asked to report sociodemographic variables, parenting styles in the first 16 years of life, and individual emotion regulation patterns. A double 5-min EEG recording was conducted with eyes closed, both before and after the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP). Increased connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the left supramarginal gyrus (lSMG) in the alpha frequency band was observed exclusively in participants with high perceived DP after the AAP. To understand the functional role of alpha frequency, this band was subdivided into low, medium, and upper alpha. A connectivity analysis was again conducted between the ACC and the lSMG and increased connectivity was observed only in the middle alpha component. A positive correlation was also observed between middle alpha index connectivity and emotional dysregulation exclusively after the activation of the attachment system in individuals with high perceived DP. Our results suggest that individuals with high levels of perceived DP develop specific neurophysiological alterations. These alterations may reflect a lack of mental integration and subsequent emotion dysregulation when exposed to attachment-related, emotionally charged stimuli.

Does attachment in adolescence predict neural responses to handholding in adulthood? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Objective

Early life experiences, including attachment-related experiences, inform internal working models that guide adult relationship behaviors. Few studies have examined the association between adolescent attachment and adult relationship behavior on a neural level. The current study examined attachment in adolescence and its associations with neural correlates of relationship behaviors in adulthood.

Method

85 participants completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) at age 14. Ten years later, at age 24, participants underwent functional brain image when participants were under the threat of electric shock alone, holding the hand of a stranger, or their partner.

Results

We found that adolescents who were securely attached at age 14 showed increased activation in regions commonly associated with cognitive, affective, and reward processing when they held the hand of their partner and stranger compared to being alone. Adolescents with higher preoccupied attachment scores showed decreased activation in similar regions only during the stranger handholding condition compared to being alone.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that adolescent attachment predicts adult social relationship behaviors on a neural level, in regions largely consistent with previous literature. Broadly, this study has implications for understanding long-term links between attachment and adult relationship behaviors and has potential for informing intervention.

Longitudinal associations between self-reported attachment dimensions and neurostructural development from adolescence to early adulthood

The existing literature suggests that individual differences in attachment may be associated with differential trajectories of structural brain development. In addition to maturation during infancy and childhood, developmental trajectories are characteristic of adolescence, a period marked by increasingly complex interpersonal relationships and significant neurostructural and functional plasticity. It remains to be examined whether attachment prospectively relates to neurostructural developmental trajectories during adolescence. In this longitudinal study, we investigated whether self-reported attachment dimensions of anxiety (AX) and avoidance (AV) could predict elements of cortical thickness (CT) and subcortical volume (SV) trajectories in 95 typically developing adolescents (12-19 years old at study baseline). Self-reported scores of AX and AV were obtained at study baseline, and neurostructural development was assessed at baseline and three timepoints over the four following years. Self-reported AX and AV were associated with steeper CT decreases in prefrontal cortical and cortical midline structures as well as anterior temporal cortex, particularly in participants younger at study baseline. Regarding SV, preliminary differential associations were observed between developmental trajectories and attachment dimensions. Our study suggests that interindividual differences in attachment contribute to shaping neurodevelopmental trajectories for several cortical and subcortical structures during adolescence and young adulthood.

Explicit and implicit attachment representations in cognitively able school-age children with autism spectrum disorder: A window to their inner world

The few studies available on quality of attachment in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exclusively used questionnaires assessing explicit attachment representations. Thus, in the current study we assessed both explicit and implicit attachment representations in 23 children with ASD (without intellectual disability), 22 with learning disabilities and 27 with typical development aged from 7 to 13 years. A self-reported measure on the quality of attachment to parents and a semi-structured interview were administered to the children. In addition, a developmental assessment of the child including measures of intelligence and social-communication impairment was conducted. Despite the lack of group differences on explicit attachment representations, we found that children with ASD showed higher rates of at-risk self-protective strategies and psychological trauma compared to the TD group. Children with SLD also showed a high level of at-risk implicit attachment representations than TD, albeit to a lesser extent compared to children with ASD. These results may be related to several factors associated with ASD impairment and developmental pathways, such as the atypical learning process which occur at interpersonal level, the difficulties in social information processing and reflective functioning. Our findings suggested that children with ASD may experience difficulties in the construction of balanced implicit attachment representations. Thus, a more comprehensive assessment of attachment including both implicit and explicit representations is recommended.

Attachment and Executive Functions in ADHD Symptomatology-Independent Inputs or an Interaction?

Despite a multitude of research on executive functions and attachment in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a synthetic approach to the matter seems to have been lacking. In this review, we attempt to check the available data against two hypotheses: (1) executive functions and attachment influence ADHD symptoms independently; (2) executive functions and attachment interact to produce ADHD symptoms. We found no evidence falsifying the former hypothesis and some evidence to refute the latter. Limitations of current study approaches and suggestions for further research are discussed. Specifically, we propose an attachment representation, rather than attachment style, approach to measuring the mediation thereof between executive dysfunctions and ADHD.

Exposure to attachment narratives dynamically modulates cortical arousal during the resting state in the listener

BACKGROUND

Affective stimulation entails changes in brain network patterns at rest, but it is unknown whether exogenous emotional stimulation has a prolonged effect on the temporal dynamics of endogenous cortical arousal. We therefore investigated differences in cortical arousal in the listener following stimulation with different attachment-related narratives.

METHODS

Resting-state EEG was recorded from sixteen healthy subjects for ten minutes each with eyes closed: first at baseline and then after passively listening to three affective narratives from strangers about their early childhood experiences (prototypical for insecure-dismissing, insecure-preoccupied, and secure attachment). Using the VIGALL 2.1 algorithm, low or high vigilance stages in consecutive EEG segments were classified, and their dynamic profile was analyzed. Questionnaires assessed the listeners' emotional response to the content of the narrative.

RESULTS

As a general effect of preceding affective stimulation, vigilance following the stimulation was significantly elevated compared to baseline rest, and carryover effects in dynamic vigilance profiles were observed. A difference between narrative conditions was revealed for the insecure-dismissing condition, in which the decrease in duration of high vigilance stages was fastest compared to the other two conditions. The behavioral data supported the observation that especially the insecure narratives induced a tendency in the listener to affectively disengage from the narrative content.

DISCUSSION

This study revealed carryover effects in endogenous cortical arousal evoked by preceding affective stimulation and provides evidence for attachment-specific dynamic alterations of brain states and individual differences in emotional reactivity.

Parent-child intervention decreases stress and increases maternal brain activity and connectivity during own baby-cry: An exploratory study

Parental responses to their children are crucially influenced by stress. However, brain-based mechanistic understanding of the adverse effects of parenting stress and benefits of therapeutic interventions is lacking. We studied maternal brain responses to salient child signals as a function of Mom Power (MP), an attachment-based parenting intervention established to decrease maternal distress. Twenty-nine mothers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans during a baby-cry task designed to solicit maternal responses to child's or self's distress signals. Between scans, mothers were pseudorandomly assigned to either MP (n = 14) or control (n = 15) with groups balanced for depression. Compared to control, MP decreased parenting stress and increased child-focused responses in social brain areas highlighted by the precuneus and its functional connectivity with subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, which are key components of reflective self-awareness and decision-making neurocircuitry. Furthermore, over 13 weeks, reduction in parenting stress was related to increasing child- versus self-focused baby-cry responses in amygdala-temporal pole functional connectivity, which may mediate maternal ability to take her child's perspective. Although replication in larger samples is needed, the results of this first parental-brain intervention study demonstrate robust stress-related brain circuits for maternal care that can be modulated by psychotherapy.

Clinicians' conflicting emotional responses to high suicide-risk patients-Association with short-term suicide behaviors: A prospective pilot study

BACKGROUND

Clinician's emotional responses to patients have been recognized as potentially relating to treatment outcome, however they have received little attention in the literature on suicide risk. We examine the relationship between a novel targeted measure of clinicians' emotional responses to high-risk psychiatric inpatients and their short-term post-discharge suicide behavior.

METHODS

First-year psychiatry residents' emotional responses to their patients were assessed anonymously with the novel self-report 'Therapist Response Questionnaire-Suicide Form' (TRQ-SF). Patient outcomes were assessed at 1-2months post-discharge, and post-discharge suicide outcomes were assessed with the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Following exploratory factor analysis of the TRQ-SF, scores on the resultant factors were examined for relationships with clinical and demographic measures and post-discharge suicide behavior.

RESULTS

A two-factor model fit the data, with factors reflecting dimensions of affiliation/rejection and distress/non-distress. Two items that did not load robustly on either factor had face validity for hopefulness and hopelessness and were combined as a measure along a hopefulness/hopelessness dimension. The interaction Distress×Hopefulness, reflecting a conflicting emotional response pattern, significantly predicted post-discharge suicide outcomes even after covarying for depression, entrapment, and suicidal ideation severity.

CONCLUSION

Clinicians' conflicting emotional responses to high-risk patients predicted subsequent suicidal behavior, independent of traditional risk factors. Our findings demonstrate the potential clinical value of assessing such responses.

A Reaction Time Experiment on Adult Attachment: The Development of a Measure for Neurophysiological Settings

In the last few decades, there has been an increase of experimental research on automatic unconscious processes concerning the evaluation of the self and others. Previous research investigated implicit aspects of romantic attachment using self-report measures as explicit instruments for assessing attachment style. There is a lack of experimental procedures feasible for neurobiological settings. We developed a reaction time (RT) experiment using a narrative attachment measure with an implicit nature and were interested to capture automatic processes, when the individuals' attachment system is activated. We aimed to combine attachment methodology with knowledge from implicit measures by using a decision RT paradigm. This should serve as a means to capture implicit aspects of attachment. This experiment evaluated participants' response to prototypic attachment sentences in association with their own attachment classification, measured with the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP). First the AAP was administered as the standardized interview procedure to 30 healthy participants, which were classified into a secure or insecure group. In the following experimental session, both experimenter and participants were blind with respect to classifications. One hundred twenty eight prototypically secure or insecure sentences related to the eight pictures of the AAP were presented to the participants. Their response and RTs were recorded. Based on the response (accept, reject) a continuous security scale was defined. Both the AAP classification and security scale were related to the RTs. Differentiated study hypotheses were confirmed for insecure sentences, which were accepted faster by participants from the insecure attachment group (or with lower security scale), and rejected faster by participants from secure attachment group (or with higher security scale). The elaborating unconscious processes were more activated by insecure sentences with potential attachment conflicts. The introduced paradigm is able to contribute to an experimental approach in attachment research. The RT analysis with the narrative procedure might be of interest for a broader variety of questions in experimental and neurophysiological settings to capture unconscious processes in association with internal working models of attachment. An electrophysiological model based on preliminary research is proposed for assessing the preconscious neuronal network related to secure or insecure attachment representations.

Functional domains as correlates of suicidality among psychiatric inpatients

BACKGROUND

Suicide remains poorly understood and unpredictable. Addressing this challenge, this study examined the independent contributions of several research domain criteria (RDoC) constructs in relation to suicidality in patients hospitalized for acute suicide risk. Specifically, we examined anhedonia, anxiety/entrapment, and attachment disturbances, reflecting disturbances in reward processes, negative valence systems, and social processes, respectively.

METHODS

Anhedonia, anxiety, entrapment, and fearful attachment, were assessed quantitatively in 135 adults hospitalized for suicidality. Current suicidality and suicidal history were assessed with the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. Bivariate analyses (with significance threshold of p<.01 to account for multiple comparisons) and multivariate models examined relationships between symptom dimensions and severity of suicidal ideation (SI). We also assessed differences between patients with a history of suicide attempt and those who exhibited only suicidal ideations.

RESULTS

Using bivariate analyses all symptoms except for fearful attachment correlated robustly with SI (r =.37-0.50, p<.001). However, when using multivariate analyses, only anhedonia (β=.28, p=.01) and entrapment (β=.19, p=.03) were independently associated with SI across the entire sample. No functional domain measures differed between patients with history of suicide attempt versus ideation only.

LIMITATIONS

The reliance on self-report data and a cross-sectional design.

CONCLUSIONS

Disturbances in reward and threat processing may represent independent factors in the development of suicidal ideation in this high suicide risk cohort. Future studies should assess their role as risk factors.