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Cited by 50Attachment and Relationship DynamicsEvolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorNeuroendocrine regulation and behavior

Parental and romantic attachment shape brain processing of infant cues

Weisman, Omri, Feldman, Ruth, Goldstein, Abraham·2012·Biological Psychology
DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.11.008
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Abstract

Periods of bond formation are associated with evolutionary-adaptive reorganization of physiological and behavioral responses and increased attention to attachment-related cues. We measured event-related potential responses to infant stimuli among new parents, new lovers, and romantically unattached singles (N=65). For parents, infant stimuli included own and unfamiliar infant. Viewing unfamiliar infants, parents and lovers exhibited greater activation at 140-160 and 300-500 ms post-stimulus compared to singles at occipital-lateral (N170) and central-frontal (P3a) sites, indicating greater initial attention to infant cues. Parents exhibited lowest amplitudes in the parietal-distributed P300 component, implicated in controlled attention, towards the unfamiliar infant but greatest response to their own infant in the same waveform. These findings are the first to demonstrate that periods of bond formation activate brain reactivity to parenting-related cues. Parents' heightened response to own infant accords with evolutionary models underscoring the need to direct resources to the survival and well being of one's own offspring.

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  • Brain regions implicated in parental-infant attachment are activated in prolonged romantic relationships.

    “Interestingly, brain regions implicated in parental–infant attachment were also found to be activated in prolonged romantic relationships as assessed by both fMRI (Acevedo et al., 2011) and ERP (Weisman et al., 2011) measures, suggesting that the formation of parental and romantic attachment share underlying mechanisms (Feldman, in press).”

    From Oxytocin during the initial stages of romantic attachment: Relations to couples’ interactive reciprocity (2012) · cites this paper as Weisman et al., 2011

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Authors
Weisman, O., Feldman, R., & Goldstein, A.
Affiliations
Bar-Ilan University (IL)
Corresponding author
Feldman, Ruth
ORCID
Venue
Biological Psychology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-03
Volume
89
Issue
3
Pages
533-538
ISSN
0301-0511 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.11.008
OpenAlex
W1999717206
Cited by
50
References
7
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 4
FWCI
4.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Biological Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Israel Science Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
Keywords
parental attachment, romantic attachment, infant cues, event-related potentials, N170, P3a, P300, new parents, romantic partners, evolutionary psychology
MeSH terms
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cues, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Sex Factors, Young Adult

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