Neuroscience of human social interactions and adult attachment style

“…instead of decreasing the impact of negative emotions, these subjects actually tend to intensify the impact of negative social signals due to their hypersensitivity to the latter (Bartholomew, 1990; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007).”

“Moreover, an influential theory of emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998, 2002) has emphasized different types of strategies (e.g., antecedent- and response-focused), but the latter do not make specific reference to interpersonal emotion situations.”

“Moreover, an influential theory of emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998, 2002) has emphasized different types of strategies (e.g., antecedent- and response-focused), but the latter do not make specific reference to interpersonal emotion situations.”

“Both the cognitive mechanisms and the neural substrates of emotion regulation have been extensively investigated in the past decade (Gross, 1998, 2002; Ochsner and Gross, 2005), but in conditions totally unrelated to attachment.”

“…with a ball either including or excluding him/her into the game), which has previously been found to induce social rejection and “social pain” (Eisenberger et al., 2003), avoidantly attached individuals showed decreased activations in the anterior insula and dorsal ACC during social…”

“Such a view converges with research associating activations in dopaminergic brain areas [including the ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra, striatum, and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)] with many different kinds of positive social emotions, as well as with the modulations of fear-circuits in the amygdala by do…”

“…and/or behavioral inhibition (parts of the cognitive mentalization network), and a simultaneous modulation (e.g., reduction) of responses evoked in the emotional evaluation system (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004b; Ochsner and Gross, 2005; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McRae et al., 2010; Vrticka et al., 2011).”

“Attachment theory assumes that a key component of individual differences in attachment styles involves distinct affective regulation strategies leading to hyper- or hypo-activation of attachment system in anxious and avoidant people, respectively.”

“…instead of decreasing the impact of negative emotions, these subjects actually tend to intensify the impact of negative social signals due to their hypersensitivity to the latter (Bartholomew, 1990; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007).”

“…and/or behavioral inhibition (parts of the cognitive mentalization network), and a simultaneous modulation (e.g., reduction) of responses evoked in the emotional evaluation system (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004b; Ochsner and Gross, 2005; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McRae et al., 2010; Vrticka et al., 2011).”

“, 2007), stressful social situations in the hippocampus—as part of the HPA axis—(Foley and Kirschbaum, 2010), psychological pain and social rejection in insula and mid cingulate cortex (Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004; Lamm et al., 2011), social emotional conflict in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Somerville…”

“…instead of decreasing the impact of negative emotions, these subjects actually tend to intensify the impact of negative social signals due to their hypersensitivity to the latter (Bartholomew, 1990; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007).”

“SOCIAL APPROACH Several models of emotion and social cognition (e.g., Phillips et al., 2003a,b; Lieberman, 2007; LeDoux, 2012) include core processes subserving rapid or automatic (sometimes even unconscious) processing of information in terms of safety versus danger, which are intrinsically linked with behavioral ten…”

“), which are also closely related to neurocognitive mechanisms implicated in “emotional contagion” (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009) or “empathizing” (Baron-Cohen, 2009).”

“Besides these three main categories of secure, avoidant, and anxious attachment styles, a fourth attachment orientation has been proposed, referred to as fearful or disorganized (Main et al., 1985; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007).”

“, 2007), stressful social situations in the hippocampus—as part of the HPA axis—(Foley and Kirschbaum, 2010), psychological pain and social rejection in insula and mid cingulate cortex (Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004; Lamm et al., 2011), social emotional conflict in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Somerville…”

“…of (human) social behavior have begun to explore the molecular and genetic mechanisms at play in social affective processing, learning, and bonding (Insel and Young, 2001; Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011;…”

“…(PFC), OFC, and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), as well as the precuneus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), plus specialized sensory regions in superior temporal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, and fusiform cortex (Lieberman, 2007; Fonagy and Luyten, 2009).”

“…play in social affective processing, learning, and bonding (Insel and Young, 2001; Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders such as autism,…”

“…and structural brain imaging investigations on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008;…”

“…on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009;…”

“…in AAS; but also to illuminate some conditions or pathologies associated with disturbances in social emotional functioning, such as autism (Andari et al., 2010), schizophrenia (Abdi and Sharma, 2004; Marwick and Hall, 2008), borderline personality (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al.,…”

“…even unconscious processing of externally-focused (physical and visible) information about others (such as expressions, actions, etc.), which are also closely related to neurocognitive mechanisms implicated in “emotional contagion” (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009) or “empathizing” (Baron-Cohen, 2009).”

“…on brain responses during “real” social encounters, or at least in laboratory context resembling the latter as closely as possible, as for example by employing functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in two participants at the same time, also referred as to hyperscanning (Cui et al., 2012).”

“…the molecular and genetic mechanisms at play in social affective processing, learning, and bonding (Insel and Young, 2001; Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those…”

“This pattern is further supported by the findings of very low ventral striatum and medial OFC activation in avoidantly versus securely attached mothers when seeing images of their own babies (Strathearn et al., 2009).”

“Likewise, attachment style can affect attention in a Stroop task when it is performed following exposure to threat- versus neutral-word primes (i.e., Mikulincer et al., 2002) or attachment-related versus -unrelated words (i.e., Edelstein, 2006).”

“…(Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004; Lamm et al., 2011), social emotional conflict in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Somerville et al., 2006; Koban et al., 2010), as well as the experience of sadness or grief in anterior temporal pole (ATP; Levesque et al., 2003; Kersting et al., 2009).”

“, making a key distinction between reappraisal and suppression), it remains to be determined whether more specific regulation strategies are differentially modulated by individual attachment orientations—beyond the traditional strategies studied in healthy people (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004a; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McR…”

“, making a key distinction between reappraisal and suppression), it remains to be determined whether more specific regulation strategies are differentially modulated by individual attachment orientations—beyond the traditional strategies studied in healthy people (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004a; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McR…”

“, making a key distinction between reappraisal and suppression), it remains to be determined whether more specific regulation strategies are differentially modulated by individual attachment orientations—beyond the traditional strategies studied in healthy people (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004a; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McR…”

“…(Insel and Young, 2001; Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders such as autism, sociopathy, or aggression (Piggot et al., 2009; Koenigs et…”

“…amygdala activations during the perception of emotional facial expressions and OXTR and vasopressin (Avpr1a) receptorgene polymorphisms, which even correlated with individual measures of emotional reactivity and prosocial temperament in one study (Meyer-Lindenberg et al., 2009; Tost et al., 2010).”

“…al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b,…”

“Such findings suggest a progressive development of affective vigilance mechanisms in mothers who recently gave birth, a notion corroborated by previous findings showing highest amygdala activation in mothers for own versus other familiar or unknown children (Leibenluft et al., 2004).”

“Thus, a set of regions typically associated with negative affect and fear responses are activated by various aversive social events including—amongst others—the perception of untrustworthiness of faces in the amygdala (Engell et al., 2007), stressful social situations in the hippocampus—as part of the HPA axis—(Foley…”

“Nevertheless, this issue does not undermine the general assumptions of AT (Waters and Beauchaine, 2003), and both classification schemes seem equally useful for analyzing individual differences in attachment security and social interactions (Fraley and Spieker, 2003b).”

“…Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b, 2011; Xu et al., 2011), the perception of the mother’s…”

“Thus, a set of regions typically associated with negative affect and fear responses are activated by various aversive social events including—amongst others—the perception of untrustworthiness of faces in the amygdala (Engell et al., 2007), stressful social situations in the hippocampus—as part of the HPA axis—(Foley…”

“These data accord with the role of the hippocampus in stress responses (Foley and Kirschbaum, 2010).”

“…gray matter volume and brain activations to own infant cries in mothers in the early postpartum period, who were divided into two groups according to their perceived maternal care scores (Kim et al., 2010b), a measure reflecting differences along secure versus insecure attachment dimensions.”

“INTRODUCTION In mammals, including humans, attachment is a major dimension of behavior that can come into play in several domains (Fisher et al., 2006).”

“…brain imaging investigations on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al.,…”

“Future studies will also have to examine possible epigenetic mechanisms, looking for particular gene-environment interactions which can be induced by early life experiences (Graeff et al., 2011).”

“…and bonding from several recent functional and structural brain imaging investigations on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al.,…”

“…Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b, 2011; Xu et al., 2011), the…”

“A few studies examined the processing of emotional facial expressions in a movie morph paradigm (Niedenthal et al., 2002; Fraley et al., 2006), in which faces could change from neutral to happy, sad, or angry, and vice versa.”

“…al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b, 2011; Xu et al., 2011), the perception of the mother’s face in children (Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009), as well as the experience of social reward (e.g., a…”

“Within this new field of research, several studies have recently focused on specific questions related to individual differences in attachment style (Gillath et al., 2008; Salo et al., 2008; Costa et al., 2009; Bradley et al., 2011; Troisi et al., 2011).”

“…mechanisms at play in social affective processing, learning, and bonding (Insel and Young, 2001; Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders…”

“…2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b, 2011; Xu et al., 2011), the perception of the mother’s face in children (Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009), as well as the experience of social reward (e.g., a smiling face paired with positive feedback after correct task…”

“Likewise, activity in ventral striatum and ventral tegmental area is greater in secure than insecure individuals when receiving positive social feedback (praise by others) after a correct performance in a perceptual game (Vrtička et al., 2008).”

“…non-clinical populations, they also have implications for promoting well-being and reducing social stress, and may in addition provide useful clues regarding attachment system dysregulations in patients with psychopathologies or abnormal social behaviors (Galynker et al., 2011; Nolte et al., 2011).”

“Such a dissociation between resolved versus unresolved attachment categories is particularly prominent in psychopathology research, where it has been proposed that attachment dysregulations in terms of an unresolved attachment orientation might lay at the core of some emotional disturbances, including borderline perso…”

“…associated with disturbances in social emotional functioning, such as autism (Andari et al., 2010), schizophrenia (Abdi and Sharma, 2004; Marwick and Hall, 2008), borderline personality (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2011), or violence and sociopathy (Decety et al., 2009;…”

“Within this new field of research, several studies have recently focused on specific questions related to individual differences in attachment style (Gillath et al., 2008; Salo et al., 2008; Costa et al., 2009; Bradley et al., 2011; Troisi et al., 2011).”

“In addition, in the study by Dewall et al. using the cyberball game (Dewall et al., 2011), increased activation was observed in anterior insula and dorsal ACC during social rejection as a function of anxious attachment style scores, mirroring an increased sensitivity to negative social clues…”

“, 2010), schizophrenia (Abdi and Sharma, 2004; Marwick and Hall, 2008), borderline personality (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2011), or violence and sociopathy (Decety et al.”

“A few studies examined the processing of emotional facial expressions in a movie morph paradigm (Niedenthal et al., 2002; Fraley et al., 2006), in which faces could change from neutral to happy, sad, or angry, and vice versa.”

“…et al., 2005, 2006; Gobbini and Haxby, 2007; Sander et al., 2007; Swain et al., 2007; Zeki, 2007; Noriuchi et al., 2008; Strathearn et al., 2008; Lenzi et al., 2009; Minagawa-Kawai et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2010a,b, 2011; Xu et al., 2011), the perception of the mother’s face in children…”

“There is mounting evidence for a role of reward circuits and reinforcing processes in social approach and bonding from several recent functional and structural brain imaging investigations on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et a…”

“By contrast, no relation was found between attachment insecurities and a polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene (Gillath et al., 2008), even though the latter has been associated with other individual differences in social behavior (Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008).”

“…“hyperanalytical” thinking in attachment contexts, possibly reflecting enhanced representation to other’s mental states, this pattern of findings was interpreted as “a neural indicator of fear-based hypervigilance in attachment relationships . . . ” in BPD patients (Buchheim et al., 2008; p. 233).”

“These data were taken to suggest that attachment anxiety leads to a heightened processing of attachment-related information in general, whereas attachment avoidance entails opposite effects (i.e., suppression of processing) during negative contexts specifically.”

“…gray matter volume and brain activations to own infant cries in mothers in the early postpartum period, who were divided into two groups according to their perceived maternal care scores (Kim et al., 2010b), a measure reflecting differences along secure versus insecure attachment dimensions.”

“…Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders such as autism, sociopathy, or aggression (Piggot et al., 2009; Koenigs et al., 2011; Soyka, 2011).”

“Conversely, another study using items of the AAP as visual stimuli (Buchheim et al., 2006) found that only participants with unresolved attachment displayed increased activation in lateral PFC areas plus amygdala and hippocampus as a function of increasing traumatic image content, reflecting…”

“…Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders such as autism, sociopathy, or aggression (Piggot et al., 2009; Koenigs et al., 2011; Soyka, 2011).”

“…and/or behavioral inhibition (parts of the cognitive mentalization network), and a simultaneous modulation (e.g., reduction) of responses evoked in the emotional evaluation system (Ochsner et al., 2002, 2004b; Ochsner and Gross, 2005; Kim and Hamann, 2007; McRae et al., 2010; Vrticka et al., 2011).”

“…processes, using forced-choice recall of emotionally-laden drawings (Kirsh, 1996), free recall for positive, neutral, or threatening words (Van Emmichoven et al., 2003), as well as an operation-word span task including neutral, emotional, and attachment related words during working memory…”

“There is mounting evidence for a role of reward circuits and reinforcing processes in social approach and bonding from several recent functional and structural brain imaging investigations on maternal and romantic love (Lorberbaum et al., 1999; Nitschke et al., 2004; Ranote et al., 2004; Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et a…”

“For example, some studies showed that anxiously attached participants are faster to make lexical decisions in response to the names of their attachment figures (Mikulincer et al., 2002), and display a selective hypervigilance toward attachment names (Dewitte et al., 2007a,b).”

“In keeping with this notion, another study reported an increase of amygdala activity in response to negative sentences with attachment-related meaning, which was related to individual attachment insecurity (Lemche et al., 2006).”

“Within this new field of research, several studies have recently focused on specific questions related to individual differences in attachment style (Gillath et al., 2008; Salo et al., 2008; Costa et al., 2009; Bradley et al., 2011; Troisi et al., 2011).”

“These neural findings dovetail nicely with behavioral evidence that avoidant individuals rate positive social information as less arousing and less pleasant, relative to securely attached individuals (Rognoni et al., 2008; Vrticka et al., 2012a).”

“Importantly, there is evidence that activity in these two systems for emotional evaluation and cognitive mentalization might also be in a dynamic balance, and that this equilibrium might be strongly influenced by stress factors (Mayes, 2000, 2006).”

“The latter findings for working memory performance are highly consistent with the proposal that avoidant individuals tend to defensively inhibit the processing of potentially distressing information (Edelstein, 2006).”

“…reported for scenes with negative (sad or threatening) social content (Rognoni et al., 2008; Vrticka et al., 2012a), and that stressful task conditions produce abnormal cortisol responses in anxiously attached individuals, suggesting impaired regulation of the HPA stress system (Kidd et al., 2011).”

“By contrast, no relation was found between attachment insecurities and a polymorphism of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene (Gillath et al., 2008), even though the latter has been associated with other individual differences in social behavior (Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008).”

“For example, there is emerging evidence that some aspects of attachment are transmitted across generations (Hautamaki et al., 2010; Shah et al., 2010), and that genetic polymorphisms related to emotions and social behavior might influence individual responses to attachment-related experiences during development (Gilla…”

“…(Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004; Lamm et al., 2011), social emotional conflict in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Somerville et al., 2006; Koban et al., 2010), as well as the experience of sadness or grief in anterior temporal pole (ATP; Levesque et al., 2003; Kersting et al., 2009).”

“…some conditions or pathologies associated with disturbances in social emotional functioning, such as autism (Andari et al., 2010), schizophrenia (Abdi and Sharma, 2004; Marwick and Hall, 2008), borderline personality (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2011), or violence and sociopathy…”

“…masked sad faces were found to induce weaker responses in the somatosensory cortex (BA 3) of avoidantly attached participants, compared to secure participants, which was attributed to their “habitual unwillingness to deal with partners’ distress and needs for proximity” (Suslow et al., 2009).”

“…with disturbances in social emotional functioning, such as autism (Andari et al., 2010), schizophrenia (Abdi and Sharma, 2004; Marwick and Hall, 2008), borderline personality (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Fonagy et al., 2011), or violence and sociopathy (Decety et al., 2009; Blair et al., 2011a,b).”

“Importantly, there is evidence that activity in these two systems for emotional evaluation and cognitive mentalization might also be in a dynamic balance, and that this equilibrium might be strongly influenced by stress factors (Mayes, 2000, 2006).”

“…instead of decreasing the impact of negative emotions, these subjects actually tend to intensify the impact of negative social signals due to their hypersensitivity to the latter (Bartholomew, 1990; Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Griffin and Bartholomew, 1994; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007).”

“These neural findings dovetail nicely with behavioral evidence that avoidant individuals rate positive social information as less arousing and less pleasant, relative to securely attached individuals (Rognoni et al., 2008; Vrticka et al., 2012a).”

“…hippocampus response when listening to own versus unknown baby cries in mothers who scored low on a maternal care measure (Kim et al., 2010b), and the same brain area exhibited a reduction in gray matter volume which (negatively) correlated with anxious attachment scores (Quirin et al., 2010).”

“Nevertheless, this issue does not undermine the general assumptions of AT (Waters and Beauchaine, 2003), and both classification schemes seem equally useful for analyzing individual differences in attachment security and social interactions (Fraley and Spieker, 2003b).”

“…(Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004; Lamm et al., 2011), social emotional conflict in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Somerville et al., 2006; Koban et al., 2010), as well as the experience of sadness or grief in anterior temporal pole (ATP; Levesque et al., 2003; Kersting et al., 2009).”

“Another investigation of emotion perception looked at more controlled processes by asking participants to make explicit ratings of pleasantness and arousal for video-clips with attachmentrelated content (Rognoni et al., 2008).”

“Finally, a third study used an emotion-word Stroop task during which participants had to indicate the color of unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant words while ignoring their meaning (Warren et al., 2010).”

“Avoidant attachment has also been related to weaker attentional and semantic processing of fearful faces in an EEG study (Zhang et al., 2008).”

“Nevertheless, this issue does not undermine the general assumptions of AT (Waters and Beauchaine, 2003), and both classification schemes seem equally useful for analyzing individual differences in attachment security and social interactions (Fraley and Spieker, 2003b).”

“Furthermore, some aspects of AAS might partly overlap with other important psychological dimensions associated with individual personality traits, such as neuroticism, reward dependence, and novelty seeking (Chotai et al., 2005).”

“For example, there is emerging evidence that some aspects of attachment are transmitted across generations (Hautamaki et al., 2010; Shah et al., 2010), and that genetic polymorphisms related to emotions and social behavior might influence individual responses to attachment-related experiences during development (Gilla…”

“In addition, AAS may also influence more general behaviors related to affect and motivation, including pain and medical care (Meredith et al., 2006; Hooper et al., 2012).”

“For example, some studies showed that anxiously attached participants are faster to make lexical decisions in response to the names of their attachment figures (Mikulincer et al., 2002), and display a selective hypervigilance toward attachment names (Dewitte et al., 2007a,b).”

“…Meyer-Lindenberg, 2008; Heinrichs et al., 2009; Champagne, 2010; Insel, 2010; Bakermans-Kranenburg and van Ijzendoorn, 2011; MacDonald and MacDonald, 2011), as well as those implicated in disorders such as autism, sociopathy, or aggression (Piggot et al., 2009; Koenigs et al., 2011; Soyka, 2011).”

“…examining the impact of attachment style on cognition has focused on memory processes, using forced-choice recall of emotionally-laden drawings (Kirsh, 1996), free recall for positive, neutral, or threatening words (Van Emmichoven et al., 2003), as well as an operation-word span task including…”

“Both developmental psychopathology and neuroscience studies have generally supported the hypothesized associations between attachment dimensions, mentalizing, and stress and arousal regulation depicted in Table 1 (for reviews, see Feldman 2017, Long et al. 2019, Vrticka & Vuilleumier 2012).”

“In line with this, mentalization as an emotion regulation strategy has been considered a top-down strategy, relying in the explicit emotion regulation and in the theory of mind brain systems (Fonagy and Luyten, 2009; Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Fifth, given the inherent interpersonal nature of attachment, future research should attempt to study attachment-related neural processes in situations that approximate as closely as possible “real” social interactions (Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“…studies focusing on safety- and threat-related neural activation during corresponding interpersonal interactions (e.g., Coan et al., 2006; see Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012, for a review related to attachment style) may add valuable insights into the neural mechanisms of the social…”

“They may view establishing close relationships as futile, perhaps even dangerous, because of the anticipated distress from failing to achieve closeness with an attachment figure (Vrticka and Vuilleumier 2012).”

“Understanding the brain’s receptivity to social reward and social punishment has generated extensive interest recently (Falk, Way, & Jasinska, 2012; Frith & Frith, 2012; Richards, Plate & Ernst, 2011; Rilling & Sanfey, 2011; Seymour, Singer, & Dolan, 2007; Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Attachment has been the subject of considerable neuroscience research (Coan, 2008; Riem et al., 2012; Vrtička, 2017; Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012), but the majority of this work has focused on withinindividual neural processes in adults.”

“This finding is in line with models implicating relationship closeness and attachment as important for social reward processing (Vrtička and Vuilleumier 2012), as well as those suggesting that continued positive interaction and experiences may reaffirm a close relationship (Baumeister and Leary 1995).”

“…in attachment styles focuses on neural activation patterns underlying socioemotional behaviour and its modulation of cognitive processes underlying PDs. Vrtička and Vuilleumier (2012) provided a review of recent research on the underlying neurobiological substrates of adult attachment styles.”

“…ar tic le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. overlap between the brain processes involved in secure attachment and those known to be strengthened through mindfulness training (Vrticka & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“:3) cka & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“As our review is limited to prefrontal activation using EEG, we excluded studies presenting functional neuroimaging data (for further details on fMRI data, see Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“8 / 46 refers to the extent to which one is willing to trust and rely on others, which is an important modulator of social-emotional information processing (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2008; Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Thus, attachment styles might be related to differences in the evaluation of safety versus threat in social interactions and that this process takes place in a brain network including regions such as amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (70).”

“…approach behavior (i.e., wanting) and the formation of relationships across normative development (Tops, Koole, Ijzerman, & Buisman-Pijlman, 2014; Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012), an understanding of how ventral striatal connectivity emerges following early caregiving adversity remains unknown.”

“The temporal lobes contain key nodes of the circuitry supporting social cognition, essential for accurate perception of social cues and healthy development of attachment (Adolphs, 2009; Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012; Nolte et al., 2013).”

“Building upon Vrtiˇcka and Vuilleumier (2012) insights, our main goal was to investigate (a) the spatial distribution of EEG spectral powers when people are in A vs.”

“, 2001; Morris and Dolan, 2001) or personality traits (Canli et al., 2001; Bishop et al., 2004; Sabatinelli et al., 2005; Vrticka et al., 2008, 2012a,b; Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“This pattern putatively points toward less efficient HPA axis negative feedback loop regulation (Palma-Gudiel, Cordova-Palomera, Leza, & Fananas, 2015) likely entailing a general deficiency in emotion and stress regulation (Vrtička, 2017; Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“F or p er so na l u se o nl y. NE38CH18-Stoop ARI 21 May 2015 19:19 attachment style, resulting in attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety (for review see Vrticka & Vuilleumier 2012).”

“…orbitofrontal cortex) is in a dynamic push-pull balance with the social pain system (insula, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, temporal lobe) (Vrticka and Vuilleumier 2012), with some of these brain structures likely implicated in both aspects, most notably the ventral part of the striatum,…”

“Previous studies have evidenced these relationships in adults [3,8,19,28,36,38,52].”

“Some researchers even argue that the attachment system is in itself a device of emotion regulation (Vrtǐcka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Neuroimaging studies of theory of mind have reported that left TPJ activations are more common when processing different subjective perspectives, whereas the right parietal junction was more specifically activated by processing states like beliefs (Perner et al., 2006).”

“A secure attachment to a caregiver is important for the cognitive development of self vs. other representations, as well as for the providing a template for the formation of interpersonal relationships throughout the lifespan (Borghini et al., 2006; Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Adapted from Long et al. (17) and based on Vrtička (15) and Vrtička and Vuilleumier (16).”

“In contrast, individuals with insecure attachment styles (anxious, avoidant, and fearful) might display altered patterns of neural activation or connectivity that correlate with less effective emotion regulation strategies [13, 25, 26].”

“Rather, relationships with other family members, peers, friends and spouses play an important role in mental health and well-being even in adolescence and adulthood (Bowlby 1969, Vrticka & Vuilleumier 2012).”

“Research suggests a link of dopamine to emotions [1, 82] and reward function through social interactions [112, 113].”

“For instance, further research could adopt conflict resolution paradigms to further investigate associations among CEM, romantic attachment style, selfcritical perfectionism, and romantic relationships (Vrticka & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“…information in adults is beginning to reveal a coherent impression of the potentially maladaptive effects of attachment insecurity, as well as probable underlying neural patterns, particularly in the case of avoidance and positive social emotion processing (Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Attachment patterns are associated with different ways to regulate emotions and thus some researchers have actually argued that the attachment system regulates emotions in itself (Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“While neuroimaging research has helped to delineate the neuroanatomical networks involved in the perception and regulation of social information depending on an individual’s attachment style in adults [48], we have limited knowledge of the neural mechanisms of attachment formation in early childhood.”

“In future research, it would be valuable to incorporate measures of emotional valence into the current experimental paradigm and even consider demonstrable effects of attachment style (Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Especially the striatum, comprising of globus pallidus, putamen, and caudate nucleus, has been shown to mediate between socio-emotional information processing and attachment security in adult studies (Schneider et al., 2012; Vrtička & Vuilleumier, 2012; Vrticka et al., 2008; Vrticka, 2012).”

“Attachment patterns have been linked to different ways to emotion regulation processes and some researchers even argued that the attachment system is in itself an emotion regulation device (Vrtǐcka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“On the other hand, based on Vrticka and Vuilleumier (2012) study, reactivating strategies of avoidant people seems to lead to lower brain responsiveness to social-emotional information and can result in an average mentalization ability.”

“…fear and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org 2 March 2016 | Volume 10 | Article 77 negative affect such as amygdala, hippocampus, insula, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and anterior temporal pole (ATP) are activated by aversive social events (Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“…avoidant mothers had low activation of the ventral striatum and VTA) or do not experience positive social interaction as intrinsically rewarding compared to secure mothers, as they deactivate the attachment system and therefore do not seek to approach people (Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012, p. 6).”

“Conversely, those with higher levels of attachment anxiety may exhibit hyperactivation of the attachment system (Berant et al., 2001; Guzm ´ an-Gonz ´ alez et al., 2016; Long et al., 2020; Vrti ˇ cka & Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Ever since the pioneering work on attachment and neurobiology in the early 1990s, scholars have asserted the need for integration of both fields (Coan, 2016; Gustison & Phelps, 2022; Long et al., 2020; Spangler & Grossman, 1999; Vrticka & Vuilleumier, 2012; Vrtička, 2017; White et al., 2020).”

“Individuals with secure attachment are more prone to use constructive strategies to deal with and regulate negative emotional states linked to traumatic memories (Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Attachment theory, a developmental psychological framework, suggests that interactions with attachment figures (e.g., parents), and the responses of the latter to the proximity-seeking attempts of the child, will induce the formation of differential cognitive schemata for representation of the self…”

“During this developmental period, neural circuits become organized and adjust to the child’s environment, which is why these neuronal changes are greatly affected by experiences with the attachment figure during the early years (Luby et al., 2012; Whittle et al., 2015).”

“Neural circuits involved in the capacity for relatedness consist primarily of a mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic reward circuit and hypothalamicmidbrain-limbic-paralimbic-cortical circuits (Fonagy, Luyten, and Strathearn 2011; Panksepp 1998; Swain et al. 2007; Vrticka and Vuilleumier 2012).”

“Reward-related responses to positive social interactions have previously been shown to strongly depend on individual differences in a specific measure related to interpersonal closeness, namely attachment avoidance (Vrticka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”

“Contemporary neuroscience has identified a certain degree of overlap between the brain regions involved in attachment behavior and those implicated in hoarding disorder, such as the anterior cingulate cortex (37, 47).”

“…literature shows mixed findings, likely due to differences in the task and analysis methods employed (Norman et al. 2014; Vrticka et al. 2012; Vrticka and Vuilleumier 2012): the DTI microstructural analysis employed here could be detecting subtle interindividual differences to which…”

“…these psychobiological systems also allows for examining neuroendocrinological substrates of personality, as both attachment (Robles & Kane, 2014; Vrticka & Vuilleumier, 2012) and, in particular stress responsivity, (Lupien et al., 2009; Smith & Vale, 2006; UlrichLai & Herman, 2009) have been…”

“Evidence from neuroimaging studies supports the link between social attraction and reward by demonstrating increased activity in the reward circuitry during interactions with loved ones and with cooperative partners (Vrti ̌ cka and Vuilleumier, 2012).”