Attachment security and striatal functional connectivity in typically developing children

Abstract

Attachment security is formed through interactions with a main caregiver during the first three years of life and reflects inter-individual differences in mental representations for the relationship. The striatum is known to be a key structure to initiate attachment behaviours and maintain attachment relationships as well as to modulate reward-related processing as part of the approach module in current neurobiological models of human attachment. Although findings have suggested critical roles of the striatum in inter-individual differences in attachment, most studies were based on a wide variety of tasks and very few have investigated these associations in intrinsic brain connectivity in typically developing children. In the present study, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the striatal functional connectivity according to children’s attachment security in 68 nine-year-olds (Secure attachment = 39, Insecure attachment = 29, mean age/SD = 9.62/0.69). Children with secure attachment demonstrated increased functional connectivity in the tempro-limbic region, compared to children with insecure attachment. In addition, the child-reported attachment security scores were negatively associated with the caudate-prefrontal connectivity, but positively with the putamen-visual area connectivity. These data demonstrate that inter-individual differences in attachment can be captured in striatal functional connectivity organization in the typical brain.

The Sleeping Brain’s Connectivity and Family Environment: Characterizing Sleep EEG Coherence in an Infant Cohort

“…This is not surprising, given that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for functions involved in self-regulation 53 . Furthermore, increased functional connectivity in temporo-limbic regions was observed in 9-year-old children with secure attachment in comparison to children with insecure attachment of the same age 54 . As correlations between maternal stress and co-sleeping have been demonstrated 55 56 .…”

The sleeping brain’s connectivity and family environment: characterizing sleep EEG coherence in an infant cohort

“…This is not surprising, given that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for functions involved in self-regulation 57 . Moreover, increased functional connectivity in temporo-limbic regions was observed in 9-year-old children with secure attachment in comparison to children with insecure attachment of the same age 58 .…”

Functional connectivity changes in the brain of adolescents with internet addiction: A systematic literature review of imaging studies

“…example, functional connectivity has been utilised to investigate attachment styles in adolescents [63]. It was observed that adolescent attachment styles were negatively associated with caudate-prefrontal connectivity, but positively with the putamen-visual area connectivity [63]. Both named areas were also influenced by the onset of internet addiction, possibly providing a connection between the two.…”