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

Abstract

BackgroundAffective 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.MethodsResting‐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.ResultsAs 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.DiscussionThis 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.

Movies and narratives as naturalistic stimuli in neuroimaging

“…Listening to a patient’s story about a dismissive parental relationship in childhood reduced supplementary motor areas’ connectivity with other areas of the brain during subsequent rest ( Borchardt et al, 2015 ). In another study, reduced functional connectivity patterns were identified between the caudate nucleus, TPJ, DLPFC, and cingulate cortex after certain types of emotional attachment narrative ( Krause et al, 2018 ), and EEG findings suggest that, while subjects remain aroused after hearing attachment narratives, they affectively disengage from content about dismissiveness soon after hearing it ( Borchardt et al, 2018 ). Finally, negative emotions induced by movie clips inhibited lateral prefrontal cortical activation during a subsequent theory-of-mind (ToM) task in a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study ( Himichi et al, 2015 ); due to the method used in this study only the activity of lateral prefrontal cortex was measured.…”

Neural Processing of Narratives: From Individual Processing to Viral Propagation

“…Functional connectivity changes were also reported after emotional narratives and movies (van Marle et al, 2010 ; Borchardt et al, 2015 ). EEG findings have suggested that subjects remain aroused after emotional narratives (Borchardt et al, 2018 ). Finally, negative emotions induced by movie clips inhibited lateral prefrontal cortical activation during a subsequent theory of mind task (Himichi et al, 2015 ).…”

Is Our Self Related to Personality? A Neuropsychodynamic Model

“…Departing from this background, if attachment influences the development of the self, the constitution, and the differentiation of the self and others and is considered closely linked to SR processing (Brockman, 2002 ; Northoff, 2011 ), we may expect an impact on the spontaneous/resting state activity of the brain, as suggested by a study showing a relation between increased measures of individual negative childhood experiences and a more entropic neuronal activity in medial prefrontal cortex during rest (Duncan et al, 2015 ; see Figure 1 ). Moreover, research on the resting state fMRI showed that emotional processing of attachment-related content induces carryover effects and alters the brain network configurations at rest (Krause et al, 2016 , 2018 ; Borchardt et al, 2018 ).…”