Functional connectivity changes following interpersonal reactivity

Abstract

Attachment experiences substantially influence emotional and cognitive development. Narratives comprising attachment-dependent content were proposed to modulate activation of cognitive-emotional schemata in listeners. We studied the effects after listening to prototypical attachment narratives on wellbeing and countertransference-reactions in 149 healthy participants. Neural correlates of these cognitive-emotional schema activations were investigated in a 7 Tesla rest-task-rest fMRI-study (23 healthy males) using functional connectivity (FC) analysis of the social approach network (seed regions: left and right Caudate Nucleus, CN). Reduced FC between left CN and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) represented a general effect of prior auditory stimulation. After presentation of the insecure-dismissing narrative, FC between left CN and bilateral temporo-parietal junction, and right dorsal posterior Cingulum was reduced, compared to baseline. Post-narrative FC-patterns of insecure-dismissing and insecure-preoccupied narratives differed in strength between left CN and right DLPFC. Neural correlates of the moderating effect of individual attachment anxiety were represented in a reduced CN-DLPFC FC as a function of individual neediness-levels. These findings suggest specific neural processing of prolonged mood-changes and schema activation induced by attachment-specific speech patterns. Individual desire for interpersonal proximity was predicted by attachment anxiety and furthermore modulated FC of the social approach network in those exposed to such narratives.

Attachment‐specific speech patterns induce dysphoric mood changes in the listener as a function of individual differences in attachment characteristics and psychopathology

“…The statistical threshold was Bonferroni corrected for the number of rmANOVAs ( p < .017, representing p < .05). These results were previously published within a validation process of the shortened narratives (Krause et al , 2017).…”

“…Listening to a narrative characteristic of insecure‐preoccupied discourse led to the highest impairment of the listeners’ well‐being, while listeners’ evaluation of friendliness and tendency for friendly social interaction towards the narrator was lowest following the insecure‐dismissing narrative (Kirchmann et al , 2011). These results could be replicated (Krause et al , 2017). In a similar paradigm, there was no systematic difference in response between clinically inexperienced listeners (students) and trained therapists to these prototypical attachment narratives (Martin et al , 2007).…”

“…Results of well‐being, interpersonal reactivity, and friendliness are briefly reported here (see Figure 2, Supplementary material and Krause et al , 2017 for details). Exposure to insecure narratives reduced the listener’s well‐being , compared with well‐being before any intervention.…”

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 ).…”

Making Sense of Connectivity

“…Similar to the above stimulation techniques, functional connectivity changes can also be provoked by mood induction paradigms, where data acquisition is carried out right after specific stimulation (Figueroa et al, 2017; Krause et al, 2018). These applications are likely to yield important clinical information since they are between resting-state and task-specific connectivity.…”