Neural bases of social feedback processing and self–other distinction in late childhood: The role of attachment and age

Abstract

Attachment plays a key role in how children process information about the self and others. Here, we examined the neural bases of interindividual differences in attachment in late childhood and tested whether social cognition-related neural activity varies as function of age. In a small sample of 8-year-old to 12-year-old children (n = 21/19), we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses during social feedback processing and self-other distinction. Attachment was assessed using child self-report. The social feedback processing task presented smiling and angry faces either confirming or disconfirming written information about participant performance on a perceptual game. In addition to observing main effects of facial emotion and performance, an increase in age was related to a shift from negative (i.e., angry faces/bad performance) to positive (i.e., smiling faces/good performance) information processing in the left amygdala/hippocampus, bilateral fusiform face area, bilateral anterior temporal pole (ATP), and left anterior insula. There were no effects of attachment on social feedback processing. The self-other distinction task presented digital morphs between children's own faces and faces of their mother or stranger females. We observed differential activation in face processing and mentalizing regions in response to self and mother faces versus morphed faces. Furthermore, left ATP activity was associated with attachment anxiety such that greater attachment anxiety was related to a shift from heightened processing of self and mother faces to morphed faces. There were no effects of age on self-other distinction. We discuss our preliminary findings in the context of attachment theory and previous work on social evaluation and self-other processing. Keywords Social cognitive affective neuroscience. Late childhood. fMRI. Attachment. Age The parent-child relationship provides the foundation for children's learning about the self and others. The quality of this relationship is reflected in children's attachment orientation to their parents, which, in turn, shapes how children respond to social situations (Bowlby, 1982). More specifically, attachment theory posits that sensitive versus insensitive caregiving experiences contribute to the development of different attachment-derived internal working models (IWMs)-cognitive schemas about the self, others, and social relationships in general-that have extended implications for social and emotional development (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). In line with this perspective, a more secure attachment emerges from sensitive caregiving experiences and leads to an IWM that represents others as safe and dependable, and the self as worthy and capable of eliciting care when needed. Secure IWMs have consistently been associated with children's positive development, including greater social competence and emotion understanding (

Attachment security and striatal functional connectivity in typically developing children

“…A longitudinal study demonstrated that greater levels of emotional neglect were associated with blunted ventral striatum activity, which was also related to depression in adolescence ( Hanson et al, 2015 ). Although not revealing any significant associations with attachment in the striatum, a recent study found that heightened activity in the anterior temporal pole while processing unfamiliar faces other than self and mother was related to attachment anxiety in children 8–12 years of ages ( Miller et al, 2020 ). Although these studies have inferred that early experience in attachment relationships modulates functional organization in the brain, studies were based on a wide variety of tasks and very few reports have investigated these associations in spontaneous fluctuations of brain activity.…”

Hippocampus long‐axis specialization throughout development: A meta‐analysis

“…When examining memory retrieval, ROIs included left anterior (Bauer et al, 2017;Buck et al, 2020), left posterior (Bauer et al, 2017;Sneider et al, 2018), and right posterior (Carri on et al, 2010;Cho et al, 2012) hippocampus. Tasks that relied on verbal memory reported coordinates in the left anterior (Buck et al, 2020;Maril et al, 2010), left posterior (Bauer et al, 2017;Buck et al, 2020) (Christensen et al, 2015;Miller et al, 2020;Moore et al, 2012), left posterior (Romund et al, 2016), and right anterior (Reidy et al, 2016) hippocampus. Reward-based studies activated the left anterior (van Meer et al, 2016) and right posterior (May et al, 2004) hippocampus.…”

Comorbid depression and anxiety: Integration of insights from attachment theory and cognitive neuroscience, and their implications for research and treatment

“…Insecure attachment is also associated with altered functioning in the prefrontal, anterior cingulate, insular and parietal cortices, basal ganglia and amygdala during the performance of tasks related to social cognition or reward. The changes observed in these regions are suggestive of inefficient information processing and heightened reactivity to external situations (Warren et al, 2010 ; Moutsiana et al, 2014 ; Schneider-Hassloff et al, 2015 ; Quevedo et al, 2017 ; Miller et al, 2020 ). Avoidant and anxious attachment have both been associated with specific alterations in the functioning of a “social aversion circuit” involving the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and middle temporal gyrus; such changes may be relevant to the fear of criticism or rejection, negative cognitions and avoidance behavior that are seen in patients with comorbid anxiety and depression (Krause et al, 2016 ).…”