Neurobiology of attachment to an abusive caregiver: Short‐term benefits and long‐term costs

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment is associated with adverse brain development and later life psychiatric disorders, with maltreatment from the caregiver inducing a particular vulnerability to later life psychopathologies. Here we review two complementary rodent models of early life abuse, which are used to examine the infant response to trauma within attachment and the developmental trajectories that lead to later life neurobehavioral deficits. These rodent models include being reared with an abusive mother, and a more controlled attachment-learning paradigm using odor-shock conditioning to produce a new maternal odor. In both of these rodent models, pups learn a strong attachment and preference to the maternal odor. However, both models produce similar enduring neurobehavioral deficits, which emerge with maturation. Importantly, cues associated with our models of abuse serve as paradoxical safety signals, by normalizing enduring neurobehavioral deficits following abuse. Here we review these models and explore implications for human interventions for early life maltreatment.

Domestic Violence Awareness

“…And yet this paradox-experiencing a depth of attachment that supersedes most basic self-preservative drives-is consistent with what John Bowlby theorized, what recent child development research has demonstrated (24), and what data from rodent models have characterized on a neurobiological level (25).…”

Gene‐environment interaction influences attachment‐like style in mice

“…Her group has described the neurobiology of attachment and assigned a primary role to the amygdala (Sullivan et al 2000). They showed that attachment occurs even with trauma and/or an abusive care giver; in facts they found that the presence of the dam suppressed the pup's response to a threat or an aversive learning (Perry & Sullivan 2014;Shionoya et al 2007) thus allowing the young individual to survive although with long-term psychological effects that may become evident with maturation.…”

L’impact des relations précoces sur le développement cérébral : le trouble réactionnel de l’attachement vu par les neurosciences

“…Des altérations au niveau du cortex frontal sont également décrites chez les enfants présentant des difficultés à exprimer et développer de la sympathie, de l'embarras et de la culpabilité, ainsi qu'à accéder à une compréhension des règles sociales (Anderson et al, 1999). Les difficultés rapportées chez les trois enfants concernant l'attention, le contrôle des impulsions et les habiletés sociales convergent vers des perturbations du fonctionnement des zones frontales tel qu'avancé par les recherches dans le domaine (Berlin & Cassidy, 1999;Berlin et al, 2008;Damen et al, 2012;Elicker et al, 1992;Kreppner et al, 2001;Lewis & Feiring, 1989;Thompson, 2008 , 1998;Polan & Hoffer, 2008); elles pourraient devenir permanentes (Perry & Sullivan, 2014;Thomas et al, 2001). …”