Relationship between adult attachment patterns, emotional experience and EEG frontal asymmetry

Rognoni, Elena; Galati, Dario; Costa, Tommaso; Crini, Manuella

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.021

Cited by 37 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Harmon-Jones et al, 2010). Moreover, the findings of this study are in line with studies on adults, reporting significantly lower left frontal asymmetry in individuals with insecure attachment than in individuals with secure attachment (Rognoni et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Infant frontal asymmetry predicts child emotional availability

Licata¹,

Paulus²,

Kühn-Popp³

et al. 2015

International Journal of Behavioral Development

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While factors influencing maternal emotional availability (EA) have been well investigated, little is known about the development of child EA. The present longitudinal study investigated the role of frontal brain asymmetry in young children with regard to child EA (child responsiveness and involvement) in mother-child interaction in a sample of 28 children at 7, 14, and 50 months of age. When infants were 7 months of age, mother-child interaction quality was assessed using the EA-Scales. At 14 months, infants' resting asymmetric frontal activity was assessed by means of the electroencephalogram (EEG). When children were 50 months old, mother-child interaction quality was measured again. Analyses showed that relatively higher left frontal EEG activation was related to higher child involvement at 50 months, but not to child responsiveness. Those findings suggest a specific relation between individual differences in frontal asymmetry, and child approach and initiating behaviors in mother-child interaction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…A study investigating adults revealed that individuals with insecure attachment showed lower left frontal asymmetry (i.e. greater right resting state activity) than securely attached individuals (Rognoni, Galati, Costa & Crini, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant frontal asymmetry predicts child emotional availability

Licata¹,

Paulus²,

Kühn-Popp³

et al. 2015

International Journal of Behavioral Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As an exception, in her infant study, Dawson et al (2001) found that in interaction with their mothers insecurely attached infants exhibited reduced LFA, which is interpreted in line with a hypo-activation of the attachment system. Investigating this linkage in an adult sample, Rognoni et al (2008) identified specific patterns of frontal cerebral asymmetry varying as a function of attachment style assessed by questionnaire. In particular, they found attachment insecurity to be associated with greater RFA and security with greater LFA in a resting state indicating avoidance and approach motivation, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, they found attachment insecurity to be associated with greater RFA and security with greater LFA in a resting state indicating avoidance and approach motivation, respectively. Furthermore, attachment groups, on a neural level, differentially responded to emotional stimuli (Rognoni et al, 2008). Accordingly, using the Adult Attachment Projective, Fraedrich et al (2010) reported further evidence suggesting increased RFA in insecurely attached subjects, however, they could not replicate Rognoni et al’s (2008) findings with regard to statistical significance (Fraedrich et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, attachment groups, on a neural level, differentially responded to emotional stimuli (Rognoni et al, 2008). Accordingly, using the Adult Attachment Projective, Fraedrich et al (2010) reported further evidence suggesting increased RFA in insecurely attached subjects, however, they could not replicate Rognoni et al’s (2008) findings with regard to statistical significance (Fraedrich et al, 2010). Regarding attachment and hemispheric asymmetry in parietal regions, Rognoni et al (2008) briefly reported not to have found any effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attachment Representations and Brain Asymmetry during the Processing of Autobiographical Emotional Memories in Late Adolescence

Kungl

Leyh

Spangler

2016

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Frontal and parietal asymmetries have repeatedly been shown to be related to specific functional mechanisms involved in emotion regulation. From a developmental perspective, attachment representations based on experiences with the caregiver are theorized to serve regulatory functions and influence how individuals deal with emotionally challenging situations throughout the life span. This study aimed to investigate neural substrates of emotion regulation by assessing state- and trait dependent EEG asymmetries in secure, insecure-dismissing and insecure-preoccupied subjects. The sample consisted of 40 late adolescents. The Adult Attachment Interview was administered and they were asked to report upon personally highly salient emotional memories related to anger, happiness and sadness. EEG was recorded at rest and during the retrieval of each of these emotional memories, and frontal and parietal hemispheric asymmetry were analyzed. We found attachment representations to differentially affect both the frontal and parietal organization of hemispheric asymmetry at rest and (for parietal region only) during the retrieval of emotional memories. During rest, insecure-dismissing subjects showed an elevated right-frontal brain activity and a reduced right-parietal brain activity. We interpret this finding in light of a disposition to use withdrawal strategies and low trait arousal in insecure-dismissing subjects. Emotional memory retrieval did not affect frontal asymmetry. However, both insecure groups showed an increase in right-sided parietal activity indicating increased arousal during the emotional task as compared to the resting state suggesting that their emotion regulation capability was especially challenged by the retrieval of emotional memories while securely attached subjects maintained a state of moderate arousal. The specific neurophysiological pattern of insecure-dismissing subjects is discussed with regard to a vulnerability to affective disorders.

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Dynamic disconnection of the supplementary motor area after processing of dismissive biographic narratives

Borchardt

Krause

et al. 2015

Brain and Behavior

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IntroductionTo understand the interplay between affective social information processing and its influence on mental states we investigated changes in functional connectivity (FC) patterns after audio exposure to emotional biographic narratives.MethodsWhile lying in the 7T MR scanner, 23 male participants listened to narratives of early childhood experiences of three persons, each having either a secure, dismissing, or preoccupied attachment representation. Directly after having listened to each of the prototypical narratives, participants underwent a 10‐minute resting‐state fMRI scan.To study changes in FC patterns between experimental conditions, three post‐task conditions were compared to a baseline condition. Specific local alterations, as well as differences in connectivity patterns between distributed brain regions, were quantified using Network‐based statistics (NBS) and graph metrics.ResultsUsing NBS, a nine‐region subnetwork showing reduced FC after having listened to the dismissing narrative was identified. Of this subnetwork, only the left Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) exhibited a decrease in the nodal graph metrics degree and strength exclusively after listening to the dismissing narrative. No other region showed post‐task changes in nodal metrics. A post hoc analysis of dynamic characteristics of FC of the left SMA showed a significant decrease in the dismissing condition when compared with the other conditions in the first three minutes of the scan, but faded away in the two subsequent intervals the differences.ConclusionsNodal metrics and NBS converge on reduced connectivity measures exclusively in left SMA in the dismissing condition, which may specifically reflect ongoing network changes underlying prolonged emotional reactivity to attachment‐related processing.

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Relationship between adult attachment patterns, emotional experience and EEG frontal asymmetry

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Infant frontal asymmetry predicts child emotional availability

Infant frontal asymmetry predicts child emotional availability

Attachment Representations and Brain Asymmetry during the Processing of Autobiographical Emotional Memories in Late Adolescence

Dynamic disconnection of the supplementary motor area after processing of dismissive biographic narratives

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