Unresolved loss, a risk factor for offspring, predicts event-related potential responses to death-related imagery.

Abstract

This study investigates whether individual differences in attachment status can be detected by electrophysiological responses to loss-themed pictures. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was used to identify discourse/reasoning lapses during the discussion of loss experiences via death that place speakers in the Unresolved/disorganized AAI category. In parents, Unresolved AAI status has been associated with Disorganized infant Strange Situation response, a known risk factor for psychopathology (e.g., internalizing/externalizing/dissociation). This association has been related to anomalous frightening (FR) parental behavior in the infant's presence, behavior presumed to be instigated by vulnerability to trauma-related fright. Here, psychophysiological methods were utilized to examine whether Unresolved AAI status could be detected in brain responses to subtle/symbolic reminders of loss. One year after AAI administration, 31 undergraduate women who had experienced loss (16 Unresolved) underwent continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording during a picture-viewing, valence-rating task. Picture onset-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed millisecond responses to 4 picture categories: pleasant people, pleasant nature, cemetery (symbolic death), and gruesome death (dead or dying people). Participants' valence ratings did not differ between groups across picture categories. However, the N2 ERP, implicated in detecting stimulus salience, was selectively greater in Unresolved participants viewing cemetery scenes; it was in fact as high as the N2 for gruesome death images observed throughout the sample. Additionally, Unresolved participants exhibited a right-hemispheric P3 asymmetry across picture categories, suggestive of continuously heightened vigilance/arousal. Together, these results suggest that Unresolved AAI status is associated with greater neurophysiological sensitivity to subtle reminders of loss that may disrupt ongoing mental function. (PsycINFO Database Record

Attachment security moderates the link between adverse childhood experiences and cellular aging

“…Similar to behavioral disorganization in infancy, unresolved adults’ disorganized discourse may reflect disoriented or fear responses to activation of their attachment system. In addition, similar to infant disorganized attachment, which has been linked with dissociation (Carlson, 1998) and physiological dysregulation (Bernard & Dozier, 2010), unresolved attachment state of mind in adulthood has been linked with dissociative symptoms (Joubert, Webster, & Hackett, 2012; West, Adam, Spreng, & Rose, 2001) and physiological responses suggestive of heightened vigilance (Bahm, Simon-Thomas, Main, & Hesse, 2017). Thus, unresolved attachment state of mind may play an important role in influencing health outcomes among individuals exposed to childhood trauma.…”

Auditory N2 Correlates of Treatment Response in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

“…The N2 responses to the distractor stimuli, which theoretically comprise only the N2a and N2b subcomponents, were smaller than the target N2 both before and after treatment; however, the N2 amplitude to the gunshot stimulus was larger than was than N2 amplitude to the lion's roar stimulus. In addition to the threatening animal sound being trauma-irrelevant and, thus, less salient (Bahm et al, 2017;Yuan et al, 2012;Zinchenko et al, 2017), the 500-ms presentation of a mountain lion's roar used in our paradigm may have made this stimulus difficult to identify. Jacobsen et al (2005) reported a smaller mismatch negativity (i.e., N2a) to unfamiliar deviant stimuli within the context of familiar sounds.…”

“…The N2 has also been shown to be sensitive to the emotional features of tasks and stimuli. Larger N2s are elicited by emotional, relative to neutral, faces (Xue et al., 2016), images (Attias et al., 1996; Bahm et al., 2017), and words (González‐Villar et al., 2014; Kanske & Kotz, 2012). In addition, this N2 enhancement may increase as the stimuli's attributes of arousal (López‐Martín et al., 2013) or unpleasantness (Yuan et al., 2012) increase.…”

Exploring the meaning of unresolved loss and trauma in more than 1,000 Adult Attachment Interviews

“…The unresolved state of mind construct has been proposed to account for a set of directly observable expressions. This has invited both theory (e.g., Main & Hesse, 1990;Main & Morgan, 1996) and empirical research (e.g., Bahm et al, 2017;Bakkum et al, 2020) to articulate and to probe their (1) adaptive function, (2) phylogenetic history, (3) physiological mechanisms, and (4) ontogenetic or developmental history (Tinbergen's four questions; Tinbergen, 1963). The current findings provide some clues to assist in this endeavor, such that disbelief and psychologically confused statements regarding loss may be important features of the construct of an unresolved state of mind, and a group of indicators that were extremely rare in our sample may not be psychometrically valid.…”