Attachment-style differences in the ability to suppress negative thoughts: Exploring the neural correlates☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 20 women students from the subject pool at the University of California, Davis, selected on the basis of their attachment scores. Each participant had either (1) a relatively high score on one of the two attachment dimensions (anxiety, avoidance) and a score close to the median on the other or (2) low scores on the two dimensions (indicating a relatively secure attachment style)2
Questionnaire measures
Attachment anxiety and avoidance were uncorrelated (r = 0.034, P = 0.88), as intended. As expected, there was a positive correlation between attachment anxiety and trait anxiety (r = 0.46, P < 0.05) and a trend toward a positive correlation between attachment anxiety and neuroticism (r = 0.42, P = 0.065). Neuroticism and trait anxiety were highly correlated (r = 0.81, P < 0.001).
Behavioral data
Participants made fewer button presses in the not-thinking conditions than in the thinking conditions overall (t(1,19)
Discussion
In general, we replicated previous findings (e.g., Wyland et al., 2003) associating thought suppression with higher activation in the ACC and MPFC. Based on prior behavioral research on adult attachment style, we predicted that people high on attachment anxiety would show greater activation in emotion-related brain regions when thinking about negative attachment-related events (conflicts, breakups, death of partner). In line with our predictions, attachment anxiety was associated both with
Conclusion
Despite these limitations, the study revealed associations between self-reported attachment style and brain activation in regions associated with emotion, memory, and emotion regulation. The results fit well with other neuroscientific studies of emotion regulation (e.g., Ochsner and Gross, 2004), which suggests that emotional processes are modulated by top–down control from the OFC and PFC and bottom–up processes in the anterior temporal pole and hippocampus. Our findings indicate that
References (83)
- et al.
Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: an update
Trends Cogn. Sci.
(2004) - et al.
Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex
Trends Cogn. Sci.
(2000) - et al.
Autonomic and brain electrical activity in securely- and insecurely-attached infants of depressed mothers
Infant Behav. Dev.
(2001) - et al.
Dissociable temporal lobe activations during emotional episodic memory retrieval
NeuroImage
(2000) Neuroimaging studies of mood disorders
Biol. Psychiatry
(2000)- et al.
Why rejection hurts: a common neural alarm system for physical and social pain
Trends Cogn. Sci.
(2004) - et al.
The impact of individual differences on the neural circuitry underlying sadness
NeuroImage
(2003) - et al.
Contributions of amygdala and striatal activity in emotion regulation
Biol. Psychiatry
(2005) - et al.
Neural circuitry underlying voluntary suppression of sadness
Biol. Psychiatry
(2003) - et al.
Neural basis of emotional self-regulation in childhood
Neuroscience
(2004)
Cortical networks for working memory and executive functions sustain the conscious resting state in man
Brain Res. Bull.
The attachment behavioral system in adulthood: activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes
A PET study of stimulus- and task-induced semantic processing
NeuroImage
Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in PET and fMRI
NeuroImage
Neural correlates of thought suppression
Neuropsychologia
Processing of emotional and social information by the human amygdala
Patterns of Attachment: Assessed in the Strange Situation and at Home
Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories
Science
Neural correlates of conscious self-regulation of emotion
J. Neurosci.
Frontal lobe contribution to executive control of cognitive and social behavior
Los cinco grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: multitrait multimethod analysis of the Big Five in Spanish and English
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Conceptual processing during the conscious resting state: a functional MRI study
J. Cogn. Neurosci.
Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and anger
Brain
Attachment
Separation: anxiety and anger
Sadness and depression
Self-report measurement of adult romantic attachment: an integrative overview
Modulation of connectivity in visual pathways by attention: cortical interactions evaluated with structural equation modeling and fMRI
Cereb. Cortex
Attachment style and presence of a romantic partner as moderators of psychophysiological responses to a stressful laboratory situation
Pers. Relat.
Avoidance and its relation to other defensive processes
Visualizing how one brain understands another: a PET study of theory of mind
Am. J. Psychiatry
The anatomical connections of the macaque monkey orbitofrontal cortex: a review
Cereb. Cortex
Avoidant attachment and hemispheric lateralisation of the processing of attachment- and emotion-related words
Cogn. Emot.
Hippocampal system and declarative (relational) memory: summarizing the data from functional neuroimaging studies
Hippocampus
Brainweb: online interface to a 3D MRI simulated brain database
NeuroImage
Cerebral asymmetry, emotion, and affective style
Contributions of psychophysiology to research on adult attachment: review and recommendations
Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev.
An information processing framework for memory representation by the hippocampus
Does rejection hurt? An FMRI study of social exclusion
Science
Cited by (221)
Attentional bias to infant faces might be associated with previous care experiences and involvement in childcare in same-sex mothers
2024, International Journal of Clinical and Health PsychologyBereft and Left: The interplay between insecure attachment, isolation, and neurobiology
2022, Developmental ReviewAlexithymia in the Narratization of Romantic Relationships: The Mediating Role of Fear of Intimacy
2024, Journal of Clinical MedicineHand-blink reflex modulation: The role of primary emotions and attachment dimensions
2024, PsychophysiologyIt’s Not You, It’s Me: Perceived Face Threat of Disengagement Language in Dating Relationships
2024, Southern Communication Journal
- ☆
Preparation of this article was facilitated by a grant from the UC Davis Imaging Center. The authors would like to thank Sarah Donohue and Kateri Evans for assistance with data collection and analysis, Shelley Blozis for statistical advice, and Matthew Lieberman for very helpful editorial comments.