Adult attachment style modulates neural responses in a mentalizing task

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Adult attachment style (AAS) impacts social cognition and mentalizing.
• Neural underpinnings of AAS's influence on mentalizing remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how AAS dimensions, avoidance (AV) and anxiety (ANX), modulate neural correlates of mentalizing.
• Examine brain activation patterns during a social interaction task.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 164 healthy adults.
• Assessed AAS using the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (AV and ANX subscales).
• Utilized an interactive Prisoner's Dilemma Game to elicit mentalizing.

Main Results:

• The mentalizing network showed significant activation across participants.
• AV positively correlated with neural activity in the right amygdala, MFG, midcingulate cortex, superior parietal lobule, and bilateral IFG.
• ANX negatively correlated with neural activity in these same regions.

Conclusions:

• Avoidant attachment is associated with heightened activation in brain regions supporting emotion regulation and cognitive control during mentalizing.
• Anxious attachment shows reduced activation in these areas compared to avoidant attachment.
• Findings elucidate the neural basis of how attachment styles shape social cognitive processes.