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A voxel-based morphometry study on adult attachment style and affective loss
H Acosta1, A Jansen2, B Nuscheler3
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany; The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Finland.
Neuroscience
|July 15, 2018
Summary
Adult attachment styles influence recovery from affective loss. Anxiety-related attachment correlates with specific brain gray matter volumes in emotion processing regions, unlike avoidance attachment.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Successful recovery from affective loss is linked to adult attachment style (AAS).
- The relationship between AAS, affective loss, and brain gray matter volume remains unclear.
- Attachment styles develop from genetic and environmental interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between adult attachment style (AAS), affective loss experiences, and brain gray matter volume.
- To explore how different AAS dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) correlate with brain structure.
Main Methods:
- 192 healthy subjects underwent MRI brain scans.
- Voxel-based morphometry was used to analyze gray matter volume.
- Adult attachment style was assessed using the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ), focusing on avoidance (AV) and anxiety (ANX) subscales.
- The number of affective losses (AL) in the past 5 years was recorded.
Main Results:
- A significant positive association was found between anxiety (ANX) and gray matter volume in the left insula and the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus, compared to avoidance (AV).
- Region-of-interest analyses did not reveal significant associations.
- Anxiety and avoidance attachment styles showed differential correlations with the volumes of these specific brain regions.
Conclusions:
- Adult attachment styles, specifically anxiety and avoidance, are differentially associated with gray matter volumes in brain regions crucial for emotion processing and regulation.
- These findings suggest that individual attachment styles correlate distinctly with brain structure, highlighting the interplay of genetics and environment in shaping both personality and neuroanatomy.
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