Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2010 Oct;31(10):1482-9. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20954.
Early patterns of infant attachment have been shown to be an important influence on adult social behavior. Animal studies suggest that patterns of early attachment influence brain development, contributing to permanent alterations in neural structure; however, there are no previous studies investigating whether differences in attachment style are associated with differences in brain structure in humans. In this study, we used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine for the first time the association between attachment style, affective loss (for example, death of a loved one) and gray matter volume in a healthy sample of adults (n = 32). Attachment style was assessed on two dimensions (anxious and avoidant) using the ECR-Revised questionnaire. High attachment-related anxiety was associated with decreased gray matter in the anterior temporal pole and increased gray matter in the left lateral orbital gyrus. A greater number of affective losses was associated with increased gray matter volume in the cerebellum; in this region, however, the impact of affective losses was significantly moderated by the level of attachment-related avoidance. These findings indicate that differences in attachment style are associated with differences in the neural structure of regions implicated in emotion regulation. It is hypothesized that early attachment experience may contribute to structural brain differences associated with attachment style in adulthood; furthermore, these findings point to a neuronal mechanism through which attachment style may mediate individual differences in responses to affective loss.
婴儿依恋模式早期已被证明对成人社会行为有重要影响。动物研究表明，早期依恋模式影响大脑发育，导致神经结构永久性改变；然而，以前没有研究调查依恋模式的差异是否与人类大脑结构的差异有关。在这项研究中，我们首次使用磁共振成像（MRI）和基于体素的形态测量学（VBM）检查了依恋模式、情感丧失（例如，亲人去世）与健康成年人样本（n = 32）灰质体积之间的关联。使用 ECR-Revised 问卷从两个维度（焦虑和回避）评估依恋模式。高依恋相关焦虑与前颞极灰质减少和左侧外侧眶回灰质增加有关。更多的情感丧失与小脑灰质体积增加有关；然而，在这个区域，情感丧失的影响被依恋相关回避的水平显著调节。这些发现表明，依恋模式的差异与情绪调节相关区域的神经结构差异有关。研究假设，早期依恋经历可能有助于成年期与依恋模式相关的大脑结构差异；此外，这些发现指出了一种神经元机制，通过该机制，依恋模式可能在对情感丧失的个体差异反应中起中介作用。
