Kim Sohye, Fonagy Peter, Allen Jon, Strathearn Lane
a Department of Pediatrics , Baylor College of Medicine , Houston , TX , USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2014;9(4):352-63. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2014.896287. Epub 2014 Mar 17.
While the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder has been extensively researched, much less attention has been paid to the neural mechanisms underlying more covert but pervasive types of trauma (e.g., those involving disrupted relationships and insecure attachment). Here, we report on a neurobiological study documenting that mothers' attachment-related trauma, when unresolved, undermines her optimal brain response to her infant's distress. We examined the amygdala blood oxygenation level-dependent response in 42 first-time mothers as they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, viewing happy- and sad-face images of their own infant, along with those of a matched unknown infant. Whereas mothers with no trauma demonstrated greater amygdala responses to the sad faces of their own infant as compared to their happy faces, mothers who were classified as having unresolved trauma in the Adult Attachment Interview (Dynamic Maturational Model) displayed blunted amygdala responses when cued by their own infants' sadness as compared to happiness. Unknown infant faces did not elicit differential amygdala responses between the mother groups. The blunting of the amygdala response in traumatized mothers is discussed as a neural indication of mothers' possible disengagement from infant distress, which may be part of a process linking maternal unresolved trauma and disrupted maternal caregiving.
虽然创伤后应激障碍的神经生物学已经得到了广泛研究，但对于更为隐蔽却普遍存在的创伤类型（例如涉及关系破裂和不安全依恋的创伤）背后的神经机制，人们关注得较少。在此，我们报告一项神经生物学研究，该研究记录了母亲未解决的与依恋相关的创伤会破坏她对婴儿痛苦的最佳大脑反应。我们对42位初为人母者进行功能磁共振成像扫描时，观察她们看到自己婴儿以及匹配的陌生婴儿的开心和悲伤面部图像时杏仁核的血氧水平依赖反应。与看到自己婴儿开心面孔相比，没有创伤的母亲看到自己婴儿悲伤面孔时杏仁核反应更强；而在成人依恋访谈（动态成熟模型）中被归类为有未解决创伤的母亲，看到自己婴儿悲伤面孔时相比开心面孔时杏仁核反应减弱。陌生婴儿面孔在两组母亲中并未引发杏仁核的不同反应。创伤母亲杏仁核反应减弱被认为是母亲可能对婴儿痛苦不再关注的神经表现，这可能是将母亲未解决的创伤与混乱的母性照料联系起来的过程的一部分。
