Walsh Emilie, Blake Yvonne, Donati Alessia, Stoop Ron, von Gunten Armin
Service of Old Age Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Center for Psychiatric Neurosciences, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2019 Jul 4;11:161. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2019.00161. eCollection 2019.
The etiology of neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia is complex and incompletely understood. Interest in a developmental perspective to these pathologies is gaining momentum. An early supportive social environment seems to have important implications for social, affective and cognitive abilities across the lifespan. Attachment theory may help to explain the link between these early experiences and later outcomes. This theory considers early interactions between an infant and its caregiver to be crucial to shaping social behavior and emotion regulation strategies throughout adult life. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that such early attachment experiences can, potentially through epigenetic mechanisms, have profound neurobiological and cognitive consequences. Here we discuss how early attachment might influence the development of affective, cognitive, and neurobiological resources that could protect against cognitive decline and dementia. We argue that social relations, both early and late in life, are vital to ensuring cognitive and neurobiological health. The concepts of brain and cognitive reserve are crucial to understanding how environmental factors may impact cognitive decline. We examine the role that attachment might play in fostering brain and cognitive reserve in old age. Finally, we put forward the concept of affective reserve, to more directly frame the socio-affective consequences of early attachment as protectors against cognitive decline. We thereby aim to highlight that, in the study of aging, cognitive decline and dementia, it is crucial to consider the role of affective and social factors such as attachment.
痴呆等神经退行性疾病的病因复杂，尚未完全明确。从发育角度研究这些病症的兴趣日益浓厚。早期支持性的社会环境似乎对人一生的社交、情感和认知能力都具有重要意义。依恋理论或许有助于解释这些早期经历与后期结果之间的联系。该理论认为，婴儿与其照料者之间的早期互动对于塑造其成年后的社会行为和情绪调节策略至关重要。此外，研究表明，此类早期依恋经历可能通过表观遗传机制对神经生物学和认知产生深远影响。在此，我们探讨早期依恋如何可能影响情感、认知和神经生物学资源的发展，而这些资源可预防认知衰退和痴呆。我们认为，生命早期和晚期的社会关系对于确保认知和神经生物学健康至关重要。大脑和认知储备的概念对于理解环境因素如何影响认知衰退至关重要。我们研究了依恋在促进老年人脑储备和认知储备方面可能发挥的作用。最后，我们提出情感储备的概念，以便更直接地将早期依恋的社会情感后果界定为预防认知衰退的保护因素。我们旨在强调，在衰老、认知衰退和痴呆的研究中，考虑依恋等情感和社会因素的作用至关重要。
