Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Departments of Radiology and Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2020 Jun;20(3):503-520. doi: 10.3758/s13415-020-00781-w.
Attachment plays a key role in how children process information about the self and others. Here, we examined the neural bases of interindividual differences in attachment in late childhood and tested whether social cognition-related neural activity varies as function of age. In a small sample of 8-year-old to 12-year-old children (n = 21/19), we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses during social feedback processing and self-other distinction. Attachment was assessed using child self-report. The social feedback processing task presented smiling and angry faces either confirming or disconfirming written information about participant performance on a perceptual game. In addition to observing main effects of facial emotion and performance, an increase in age was related to a shift from negative (i.e., angry faces/bad performance) to positive (i.e., smiling faces/good performance) information processing in the left amygdala/hippocampus, bilateral fusiform face area, bilateral anterior temporal pole (ATP), and left anterior insula. There were no effects of attachment on social feedback processing. The self-other distinction task presented digital morphs between children's own faces and faces of their mother or stranger females. We observed differential activation in face processing and mentalizing regions in response to self and mother faces versus morphed faces. Furthermore, left ATP activity was associated with attachment anxiety such that greater attachment anxiety was related to a shift from heightened processing of self and mother faces to morphed faces. There were no effects of age on self-other distinction. We discuss our preliminary findings in the context of attachment theory and previous work on social evaluation and self-other processing.
依附在儿童对自我和他人信息的处理中起着关键作用。在这里，我们研究了儿童晚期依附关系个体差异的神经基础，并测试了社会认知相关的神经活动是否随年龄变化而变化。在一个由 8 岁至 12 岁儿童组成的小样本中（n = 21/19），我们使用功能磁共振成像来测量社交反馈处理和自我-他人区分过程中的神经反应。依附关系通过儿童自我报告进行评估。社交反馈处理任务呈现出微笑和愤怒的面孔，这些面孔确认或否认参与者在感知游戏中的表现的书面信息。除了观察到面部情绪和表现的主要影响外，年龄的增加与左杏仁核/海马体、双侧梭状回面孔区、双侧前颞极（ATP）和左前岛叶从负面（即愤怒的面孔/表现不佳）信息处理到正面（即微笑的面孔/表现良好）信息处理的转变有关。依附关系对社交反馈处理没有影响。自我-他人区分任务呈现出儿童自己的面孔和母亲或陌生女性面孔之间的数字变形。我们观察到在面孔处理和心理化区域中对自我和母亲面孔与变形面孔的不同激活。此外，左 ATP 活动与依附焦虑有关，即更大的依附焦虑与自我和母亲面孔的处理向变形面孔的转变有关。年龄对自我-他人区分没有影响。我们在依附理论和以前关于社会评价和自我-他人处理的工作的背景下讨论了我们的初步发现。
