The neural correlates of attachment security in typically developing children

Abstract This study investigated neural correlates of children’s attachment security using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fifty-one boys’ attachment styles (age mean = 9.5 years, SD = 0.61) were assessed with the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT). We created an fMRI version of the SAT to activate children’s attachment system in fMRI environment and contrasted two conditions in which children were instructed to infer the specific feeling of the boy in the picture or to identify objects or physical activities. In the final fMRI analysis (N = 21), attachment security could be detected at the neural level corresponding to the behavioural differences in the attachment interview. Securely attached children showed greater activation in the frontal, limbic and basal ganglia area which included the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, amygdala, cingulate cortex and striatum, compared to other children who had lower quality of attachment. These regions have a key role in socio-emotional information processing and also represent a brain network related to approach and avoidance motivation in humans. Especially the striatum, strongly linked to reward processing underpinning social approach and avoidance motivation, showed the largest effects in these differences and also positively correlated with emotional openness scores in SAT. This suggests that the quality of attachment configures the approach and avoidance motivational system in our brain mediated by the striatum.