Abstract
This study aims to explore the modulation effects of attachment relationships with parents on the neural correlates that are associated with parental faces. The event-related potentials elicited in 31 college students while viewing facial stimuli of their parents in two single oddball paradigms (father vs. unfamiliar male and mother vs. unfamiliar female) were measured. We found that enhanced P3a and P3b and attenuated N2b were elicited by parental faces; however, the N170 component failed to discriminate parental faces from unfamiliar faces. An experienced attachment relationship with the father was positively correlated to the P3a response associated with the father’s face, whereas no correlation was found in the case of mothers. Further exploration in dipole source localization showed that, within the time window of the P300, distinctive brain regions were involved in the processing of parental faces; the father’s face was located in the medial frontal gyrus, which might be involved in self effect, and the anterior cingulate gyrus was activated in response to the mother’s face. This research is the first to demonstrate that neural mechanisms involved with parents can be modulated differentially by the qualities of the attachments to the parents. In addition, parental faces share a highly similar temporal pattern, but the origins of these neural responses are distinct, which could merit further investigation.
Highlights
Speaking, parents are the most salient stimulus and mark the apex of biological significance; the attachment bonding of parent–child plays an important role in promoting humans’ survival and healthy development [1]
Delineating the neural mechanisms that underlie the processing of parental faces could result in a better understanding of the nature of the parent–child bond; this goal has led to a rise in brain imaging and electrophysiological studies that reported differences in neural responses when individuals process the faces of their parents compared to others
These studies include fMRI studies that report increased activity in areas of the bilateral cingulate gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus when viewing parental faces compared to unfamiliar faces, and this activation did not correlate with age, spatial distance or the time spent with their parents [2]
Summary
Speaking, parents are the most salient stimulus and mark the apex of biological significance; the attachment bonding of parent–child plays an important role in promoting humans’ survival and healthy development [1]. Delineating the neural mechanisms that underlie the processing of parental faces could result in a better understanding of the nature of the parent–child bond; this goal has led to a rise in brain imaging and electrophysiological studies that reported differences in neural responses when individuals process the faces of their parents compared to others. These studies include fMRI studies that report increased activity in areas of the bilateral cingulate gyrus and the right superior frontal gyrus when viewing parental faces compared to unfamiliar faces, and this activation did not correlate with age, spatial distance or the time spent with their parents [2]. Event-related potential (ERP) studies found that enhanced P3 or LPP responses were elicited when individuals process personally significant faces relative to unknown or less significant faces [5,6,7,8,9], which demonstrates that in the late stage of information processing, the neural mechanism was sensitive to the motivational significance that underlies personal salient faces
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