Abstract
Our study explored how priming with a secure base schema affects the processing of emotional facial stimuli in individuals with attachment anxiety. We enrolled 42 undergraduate students between 18 and 27 years of age, and divided them into two groups: attachment anxiety and attachment secure. All participants were primed under two conditions, the secure priming using references to the partner, and neutral priming using neutral references. We performed repeated attachment security priming combined with a dual-task paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants’ reaction times in terms of responding to the facial stimuli were also measured. Attachment security priming can facilitate an individual’s processing of positive emotional faces; for instance, the presentation of the partner’s name was associated with stronger activities in a wide range of brain regions and faster reaction times for positive facial expressions in the subjects. The current finding of higher activity in the left-hemisphere regions for secure priming rather than neutral priming is consistent with the prediction that attachment security priming triggers the spread of the activation of a positive emotional state. However, the difference in brain activity during processing of both, positive and negative emotional facial stimuli between the two priming conditions appeared in the attachment anxiety group alone. This study indicates that the effect of attachment secure priming on the processing of emotional facial stimuli could be mediated by chronic attachment anxiety. In addition, it highlights the association between higher-order processes of the attachment system (secure attachment schema priming) and early-stage information processing system (attention), given the increased attention toward the effects of secure base schema on the processing of emotion- and attachment-related information among the insecure population. Thus, the following study has applications in providing directions for clinical treatment of mood disorders in attachment anxiety.
Highlights
According to Bowlby’s (1969, 1982) attachment theory, human beings are innately predisposed to establish effective bonds and maintain proximity with their caregiver, from here on referred to as the attachment figure, who provides warmth, nutrition, and protection, all of which are vital for an infant’s survival (Bowlby, 1973; Landers and Sullivan, 2012)
Recent investigations have used techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials (ERP) to examine how attachment anxiety modulates the processing of emotional information; for example, studies using ERP techniques have demonstrated that anxious individuals have heightened electrophysiological responses as early as 100– 300 ms after the presentation of rejection cues or facial expressions, unlike avoidant individuals (Zhang et al, 2008; Zayas et al, 2009)
Our results show that presenting cues characteristic of an attachment figure effectively activates the secure base schema and induces a spreading in activation of certain brain areas, stronger emotional arousal, and positive memory retrieval, which reflect in the data as shorter response times to expressions that reveal emotional valence
Summary
According to Bowlby’s (1969, 1982) attachment theory, human beings are innately predisposed to establish effective bonds and maintain proximity with their caregiver, from here on referred to as the attachment figure, who provides warmth, nutrition, and protection, all of which are vital for an infant’s survival (Bowlby, 1973; Landers and Sullivan, 2012). Individuals with attachment anxiety score higher on the attachment anxiety dimension, (Mikulincer et al, 2003) display a preference for seeking acceptance from and proximity with others, fear rejection and abandonment, and have a negative self-image along with a positive other-image These images, which were called internal working models that formed mainly through vocal and facial interactions with the nurturer, can affect the way in which people think, feel, and behave in close relationships and their emotional information processing (Pietromonaco and Barrett, 2000), especially the processing of facial expressions, which was considered to be an essential medium of communication in early childhood interactions (Bowlby, 1973). We must understand the protective mechanisms underlying the attachment working model of low anxiety individuals (secure individuals), as our knowledge of this is currently limited
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