Neural correlates of distress and comfort in individuals with avoidant, anxious and secure attachment style: an fMRI study

ABSTRACT

Despite a growing literature, experiments directly related to attachment are still needed. We explored brain processes involved in two aspects of attachment, distress and comfort. Seventy-eight healthy adult males with different attachment styles (secure, avoidant, and anxious) viewed distress, comfort, complicity-joy and neutral images (picture database BAPS-Adult) in an fMRI block design. ROIs from the modules described in the functional Neuro-Anatomical Model of Attachment (Long et al. 2020) were studied. Secure participants used more co- and self-regulation strategies and exhibited a higher activation of the reward network in distress and comfort viewing, than insecure participants. Avoidant participants showed the lower brain activations. Their approach and reward modules were the least activated in distress and comfort. Anxious participants presented both higher activations of the approach and aversion modules during complicity-joy. In addition, comfort and complicity-joy were processed differently according to attachment styles and should be differentiated among positive stimuli to disentangle attachment processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment style
• fMRI
• distress
• comfort
• reward system
• emotional brain processes

Acknowledgments

We thank Pierre Edouard Billot, Chrystelle Vidal, and Julie Mathieu for their assistance in preparing and conducting this study. We also thank Jennifer Dobson for proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2024.2384393

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.