Neural signatures of chronic accessibility in parent – adult child attachment bonds

ABSTRACT

Some of the closest reciprocal relationships are between parents and their children. As part of the attachment characterizing many parent-child bonds, individuals form mental representations that are chronically accessible and calibrate expectations for future relationships. We predict that there exist unique neural signatures of this chronic accessibility. Young (N = 29, 16 females) and older adults (N = 27, 12 females) made trait judgments for parent or child, respectively, during fMRI scanning. Multivariate analysis identified whole-brain patterns of activation that covaried with the magnitude of parent-child attachment when thinking about that individual. Higher levels of parent and child attachment were associated with lower neural recruitment in anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, posterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe, and occipital face area. Results provide novel evidence for neural signatures of chronic accessibility, as bringing to mind one’s attached parent or child requires less engagement of brain regions involved in distress relief, memory, and facial processing.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• parent-child relationships
• mental representations
• chronic accessibility
• fMRI

Author Contributions

All authors, A. C. Laurita, C. Hazan, and R. N. Spreng, developed the study concept and contributed to the study design. A. C. Laurita performed data collection and analysis under the supervision of R. N. Spreng. A. C. Laurita and R. N. Spreng contributed to interpretation of the data. A. C. Laurita and R. N. Spreng wrote the paper. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article data can be accessed here.