Brain responses to facial expressions by adults with different attachment–orientations

Abstract

Behavior studies demonstrate that the attachment-orientation difference is a powerful predictor for emotional processing in children and adults, with anxious individuals being hyperactive and avoidant individuals being deactive to emotional stimuli. This study used the event-related potential technique to explore brain responses to facial expressions by adults with anxious, avoidant, or secure attachment-orientation. Differences were found in N1, N2, P2, and N400 components between the groups of participants, suggesting that adults with different attachment-orientations have differences in both earlier, automatic encoding of the structural properties of faces and later, more elaborative retrieval of emotional contents.