The concept of attachment in long-term interpersonal relationships has been linked to relationship outcome and social-emotional health. To date, no relationship between the structural properties of the human amygdala and attachment in romantic relationships (measured through self-reported attachment related anxiety and avoidance) has been described. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between amygdala structure as well as amygdala structural and functional connectivity and attachment anxiety and avoidance. To this end, we collected self-report attachment data on a sample of female young adults. We then examined associations between attachment and mean diffusivity, fractional anisotropy and resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-FC) of the amygdala and its white matter connections with the prefrontal cortex. We found that lower integrity of the left amygdala was linked with attachment avoidance (e.g., being less comfortable in seeking proximity with others and depending on others) and that greater structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus was positively associated with avoidance. Lastly, we found that stronger rs-FC between the bilateral amygdala and medial prefrontal regions was linked with greater avoidance. Our findings are compatible with and expand previous results reported by studies that have taken a task-related fMRI approach, furthering our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of attachment, and in particular implicating the system formed by amygdala and prefrontal areas in the patterns of behavior that regulate emotional proximity in romantic relationships. These findings have the potential to further our understanding of the affective mechanisms underlying attachment behavior.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 September 2015.
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#6,392,102
of 23,577,654 outputs
Outputs from Brain Imaging and Behavior
#339
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Outputs of similar age
#72,988
of 268,388 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Brain Imaging and Behavior
#11
of 24 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,654 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,165 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 24 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its contemporaries.
