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

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.