Hreatrelated neural activation. Supporting our hypothesis, we located that participants whoHreatrelated neural activation. Supporting our

Hreatrelated neural activation. Supporting our hypothesis, we located that participants who
Hreatrelated neural activation. Supporting our hypothesis, we found that participants who viewed secure attachmentrelated stimuli prior to completing two threatreactivity tasks showed attenuated amygdala responses to each threatening faces and threatening words. These findings add to previous attachmentsecurity priming studies that have respectively reported attenuated limbic responses within the hypothalamus and anterior cingulate to social and physical discomfort following exposure to attachment reminders (Eisenberger et al 20; Karremans et al 20). The existing findings of reduced amygdala reactivity to threat following attachmentsecurity priming are in line with recent theoretical accounts of attachment safety, according to which reminders of secure attachment relationships act as security cues which modulate threat appraisals and downregulate neural responses to possible threats (Coan, 2008, 200; Eisenberger et al 20). Decreased amygdala activation in the attachmentsecurity priming group was observed inside the absence of any regions of drastically greater activation group when compared with all the handle group. These findings hence shed light on the mechanisms by which feelings of attachment safety may well regulate affective responding to signs of probable threat, and are constant together with the notion that attachment security regulates threatreactivity by way of a bottomup modulation of threat appraisal processes, as opposed to via topdown prefrontal mediated regulation (Coan, 2008, 200). Second, previous investigation exploring the therapeutic mechanisms of anxiolytic pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies has implicatedamygdala desensitisation as an important therapeutic mechanism (Furmark et al 2002; Harmer et al 2006; Murphy et al 2009). Therefore, our findings that attachmentsecurity priming can modulate reactivity within this same structure raise the possibility that attachmentsecurity priming PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24367198 techniques may perhaps give a novel therapeutic avenue for anxiousness issues. In addition to an effect of attachmentsecurity priming on amygdala reactivity, we replicated earlier studies by obtaining a significant correlation NS018 hydrochloride site amongst trait attachment insecurity and amygdala reactivity (Lemche et al 2005; Buchheim et al 2006; Vrtic et al 2008, 202). ka Given the hypothesised role of heightened amygdala responsivity in mediating anxious symptomatology and risk for the improvement of anxiousness disorders (Etkin and Wager, 2007; Shin and Liberzon, 200), these findings support the concept that elevated danger for the improvement of anxiousness issues amongst insecurely attached individuals is partly mediated by increased threat reactivity within the amygdala. These findings are also broadly in line with earlier findings of improved activation within neural threat systems in response to social threat in anxiously attached men and women (Gillath et al 2005; DeWall et al 202), and are consistent with notion that anxiously attached folks are much more vigilant for signs of social threat (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007a). An unexpected acquiring was that, as opposed to inside the emotional faces job, our measures of trait attachment security did not correlate with amygdala reactivity in the dotprobe job. Previously reported findings of threatrelated amygdala hyperactivity in insecurely attached individuals have already been to social threat stimuli (Lemche et al 2005; Buchheim et al 2006; Vrtic et al 2008, 202). This might indicate that attachka mentsecurity priming and trait attachment safety have distinct modula.