Neural basis of attachment-caregiving systems interaction: insights from neuroimaging studies

Abstract

The attachment and the caregiving system are complementary systems which are active simultaneously in infant and mother interactions. This ensures the infant survival and optimal social, emotional, and cognitive development. In this brief review we first define the characteristics of these two behavioral systems and the theory that links them, according to what Bowlby called the “attachment-caregiving social bond” (Bowlby, 1969). We then follow with those neuroimaging studies that have focused on this particular issue, i.e., those which have studied the activation of the careging system in women (using infant stimuli) and have explored how the individual attachment model (through the Adult Attachment Interview) modulates its activity. Studies report altered activation in limbic and prefrontal areas and in basal ganglia and hypothalamus/pituitary regions. These altered activations are thought to be the neural substrate of the attachment-caregiving systems interaction.