Abstract
Attachment experiences substantially influence emotional and cognitive development. Narratives comprising attachment-dependent content were proposed to modulate activation of cognitive-emotional schemata in listeners. We studied the effects after listening to prototypical attachment narratives on wellbeing and countertransference-reactions in 149 healthy participants. Neural correlates of these cognitive-emotional schema activations were investigated in a 7 Tesla rest-task-rest fMRI-study (23 healthy males) using functional connectivity (FC) analysis of the social approach network (seed regions: left and right Caudate Nucleus, CN). Reduced FC between left CN and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) represented a general effect of prior auditory stimulation. After presentation of the insecure-dismissing narrative, FC between left CN and bilateral temporo-parietal junction, and right dorsal posterior Cingulum was reduced, compared to baseline. Post-narrative FC-patterns of insecure-dismissing and insecure-preoccupied narratives differed in strength between left CN and right DLPFC. Neural correlates of the moderating effect of individual attachment anxiety were represented in a reduced CN-DLPFC FC as a function of individual neediness-levels. These findings suggest specific neural processing of prolonged mood-changes and schema activation induced by attachment-specific speech patterns. Individual desire for interpersonal proximity was predicted by attachment anxiety and furthermore modulated FC of the social approach network in those exposed to such narratives.