P. Vrticka: Social neuroscience of human attachment: From single-person epigenetics to interpersonal neural synchrony

Abstract
Attachment theory is built upon a long and rich history of scientific investigation that reaches back almost 100 years. The newest addition to this track of investigation is the detailed assessment of attachment’s neurobiological and neurophysiological underpinnings as part of the Social Neuroscience of Human Attachment (SoNeAt). In my talk, I will first describe the origins of attachment theory and explain its two main traditions rooted in developmental and social psychology. In doing so, I will explain the many ways of conceptualizing and measuring attachment and point out both their commonalities and especially their differences that unfortunately cause a lot of confusion and misconception. I will then describe why it is important to understand attachment’s neurobiological and neurophysiological underpinnings as they provide crucial objective information that goes beyond what we can see in behavioral observations, self-reports and interviews. Finally, I will introduce SoNeAt — consisting of six components including 1) traditional attachment methods (behavioral observations, self-reports and interviews), 2) physiology, 3) endocrinology, 4) genetics & epigenetics, 5) neuroimaging and 6) interpersonal neural synchrony — and illustrate how they all add to a much more fine-grained understanding of human attachment. What emerges from these insights is that all attachment styles represent meaningful and necessary adaptations to specific environmental demands and thus are not “good” or “bad” as such. When we talk about human attachment and use it in a clinical and therapeutic context, we should thus always emphasize its intrinsic usefulness and consider both factors of risk and resilience.

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