Effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health

Abstract

Over the last ten years the basic knowledge of brain structure and function has vastly expanded, and its incorporation into the developmental sciences is now allowing for more complex and heuristic models of human infancy. In a continuation of this effort, in this two-part work I integrate current interdisciplinary data from attachment studies on dyadic affective communications, neuroscience on the early developing right brain, psychophysiology on stress systems, and psychiatry on psychopathogenesis to provide a deeper understanding of the psychoneurobiological mechanisms that underlie infant mental health. In this article I detail the neurobiology of a secure attachment, an exemplar of adaptive infant mental health, and focus upon the primary caregiver's psychobiological regulation of the infant's maturing limbic system, the brain areas specialized for adapting to a rapidly changing environment. The infant's early developing right hemisphere has deep connections into the limbic and autonomic nervous systems and is dominant for the human stress response, and in this manner the attachment relationship facilitates the expansion of the child's coping capcities. This model suggests that adaptive infant mental health can be fundamentally defined as the earliest expression of flexible strategies for coping with the novelty and stress that is inherent in human interactions. This efficient right brain function is a resilience factor for optimal development over the later stages of the life cycle.RESUMEN: En los u ´ltimos diez an ˜os el conocimiento ba ´sico de la estructura y funcio ´n del cerebro se ha expandido considerablemente, y su incorporacio ´n como parte de las ciencias del desarrollo permite ahora tener modelos de infancia humana ma ´s complejos y heurı ´sticos. Como una continuacio ´n a este esfuerzo, en este ensayo que contiene dos partes, se integra la actual informacio ´n interdisciplinaria que proviene de los estudios de la unio ´n afectiva en relacio ´n con comunicaciones afectivas en forma de dı ´adas, la neurociencia en el desarrollo inicial del lado derecho del cerebro, la sicofisiologı ´a de los sistemas de tensio ´n emocional, ası ´como la siquiatrı ´a en cuanto a la sicopatoge ´nesis, con el fin de presentar un conocimiento ma ´s profundo de los mecanismos siconeurobiolo ´gicos que sirven de base para la salud mental infantil. En este ensayo se explica con detalle la neurobiologı ´a de una relacio ´n afectiva segura, un modelo de salud mental infantil que se puede adaptar, y el enfoque del mismo se centra en la reglamentacio ´n sicobiolo ´gica que quien primariamente cuida del nin ˜o tiene del maduramiento del sistema lı ´mbico del infante, o sea, las a ´reas del cerebro especialmente dedicadas a la adaptacio ´n a un medio

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“…The human newborn is born with a relatively small brain, but science has shown that it is perfectly wired and competent for early extra-uterine life (Schore 2001a;Winberg 2005). A human will never be as alert as after a vaginal birth: noradrenalin wakes up the brain and is 10 times higher at birth than ever again (Lagercrantz & Bistoletti 1977).…”

Mindfulness and emotional regulation as sequential mediators in the relationship between attachment security and depression

“…Previous research has identified a well-established link between attachment styles and developmental outcomes, including mental health, e.g. depression; physical health and social outcomes (Bifulco et al, 2004;Bowlby, 1980;Schore, 2001;Sroufe, 2005;Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005a).…”