The Neural Self: The Neurobiology of Attachment

Abstract

It is its basis in biology that makes attachment theory unique among theories of psychology and child development. From the biological perspective, attachment is simply an evolutionarily-evolved process to ensure species survival, and is thus as much a part our biology as that of any animal. From this perspective, cognitive schema and the resulting mental map is not merely a psychological phenomenon, but a physical entity, hard-wired into neural circuits and reflected in neurochemical and electrical activity within the central nervous system. The mental map into which our experiences and memories are imprinted is thus a neurobiological structure, the result of synaptic processes, out of which human cognition and behavior emerges, resulting in LeDoux's (2002) description of our "synaptic" self. Siegel (2001) describes the pattern and clusters of synaptic firing as "somehow creat(ing) the experience of mind" (p. 69). He writes that "integration" reflects the manner in which functionally separate neural structures and processes cluster together and interact to form a functional whole -in this case, our selves.Because neurobiology affects behavior, behavior results in experience, and experience effects changes in neurobiology, we recognize that everything we do and experience has an internal neurobiological and an external behavioral counterpart. Everything is physical at the neural level, including emotion and thought, but the physical activity of the brain is translated into non-physical cognitive and emotional mental processes. In turn, these result and are expressed in behavior and social interactions, which stimulate cognition and affect, and are transcribed back into the brain through resulting synaptic activity and the encoding of experience in neural memories.