ArticleBehavioural brain research2016
Disorganized attachment in infancy predicts greater amygdala volume in adulthood.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The convergent neuroscience of Christian prayer and attachment relationships in the context of mental health: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Infant social interactions and brain development: A systematic review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Neurodevelopmental impacts of unique postnatal adversity subgroups in children with prenatal alcohol exposure.Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence · 2026Article
- Frontal EEG Asymmetry and Attachment Style During Sequential Decision-Making in the Secretary Problem.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Integrating autonomic and affective pathways in borderline personality disorder: the triangle therapy hypothesis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The neurobiological effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure, function, and attachment.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Review
- A Pilot Study of a Trauma-Informed Skills Parenting Group.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2025Article
- Is neglect the first form of threat?Attachment & human development · 2025Review
- Loneliness and Social Isolation in Individuals with Acute Myocardial Infarction and Takotsubo Syndrome: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Early childhood stress and amygdala structure in children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- On the Broader Significance of Maternal Sensitivity: Mothers' Early and Later Sensitive Parenting Matter to Children's Language, Executive Function, Academics, and Self-Reliance.Developmental science · 2025Article
- Psychopathological symptoms, personality, and epistemic stances in individuals with myocardial infarction: an empirical investigation.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Reconsidering the nature of threat in infancy: Integrating animal and human studies on neurobiological effects of infant stress.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Linking maternal disrupted interaction and infant limbic volumes: The role of infant cortisol output.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Potential sensitive period effects of maltreatment on amygdala, hippocampal and cortical response to threat.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
- Association between Electronic Media Use and Internalizing Problems: The Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Conflict and Moderating Effect of Children's Age.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Negative versus withdrawn maternal behavior: Differential associations with infant gray and white matter during the first 2 years of life.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Neurobiology of Disorganized Attachment: A Review of Primary Studies on Human Beings.Neuroscience insights · 2023Review
- Disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy as predictors of brain morphology and peer rejection in late childhood.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Mothers' Attachment Representations and Children's Brain Structure.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
Early life stress in rodents is associated with increased amygdala volume in adulthood. In humans, the amygdala develops rapidly during the first two years of life. Thus, disturbed care during this period may be particularly important to amygdala development. In the context of a 30-year longitudinal study of impoverished, highly stressed families, we assessed whether disorganization of the attachment relationship in infancy was related to amygdala volume in adulthood. Amygdala volumes were assessed among 18 low-income young adults (8M/10F, 29.33±0.49years) first observed in infancy (8.5±5.6months) and followed longitudinally to age 29. In infancy (18.58±1.02mos), both disorganized infant attachment behavior and disrupted maternal communication were assessed in the standard Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). Increased left amygdala volume in adulthood was associated with both maternal and infant components of disorganized attachment interactions at 18 months of age (overall r=0.679, p<0.004). Later stressors, including childhood maltreatment and attachment disturbance in adolescence, were not significantly related to left amygdala volume. Left amygdala volume was further associated with dissociation and limbic irritability in adulthood. Finally, left amygdala volume mediated the prediction from attachment disturbance in infancy to limbic irritability in adulthood. Results point to the likely importance of quality of early care for amygdala development in human children as well as in rodents. The long-term prediction found here suggests that the first two years of life may be an early sensitive period for amygdala development during which clinical intervention could have particularly important consequences for later child outcomes.
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