Dr Vrticka’s most recent blog posts
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Bio-Behavioral Synchrony during Parent-Child Interaction and its potential Link to Attachment
What happens to the brain waves of mothers and children when they play a computerized reaction time task together? And how does brain-to-brain synchrony relate to the relationship quality assessed by means of an attachment questionnaire in children? These were the questions we sought to answer within a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study conducted at… Read more
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21st Century Attachment Theory and Research: Embracing a Social Neuroscience Approach
On November 29th 2018, Ross Thompson and Heidi Keller were invited to the 2. Wilhelm Wundt Dialog on the topic of “Attachment Theory: Past, Present and Future” at the University of Leipzig. First as speakers and then as discussants, they deliberated about the current state of the field and how it has evolved since its… Read more
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How does the human brain process social (versus nonsocial) emotional information? New evidence from an electroencephalography (EEG) study.
The human species is inherently social. From the moment of birth and throughout the entire life span, we depend on social interaction, care, and protection. This notion is nicely reflected by attachment theory and its derivative social defense theory. Both theories emphasize the fundamental human need for social connection and effective cooperation to deal with threat… Read more
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Towards the Epigenetics of Human Attachment
Attachment theory postulates that the establishment of attachment bonds represents an innate, biologically programmed behaviour. Its biological function is to enhance the chances of survival in times of danger and need. Accordingly, (almost) all children become attached to an attachment figure – mostly a caregiver – to survive. However, beyond such basic biological function associated… Read more
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The insecurely attached brain: How early social interactions can shape adult brain function
This blog post first appeared on http://thepeoplesscience.org/ on 29 October 2016, but has been edited to reflect continuous advances in attachment theory and research since then. Please also see Dr Vrticka’s more recent blog posts on this topic – e.g., here, here, here, and here. In a first review paper within the field, Patrik Vuilleumier… Read more
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Shyness and Humor Processing in Children
This blog post first appeared on http://thepeoplesscience.org/ on October 29, 2016. Humor is a prototypical positive social human state. It acts as a social glue, facilitating the initiation and maintenance of social relationships. Humor could even serve as a tool for human mate selection, providing women with information about men’s mating quality beyond what meets the eye.… Read more
Dr Pascal Vrticka (PhD, FHEA) 