Figure 2.

Modulation of social aversion and approach activations by adult attachment style. Adapted from Vrtička et al. (2008). (A) Participants performed a visual task, while receiving feedback from virtual partners about their performance. Feedback was composed of words reflecting outcome (“Won” if correct and “Lost” if incorrect response was given), associated with either smiling or angry faces, inducing the perception of supportive “friends” (congruent word-face combinations) or hostile “opponents” (incongruent combinations). (B) Top: reward-related areas (left: ventral striatum; right: ventral tegmental area) were activated during the perception of positive social feedback (“Won” paired with a smiling face; SF-W), but this effect was modulated by avoidant attachment style. Bottom: negative relation between avoidant attachment style (AVS) scores and the ventral striatum response. (C) Top: the central amygdala was activated by the perception of social punishment (“Lost” paired with an angry face; AF-L), and this effect was modulated by anxious attachment style. Bottom: positive relation between anxious attachment style (AXS) scores and amygdala response. BOLD signal is depicted in arbitrary units.