dc.contributor.author | Iles, Andrew Thomas | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-08-27T10:44:01Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2013-08-08 | |
dc.description.abstract | Research shows a strong association between attentional bias to threat and emotional
regulation difficulties, specifically heightened activation of neural areas known to be involved
in emotional processing (amygdala) in individuals who report post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Theoretical and research evidence suggests that the enhancing of felt attachment security
through security-priming may grant an individual access to effective emotion regulation
strategies, which in turn may reduce attentional bias and associated abnormal neural
activations.
Trauma-survivors with elevated anxiety levels were randomised into an experimental
group (secure attachment priming, n=16) where they were primed using positive attachment-related
pictures, or a neutral control priming condition (n=18) where they viewed non attachment
pictures of people. Participants then completed a dot-probe task to measure
attentional bias to threat, and an emotionally threatening face-matching task to probe amygdala
activation.
No between groups differences were found on measures of attentional bias. Contrary to
the hypothesis, participants in the security-priming group showed significantly greater
amygdala activation in response to threatening faces. Attachment style was not found to
moderate the impact of security-priming on attentional bias or neural activation.
Interpersonal trauma experiences make up the majority of the study sample. The
impact of this is considered in the context of short-term single exposure to explicit attachment
based security-priming interventions and the study paradigm employed to measure amygdala
activation, which may act to initially dysregulate and contraindicate activation of a secure
attachment representation, respectively. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13021 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | University of Exeter | en_GB |
dc.subject | trauma and security-priming | en_GB |
dc.subject | PTSD and security-priming | en_GB |
dc.subject | attachment security-priming and trauma | en_GB |
dc.title | Security-Priming in Trauma-Exposed Individuals: an fMRI study | en_GB |
dc.type | Thesis or dissertation | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2013-08-27T10:44:01Z | |
dc.contributor.advisor | Karl, Anke | |
dc.publisher.department | Clinical Psychology | en_GB |
dc.type.degreetitle | Doctor of Clinical Psychology | en_GB |
dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | en_GB |
dc.type.qualificationname | DClinPsych | en_GB |