Why do children with insecure attachment show cognitive and emotional behavior problems? : A neurological explanation

Students who reared in various families build peer relationships and develop social abilities in school, however, some students have emotional and behavioral problems such as school violence and anxiety disorder. One of the most important reasons for these problems are insecure attachment to parents. But there’s little literatures explaining why children with insecure attachment are at more risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems from a neurological perspective. Meanwhile, even in the best institutions, orphanage care is not typical caregiving and the employees are in charge of a number of children, it is clear that the caregiving in orphanage is typical example of insecure attachment. So, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of insecure attachment on the children’ brain and to confirm the developmental catch-up effects of the children whose caring environments were improved. We reviewed neurological literatures on children who reared in orphanage and adopted from institutions. Results have been shown that major brain regions of insecure attachment are analyzed as limbic system including amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and left uncinate fasciculus. In addition, there was a neural plasticity in white matter volume, corpus callosum volume and microstructural integrity of corpus callosum. Therefore, children who have attachment disorders such as anxiety disorder may developed abnormal circuit in limbic system which plays an important role in processing emotional information. And children who have cognitive disorders such as ADHD may improved when they are provided good environment.