The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
And that makes perfect sense because the same sorts of circuits that are responsible for social homeostasis, the kind of right brain and left brain circuits that are responsible for infant-mother attachment, and then later for more intellectual or predictive type attachments between child and caregiver, are the exact same circuits that we superimpose into all other types of relationships throughout the rest of our life.
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How we attached or did not attach to primary caregivers in our childhood has much to do with how we attach or fail to attach to romantic partners as adults, because the same neural circuits, the neurons and their connections in the brain and body that underlie attachment between infant and caregiver, between toddler and parent or other caregiver, and during adolescence and in our teenage years are repurposed for adult romantic attachments.
these circuits that are laid down in childhood Early Childhood they persist right I mean I think if anything's become clear to me in understanding brain development and brain function it's that you know we don't discard circuitry for attachment and go oh you know that was for Mom and this one was for Dad and that one was for the dog and um and then the Romantic relationship is different we repurpose the circuits hence all the beautiful work on childhood attachment that's now being translated to adult attachment
I also think that as a biologist who spent the early part of my Care on developmental neurobiology like the same neural stuff is repurposed in adulthood like that's that's something that it's kind of obvious but we Overlook right I'm like I've got some inner adults here who aren't very happy too you know right right right you know that but the notion that like our attachments when we're young somehow that like those neural circuits are set aside so then we can form more mature adult attachments you know it's like no that's crazy we repurpose them so we're working we're working in an adult landscape with child based algorithms and depending on
the very same neural Machinery that forms the under pinning of infant primary caretaker relationship is repurposed for romantic relationship
the same circuitry and mechanisms that are used to establish infant mother attachment are repurposed later in life for adult relationships
However, these very neural circuits that are responsible for social bonding in adult forms of attachment, be it romantic or friendship or otherwise, are actually established during development.
are the exact same circuits that we superimpose into all other types of relationships throughout the rest of our life.