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Altered cortical-amygdala coupling in social anxiety disorder during the anticipation of giving a public speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2014

H. R. Cremers ,
I. M. Veer ,
P. Spinhoven ,
S. A. R. B. Rombouts ,
T. Yarkoni ,
T. D. Wager  and
K. Roelofs
H. R. Cremers*
Affiliation:
Behavioral Science Institute (BSI), Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Biological Science Division, Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, USA Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands
I. M. Veer
Affiliation:
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
P. Spinhoven
Affiliation:
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands
S. A. R. B. Rombouts
Affiliation:
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
T. Yarkoni
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, USA
T. D. Wager
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
K. Roelofs
Affiliation:
Behavioral Science Institute (BSI), Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr H. R. Cremers, Department of Psychiatry MC 3077, The University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, L-460, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Severe stress in social situations is a core symptom of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Connectivity between the amygdala and cortical regions is thought to be important for emotion regulation, a function that is compromised in SAD. However, it has never been tested if and how this connectivity pattern changes under conditions of stress-inducing social evaluative threat. Here we investigate changes in cortical-amygdala coupling in SAD during the anticipation of giving a public speech.

Method

Twenty individuals with SAD and age-, gender- and education-matched controls (n = 20) participated in this study. During the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, participants underwent three ‘resting-state’ fMRI scans: one before, one during, and one after the anticipation of giving a public speech. Functional connectivity between cortical emotion regulation regions and the amygdala was investigated.

Results

Compared to controls, SAD participants showed reduced functional integration between cortical emotion regulation regions and the amygdala during the public speech anticipation. Moreover, in SAD participants cortical-amygdala connectivity changes correlated with social anxiety symptom severity.

Conclusions

The distinctive pattern of cortical-amygdala connectivity suggests less effective cortical-subcortical communication during social stress-provoking situations in SAD.

Keywords

Amygdalacortexemotion regulationfMRIsocial anxietyspeech anticipation
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 45 , Issue 7 , May 2015 , pp. 1521 - 1529
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Table S1

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