scholarly journals Restricted visual scanpaths during emotion recognition in childhood social anxiety disorder

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Lundin Kleberg ◽  
Emilie Bäcklin Löwenberg ◽  
Jennifer Lau ◽  
Eva Serlachius ◽  
Jens Högström
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Significant Group Difference ◽  
Visual Fixations

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has its typical onset in childhood and adolescence. Maladaptive processing of social information may contribute to the etiology and maintenance. During face perception, individuals extract information with a succession of visual fixations known as a scanpath. Atypically long scanpaths have been reported in adults with SAD, but no data exists from pediatric samples. SAD has also been linked to atypical arousal. Both metrics were examined in one of the largest eye-tracking studies of pediatric SAD to dateMethods: Children and adolescents with SAD (n = 62) and healthy controls (n = 39) completed an emotion recognition task. The visual scanpath and pupil dilation (an indirect index of arousal) were examined. The analysis plan was preregistered.Results: Youth with SAD showed restricted scanpaths, a finding supported by both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Higher pupil dilation was also observed in the SAD group, but despite a statistically significant group difference, this result was not supported by the Bayesian analysis.Conclusions: Findings are contrary to findings from adult studies, but similar to what has been reported in neurodevelopmental conditions associated with social interaction impairments. Restricted scanpaths may disrupt holistic representation of faces known to favor adaptive social understanding.

scholarly journals Restricted Visual Scanpaths During Emotion Recognition in Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Lundin Kleberg ◽  
Emilie Bäcklin Löwenberg ◽  
Jennifer Y. F. Lau ◽  
Eva Serlachius ◽  
Jens Högström
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Significant Group

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has its typical onset in childhood and adolescence. Maladaptive processing of social information may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of SAD. During face perception, individuals execute a succession of visual fixations known as a scanpath which facilitates information processing. Atypically long scanpaths have been reported in adults with SAD, but no data exists from pediatric samples. SAD has also been linked to atypical arousal during face perception. Both metrics were examined in one of the largest eye-tracking studies of pediatric SAD to date.Methods: Participants were children and adolescents with SAD (n = 61) and healthy controls (n = 39) with a mean age of 14 years (range 10–17) who completed an emotion recognition task. The visual scanpath and pupil dilation (an indirect index of arousal) were examined using eye tracking.Results: Scanpaths of youth with SAD were shorter, less distributed, and consisted of a smaller number of fixations than those of healthy controls. These findings were supported by both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Higher pupil dilation was also observed in the SAD group, but despite a statistically significant group difference, this result was not supported by the Bayesian analysis.Conclusions: The results were contrary to findings from adult studies, but similar to what has been reported in neurodevelopmental conditions associated with social interaction impairments. Restricted scanpaths may disrupt holistic representation of faces known to favor adaptive social understanding.

scholarly journals Appropriate Number of Treatment Sessions in Virtual Reality-Based Individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 915
Author(s):  
Hyu Seok Jeong ◽  
Jee Hyun Lee ◽  
Hesun Erin Kim ◽  
Jae-Jin Kim
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Early Termination ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Extension Group

Virtual reality (VR) was introduced to maximize the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) by efficiently performing exposure therapy. The purpose of this study was to find out whether VR-based individual CBT with relatively few treatment sessions is effective in improving social anxiety disorder (SAD). This therapy was applied to 115 patients with SAD who were retrospectively classified into 43 patients who completed the nine or 10 sessions normally (normal termination group), 52 patients who finished the sessions early (early termination group), and 20 patients who had extended the sessions (session extension group). The Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE) scores tended to decrease in all groups as the session progressed, and the slope of decrease was the steepest in the early termination group and the least steep in the session extension group. Severity of social anxiety in the last session and symptom reduction rate showed no significant group difference. Our findings suggest that short-term VR-based individual CBT of nine to 10 sessions may be effective. When the therapeutic effect is insufficient during this period, the additional benefit may be minimal if the session is simply extended. The improvement in the early termination group suggests that even shorter sessions of five or six can also be effective.

scholarly journals A diary study of feedback seeking behaviours in individuals with social anxiety disorder compared to individuals with generalized anxiety disorder of no history of mental health difficulties

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Feedback Seeking ◽  
Significant Group

The current study examined various features of positive feedback seeking (PFS) and negative feedback seeking (NFS) in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD), individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and healthy individuals using a 2-week daily diary method. There were no significant differences between individuals with SAD and healthy individuals in the frequency of feedback seeking. However, individuals with GAD engaged in significantly more overall feedback seeking (adjusted for compliance) than healthy individuals. The most common source of feedback seeking within each group was other people (e.g., romantic partner). Individuals with SAD experienced significantly greater reductions in anxiety, sadness, and anger than healthy individuals and a significantly greater increase in certainty than individuals with GAD following positive feedback during PFS. There were no significant group differences in the topics, triggers, functions, or termination criteria of feedback seeking. Future research directions and theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Altered gray matter volume and structural co-variance in adolescents with social anxiety disorder: evidence for a delayed and unsynchronized development of the fronto-limbic system

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zhen Liu ◽  
Yang Hu ◽  
Yiwen Zhang ◽  
Wenjing Liu ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Limbic System ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Matter Volume

Abstract Background Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent mental disorder diagnosed in childhood and adolescence. Theories regarding brain development and SAD suggest a close link between neurodevelopmental dysfunction at the adolescent juncture and SAD, but direct evidence is rare. This study aims to examine brain structural abnormalities in adolescents with SAD. Methods High-resolution T1-weighted images were obtained from 31 adolescents with SAD (15–17 years) and 42 matching healthy controls (HC). We evaluated symptom severity with the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). We used voxel-based morphometry analysis to detect regional gray matter volume abnormalities and structural co-variance analysis to investigate inter-regional coordination patterns. Results We found significantly higher gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the insula in adolescents with SAD compared to HC. We also observed significant co-variance of the gray matter volume between the OFC and amygdala, and the OFC and insula in HC, but these co-variance relationships diminished in SAD. Conclusions These findings provide the first evidence that the brain structural deficits in adolescents with SAD are not only in the core regions of the fronto-limbic system, but also represented by the diminished coordination in the development of these regions. The delayed and unsynchronized development pattern of the fronto-limbic system supports SAD as an adolescent-sensitive developmental mental disorder.

scholarly journals A diary study of feedback seeking behaviours in individuals with social anxiety disorder compared to individuals with generalized anxiety disorder of no history of mental health difficulties

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Generalized Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Generalized Anxiety ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Feedback Seeking ◽  
Significant Group

The current study examined various features of positive feedback seeking (PFS) and negative feedback seeking (NFS) in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD), individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and healthy individuals using a 2-week daily diary method. There were no significant differences between individuals with SAD and healthy individuals in the frequency of feedback seeking. However, individuals with GAD engaged in significantly more overall feedback seeking (adjusted for compliance) than healthy individuals. The most common source of feedback seeking within each group was other people (e.g., romantic partner). Individuals with SAD experienced significantly greater reductions in anxiety, sadness, and anger than healthy individuals and a significantly greater increase in certainty than individuals with GAD following positive feedback during PFS. There were no significant group differences in the topics, triggers, functions, or termination criteria of feedback seeking. Future research directions and theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Learning from other people's fear: amygdala-based social reference learning in social anxiety disorder

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (14) ◽  
pp. 2943-2953 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Blair ◽  
M. Otero ◽  
C. Teng ◽  
M. Geraci ◽  
E. Lewis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Social Referencing ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Anxiety Group ◽  
Amygdala Activation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Reference

BackgroundSocial anxiety disorder involves fear of social objects or situations. Social referencing may play an important role in the acquisition of this fear and could be a key determinant in future biomarkers and treatment pathways. However, the neural underpinnings mediating such learning in social anxiety are unknown. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined social reference learning in social anxiety disorder. Specifically, would patients with the disorder show increased amygdala activity during social reference learning, and further, following social reference learning, show particularly increased response to objects associated with other people's negative reactions?MethodA total of 32 unmedicated patients with social anxiety disorder and 22 age-, intelligence quotient- and gender-matched healthy individuals responded to objects that had become associated with others’ fearful, angry, happy or neutral reactions.ResultsDuring the social reference learning phase, a significant group × social context interaction revealed that, relative to the comparison group, the social anxiety group showed a significantly greater response in the amygdala, as well as rostral, dorsomedial and lateral frontal and parietal cortices during the social, relative to non-social, referencing trials. In addition, during the object test phase, relative to the comparison group, the social anxiety group showed increased bilateral amygdala activation to objects associated with others’ fearful reactions, and a trend towards decreased amygdala activation to objects associated with others’ happy and neutral reactions.ConclusionsThese results suggest perturbed observational learning in social anxiety disorder. In addition, they further implicate the amygdala and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in the disorder, and underscore their importance in future biomarker developments.

scholarly journals Peer Victimization and Onset of Social Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pontillo ◽  
Maria Cristina Tata ◽  
Roberto Averna ◽  
Francesco Demaria ◽  
Prisca Gargiullo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Peer Victimization ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Anticipatory Anxiety ◽  
The Relationship

Background: In the literature, several studies have proposed that children and adolescents with social anxiety had experienced previously victimization from peers and siblings. The aim of this review was to contribute to the updating of recent findings about the relationship between peer victimization and onset of social anxiety in children and adolescents. Methods: A selective review of literature published between 2011 and 2018 on Social Anxiety Disorder in children and adolescents that experienced peer victimization during childhood and adolescence. Results: Seventeen studies are included. All studies showed that peer victimization is positively correlated to the presence of social anxiety. Moreover, the perpetration of peer victimization may contribute to the maintenance and the exacerbation of social anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: In children and adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder, it is necessary to evaluate firstly the presence of peer victimization experiences. Subsequently, therapeutics programs targeted to elaborate these experiences and to reduce the anticipatory anxiety and the avoidance that characterized these children and adolescents can be proposed.

Emotional Information Processing and Assessment of Cognitive Functions in Social Anxiety Disorder: An Event-Related Potential Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 155005942098150
Author(s):  
Dilek Tetik ◽  
Sakir Gica ◽  
Engin Emrem Bestepe ◽  
Ahsen Buyukavsar ◽  
Huseyin Gulec
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Patient Group ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Clinical Severity ◽  
Multivariate Linear Regression Analysis

The aim of our study was to determine deficits in cognitive areas, including social cognition such as emotion recognition capacity, theory of mind, and electrophysiological alterations in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and to identify their effects on clinical severity of SAD. Enrolled in our study were 26 patients diagnosed with SAD and 26 healthy volunteers. They were administered the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Reading Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), and Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. EEG monitoring was performed for electrophsiologic investigation. In the patient group, total reading the mind scores were lower ( P = .027) while P300 latencies and emotion recognition latency during the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT) were longer ( P = .038 and P = .012, respectively). The false alarm scores in the Rapid Visual Information Processing Task (RVP) were higher in the patient group ( P = .038). In a model created using multivariate linear regression analysis, an effect of ERT and RVP scores on LSAS scores was found. Results of our study confirm that particularly impairment of cognitive functions such as sustained attention and emotion recognition may seriously affect the clinical presentation negatively. P300 latency in the parietal region may has the potential to be a biological marker that can be used in monitoring treatment.

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