Neural responses associated with attentional engagement and disengagement from threat in high socially anxious children: Evidence from temporal-spatial PCA

Background Cognitive models indicated that social anxiety disorder (SAD) would be caused and maintained by a biased attentional processing of threatening information. This study investigates whether socially anxious children may present impaired attentional engagement and disengagement from negative emotional faces, as well as their underlying event-related potential responses. Methods and findings Fifteen children with high levels of social anxiety (HSA; 9 boys; mean age = 9.99y; SD = 1.14) and twenty low socially anxious children (LSA; 16 boys; mean age = 10.47y; SD = 1.17) participated in a spatial cueing task in which they had to detect targets following neutral/disgusted faces in a valid or invalid location. No group effect was reported on reaction times [p>.05]. However, electrophysiological data showed lower P3a amplitude in HSA children compared with the LSA group when processing facial stimuli. They also reported larger N2 amplitudes for valid-disgusted targets and a larger P3a amplitude for the invalid-disgusted ones. Conclusion In terms of electrophysiological data, our results validated, the hypothesis of attentional disengagement difficulties in SAD children. We also confirm the idea that high levels of social anxiety are associated with cognitive control impairments and have a greater impact on the processing efficiency than on the performance effectiveness.

A Two-Person Neuroscience Approach for Social Anxiety: A Paradigm With Interbrain Synchrony and Neurofeedback

Social anxiety disorder has been widely recognised as one of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders. Individuals with social anxiety disorder experience difficulties during social interactions that are essential in the regular functioning of daily routines; perpetually motivating research into the aetiology, maintenance and treatment methods. Traditionally, social and clinical neuroscience studies incorporated protocols testing one participant at a time. However, it has been recently suggested that such protocols are unable to directly assess social interaction performance, which can be revealed by testing multiple individuals simultaneously. The principle of two-person neuroscience highlights the interpersonal aspect of social interactions that observes behaviour and brain activity from both (or all) constituents of the interaction, rather than analysing on an individual level or an individual observation of a social situation. Therefore, two-person neuroscience could be a promising direction for assessment and intervention of the social anxiety disorder. In this paper, we propose a novel paradigm which integrates two-person neuroscience in a neurofeedback protocol. Neurofeedback and interbrain synchrony, a branch of two-person neuroscience, are discussed in their own capacities for their relationship with social anxiety disorder and relevance to the paradigm. The newly proposed paradigm sets out to assess the social interaction performance using interbrain synchrony between interacting individuals, and to employ a multi-user neurofeedback protocol for intervention of the social anxiety.

An Explorative Study to Assess the Prevalence of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Its Determinants among High School Students of Selected High School of Bagalkot

Introduction: As per research studies have shown that social anxiety disorder has a worldwide prevalence of 5 to 10% and a lifetime prevalence rate of 8.4% to 15% among high school students.1 Rural Indian children are facing this problem of lethal evil more as compared to Urban high school students in India. Objective: To assess the prevalence of social anxiety disorder [sad] and its determinants among high school students of selected high school of Bagalakote. Methods: Descriptive survey approach was used for the study with cross sectional survey design. 120 high school students between 14 years to 16 years of age were selected Disproportionate stratified random sampling technique method from high school students studying in selected high school of Bagalkot. The data regarding determinants was collected by structured interview schedule and self-report method. The Social Phobia Inventory (abbreviated as SPIN) is a five point scale was used to categories the high school students according to their social anxiety disorders. The association was explored by Chi square test, Fisher’s exact probability test and linear regression. Results: Total 120 high school students were responded for Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) scale, in that level of social anxiety disorders had reveals that majority 83.3% had non phobic, 15.8% had mild and 0.8% had moderate, there is no extremely phobic. A significant association was found between the social anxiety disorders of adolescents and their selected socio-demographic variables like monthly income (χ2= 21.199; P<0.05). Conclusion: The findings revealed that there was a positive correlation found between the psychological wellbeing and academic performance among adolescents, recommended health education, early recommended understanding the social anxiety disorder and its determinants by their students especially among the fresher`s. Effectiveness of teaching programmes regarding impact of its determinants on level of social anxiety disorders among adolescents can be done had positive effect on adolescents health, which were also statistically significant. Key words: Social anxiety disorder, Determinants, Adolescents, high school students, academic performance, Spin scale.

Manualized group cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety in first-episode psychosis: a randomized controlled trial

Background Social anxiety (SA), a prevalent comorbid condition in psychotic disorders with a negative impact on functioning, requires adequate intervention relatively early. Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of a group cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention for SA (CBT-SA) that we developed for youth who experienced the first episode of psychosis (FEP). For our primary outcome, we hypothesized that compared to the active control of group cognitive remediation (CR), the CBT-SA group would show a reduction in SA that would be maintained at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. For secondary outcomes, it was hypothesized that the CBT-SA group would show a reduction of positive and negative symptoms and improvements in recovery and functioning. Method Ninety-six patients with an FEP and SA, recruited from five different FEP programs in the Montreal area, were randomized to 13 weekly group sessions of either CBT-SA or CR intervention. Results Linear mixed models revealed that multiple measures of SA significantly reduced over time, but with no significant group differences. Positive and negative symptoms, as well as functioning improved over time, with negative symptoms and functioning exhibiting a greater reduction in the CBT-SA group. Conclusions While SA decreased over time with both interventions, a positive effect of the CBT-SA intervention on measures of negative symptoms, functioning, and self-reported recovery at follow-up suggests that our intervention had a positive effect that extended beyond symptoms specific to SA. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02294409.