BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to identify brain activation to socially threatening stimuli in social phobic subjects during different experimental conditions. METHODS: With event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation to photographs and schematic pictures depicting angry or neutral facial expressions was measured in social phobic subjects and healthy control subjects, while subjects assessed either emotional expression (angry vs. neutral; explicit task) or picture type (photographic vs. schematic; implicit task). RESULTS: Compared with control subjects, phobics showed greater responses to angry than to neutral photographic faces in the insula regardless of task, whereas amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, and extrastriate visual cortex were more strongly activated only during the implicit task. Phobics, in contrast to control subjects, showed similar activation patterns during both tasks. For schematic angry versus neutral faces, activation of insula and extrastriate visual cortex was found in phobics, but not in control subjects, during both tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Differences between social phobics and control subjects in brain responses to socially threatening faces are most pronounced when facial expression is task-irrelevant. Phobics intensively process angry (photographic as well as schematic) facial expressions, regardless of whether this is required. The insula plays a unique role in the processing of threat signals by social phobics.
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to identify brain activation to socially threatening stimuli in social phobic subjects during different experimental conditions. METHODS: With event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation to photographs and schematic pictures depicting angry or neutral facial expressions was measured in social phobic subjects and healthy control subjects, while subjects assessed either emotional expression (angry vs. neutral; explicit task) or picture type (photographic vs. schematic; implicit task). RESULTS: Compared with control subjects, phobics showed greater responses to angry than to neutral photographic faces in the insula regardless of task, whereas amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, and extrastriate visual cortex were more strongly activated only during the implicit task. Phobics, in contrast to control subjects, showed similar activation patterns during both tasks. For schematic angry versus neutral faces, activation of insula and extrastriate visual cortex was found in phobics, but not in control subjects, during both tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Differences between social phobics and control subjects in brain responses to socially threatening faces are most pronounced when facial expression is task-irrelevant. Phobics intensively process angry (photographic as well as schematic) facial expressions, regardless of whether this is required. The insula plays a unique role in the processing of threat signals by social phobics.
Authors: Karina S Blair; Marilla Geraci; Katherine Korelitz; Marcela Otero; Ken Towbin; Monique Ernst; Ellen Leibenluft; R J R Blair; Daniel S Pine Journal: Am J Psychiatry Date: 2011-06-01 Impact factor: 18.112
Authors: Anne-Laura van Harmelen; Marie-José van Tol; Liliana R Demenescu; Nic J A van der Wee; Dick J Veltman; André Aleman; Mark A van Buchem; Philip Spinhoven; Brenda W J H Penninx; Bernet M Elzinga Journal: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Date: 2012-01-17 Impact factor: 3.436
Authors: Alan N Simmons; Murray B Stein; Irina A Strigo; Estibaliz Arce; Carla Hitchcock; Martin P Paulus Journal: Hum Brain Mapp Date: 2010-12-22 Impact factor: 5.038
Authors: Carina Y Heitmann; Jutta Peterburs; Martin Mothes-Lasch; Marlit C Hallfarth; Stephanie Böhme; Wolfgang H R Miltner; Thomas Straube Journal: Hum Brain Mapp Date: 2014-08-05 Impact factor: 5.038
Authors: Lisa J Burklund; Michelle G Craske; Shelley E Taylor; Matthew D Lieberman Journal: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Date: 2014-05-08 Impact factor: 3.436