Wuyi Wang1, Simon Zhornitsky1, Clara S-P Li2, Thang M Le1, Jutta Joormann3, Chiang-Shan R Li4. 1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, United States. 2. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, United States; Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 01810, United States. 3. Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, United States. 4. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06519, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, United States; Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, United States. Electronic address: chiang-shan.li@yale.edu.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: An earlier study characterized the neural correlates of self-initiated actions in a Cyberball game in healthy individuals. It remains unclear how social anxiety may influence these neural processes. METHODS: We examined regional activations to self-initiated actions in 25 adults with low and 25 with high social anxiety (LA and HA, respectively). Skin conductance was recorded concurrently with fMRI. We followed published routines in the analyses of imaging and skin conductance data. RESULTS: We hypothesized that HA as compared to LA individuals would demonstrate increased cortical limbic activations during self-initiated actions (tossing or T > receiving or R trials, to control for motor activities) in social exclusion (EX) vs. fair game (FG) scenario. At a corrected threshold, HA as compared with LA group showed increases in bilateral posterior insula activation during T vs. R trials in EX as compared to FG. Further, HA as compared to LA showed higher skin conductance response to tossing trials during EX as compared to FG. LIMITATIONS: With a limited sample size, we did not examine potential sex effects. Further, we cannot rule out the effects of depression on the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Together, the results suggest that individuals with more severe social anxiety engaged the somatosensory insula to a greater extent and exhibited higher physiological arousal when initiating ball toss during social exclusion in the Cyberball game. Posterior insula response to self-initiated action may represent a biomarker of social anxiety. It remains to be investigated whether interventions to decrease physiological arousal may alleviate social anxiety.
BACKGROUND: An earlier study characterized the neural correlates of self-initiated actions in a Cyberball game in healthy individuals. It remains unclear how social anxiety may influence these neural processes. METHODS: We examined regional activations to self-initiated actions in 25 adults with low and 25 with high social anxiety (LA and HA, respectively). Skin conductance was recorded concurrently with fMRI. We followed published routines in the analyses of imaging and skin conductance data. RESULTS: We hypothesized that HA as compared to LA individuals would demonstrate increased cortical limbic activations during self-initiated actions (tossing or T > receiving or R trials, to control for motor activities) in social exclusion (EX) vs. fair game (FG) scenario. At a corrected threshold, HA as compared with LA group showed increases in bilateral posterior insula activation during T vs. R trials in EX as compared to FG. Further, HA as compared to LA showed higher skin conductance response to tossing trials during EX as compared to FG. LIMITATIONS: With a limited sample size, we did not examine potential sex effects. Further, we cannot rule out the effects of depression on the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Together, the results suggest that individuals with more severe social anxiety engaged the somatosensory insula to a greater extent and exhibited higher physiological arousal when initiating ball toss during social exclusion in the Cyberball game. Posterior insula response to self-initiated action may represent a biomarker of social anxiety. It remains to be investigated whether interventions to decrease physiological arousal may alleviate social anxiety.
Authors: Wuyi Wang; Simon Zhornitsky; Herta H Chao; Ifat Levy; Jutta Joormann; Chiang-Shan R Li Journal: Behav Brain Res Date: 2019-10-20 Impact factor: 3.332