Cited by 371Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex function during anticipated peer evaluation in pediatric social anxiety

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Guyer, Amanda E., Lau, Jennifer Y. F., McClure-Tone, Erin B., Parrish, Jessica, Shiffrin, Nina D., Reynolds, Richard C., Chen, Gang, Blair, R. J. R. +5 more·2008·Archives of General Psychiatry

Abstract

CONTEXT: Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) dysfunction manifests in adolescents with anxiety disorders when they view negatively valenced stimuli in threatening contexts. Such fear-circuitry dysfunction may also manifest when anticipated social evaluation leads socially anxious adolescents to misperceive peers as threatening. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether photographs of negatively evaluated smiling peers viewed during anticipated social evaluation engage the amygdala and vlPFC differentially in adolescents with and without social anxiety. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Government clinical research institute. PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen adolescents with anxiety disorders associated with marked concerns of social evaluation and 14 adolescents without a psychiatric diagnosis matched on sex, age, intelligence quotient, and socioeconomic status. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood oxygenation level-dependent signal measured with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Before and during neuroimaging scans, participants anticipating social evaluation completed peer- and self-appraisals. Event-related analyses were tailored to participants' ratings of specific peers. RESULTS: Participants classified 40 pictures of same-age peers as ones with whom they did or did not want to engage in a social interaction. Anxious adolescents showed greater amygdala activation than healthy adolescents when anticipating evaluation from peers previously rated as undesired for an interaction. Psychophysiological interaction connectivity analyses also revealed a significant positive association between amygdala and vlPFC activation in anxious vs healthy adolescents in response to these stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Anticipating social evaluation from negatively perceived peers modulates amygdala and vlPFC engagement differentially in anxious and healthy adolescents. Amygdala and vlPFC dysfunction manifests in adolescent anxiety disorders in specific contexts of anticipated peer evaluation.

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  • Socially anxious adolescents show greater amygdala activation when anticipating evaluation from undesired peers.

    “Socially anxious adolescents also show greater amygdala activation when anticipating evaluation from undesired peers [33]”

    From The social motivation theory of autism (2012) · cites this paper as [33]

  • In a chat room task, anxious adolescents show increased amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal activation when rating how much peers want to chat with them, specifically for previously low-desirability peers, and show amygdala-ventrolateral prefrontal functional connectivity.

    “Anxious adolescents showed increased activation in the amygdala and vmPFC when rating how much the other adolescents would want to chat with them; interestingly, activation was increased only when viewing the adolescents that the subjects had previously rated as low desirability.”

    From Neural Substrates of Childhood Anxiety Disorders (2012) · cites this paper as [135]

  • Amygdala hyperactivation has been shown in socially anxious versus healthy adolescents when anticipating being evaluated by unknown peers with whom participants expressed disinterest for a social interaction.

    “Finally, work that leveraged the very social context that elicits fear in SAD has shown amygdala hyperactivation in socially anxious versus healthy adolescents when anticipating being evaluated by unknown peers with whom participants expressed disinterest for a social interaction (Guyer et al., 2008).”
  • Positive functional connectivity between the vlPFC and amygdala was found in socially anxious versus healthy adolescents when anticipating evaluation from undesirable peers.

    “Interestingly, in the study of social evaluation anticipation, positive functional connectivity between the vlPFC and amygdala was found in socially anxious versus healthy adolescents when anticipating evaluation from undesirable peers, suggesting a possible role for the vlPFC in modulating avoidance of stimuli associated with the threat of social retaliation (Guyer et al., 2008).”
  • Perturbations in the function of the vlPFC relate to psychopathology in adolescence, such as social anxiety disorder.

    “As flexible social behavior is critical for competently interacting with others and adapting to social contexts, perturbations in the function of the vlPFC, in particular, relate to psychopathology in adolescence, such as social anxiety disorder (Guyer et al., 2008, Monk et al., 2006, Monk et al., 2008).”

    From Adolescent neurobiological susceptibility to social context (2016) · cites this paper as Guyer et al., 2008

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  1. [38]Talairach J Tournoux P Co-planar Stereotaxic Altas of the Human Brain Stuttgart, Germany Georg Thieme Verlag 1988

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Authors
Guyer, A. E., Lau, J. Y. F., McClure-Tone, E. B., Parrish, J., Shiffrin, N. D., Reynolds, R. C., Chen, G., Blair, R. J. R., Leibenluft, E., Fox, N. A., Ernst, M., Pine, D. S., & Nelson, E. E.
Affiliations
National Institutes of Health (US)
Venue
Archives of General Psychiatry
Published
2008-11-03
Volume
65
Issue
11
Pages
1303
ISSN
0003-990X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2119671456
Cited by
371
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 21
FWCI
24.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Archive @ GSU (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Mental Health (Z01MH002781, R00MH080076, R29MH057503, K99 MH080076)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
amygdala, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, peer assessment, adolescents, fear circuitry
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Amygdala, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Culture, Facial Expression, Fear, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nerve Net, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Peer Group, Phobic Disorders, Social Perception, Case-Control Studies, Prefrontal Cortex

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