Amygdala and insula response to emotional images in patients with generalized social anxiety disorder
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Background: Functional brain imaging studies have demonstrated amygdala and insula hyper-reactivity to probes of social threat in participants with generalized social anxiety disorder (gSAD). The amygdala and insula are known to serve broad functions in emotional processing, including integration of affective information. However, few studies have examined brain responses in socially anxious participants during general emotional processing. We examined brain response to emotionally evocative images in patients with gSAD and matched healthy controls. Methods: Eleven patients with gSAD who were not taking psychotropic medications and did not have psychiatric comorbidities and 11 matched healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing blocks of emotionally salient (positive, negative, neutral) pictures. Results: Participants with gSAD exhibited enhanced bilateral amygdala and insula reactivity to negative (v. neutral) images compared with healthy controls who did not exhibit enhanced reactivity. Within the gSAD group, the extent of amygdala activation was correlated with social anxiety severity, whereas the extent of insula activation was correlated with trait anxiety. Limitations: The small sample size may have limited our ability to detect group differences in other relevant brain regions and in behavioural measures. Conclusion: In addition to prior findings of probes of social information processing, our findings suggest that the amygdala and insula responses are hyper-reactive to general emotional images with negative emotional content and that these brain regions may play divergent roles in their representation of different phenotypes.
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While viewing negative pictures, those with social phobia exhibit greater activity in bilateral amygdala and insula compared with controls.
“and show more bilateral amygdala and insula activity (areas associated with emotional processing) than control participants while viewing these negative images (Brühl et al., 2011; Shah, Klumpp, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2009).”
From Attentional bias and emotional reactivity as predictors and moderators of behavioral treatment for social phobia (2013) · cites this paper as Shah, Klumpp, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2009
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- Authors
- Shah, S. G., Klumpp, H., Angstadt, M., Nathan, P. J., & Phan, K. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Canadian Science Publishing
- Published
- 2009-07
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 296-302
- ISSN
- 1180-4882 (ISSN-L)
- 1488-2434
- PMC
- PMC2702447
- OpenAlex
- W4413981380
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 14.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH076198)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- generalized social anxiety disorder, amygdala, insula, emotional pictures, negative emotions, trait anxiety, emotional processing, social danger
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Amygdala, Anxiety Disorders, Cerebral Cortex, Emotions, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Radionuclide Imaging, Severity of Illness Index, Temperament, Case-Control Studies
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