Altered activation of the ventral striatum under performance-related observation in social anxiety disorder

Becker, Michael P.I.; Simon, Doerte; Miltner, Wolfgang H. R.; Straube, Thomas

doi:10.1017/s0033291717001076

Cited by 25 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…We found comparable activation in VMPFC to RPE in both groups and both conditions. This suggests that VMPFC did not distinguish between the observation and control conditions (see also Simon et al, 2014, Becker, Simon et al, 2017). Furthermore, VMPFC activation did not distinguish between SAD and HC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Heitmann et al (2014) found elevated anticipatory DMPFC activation in subclinical social anxiety to positive and negative feedback provided by human raters. Becker, Simon et al, (2017) reported a region in MPFC to show an interaction of feedback valence, observation, and SAD diagnosis. However, no study thus far has shed light on the computational mechanisms at the heart of these phenomena.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DMPFC has also been shown to respond to the perception of scrutiny (Gimenez et al, 2012, Becker et al, 2014). In SAD, socially evaluative contexts trigger differential responses in VS (Becker, Simon, et al, 2017) as well as in regions of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC, Pujol et al, 2013), and alter functional connectivity patterns (Gimenez et al, 2012, Heitmann et al, 2016). In particular, performance feedback given to SAD patients during social observation (Becker et al, 2017) has been linked to these alterations in network activation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In SAD, socially evaluative contexts trigger differential responses in VS (Becker, Simon, et al, 2017) as well as in regions of medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC, Pujol et al, 2013), and alter functional connectivity patterns (Gimenez et al, 2012, Heitmann et al, 2016). In particular, performance feedback given to SAD patients during social observation (Becker et al, 2017) has been linked to these alterations in network activation. Similar findings from healthy subjects with heightened but subclinical social anxiety suggest that MPFC activation is blunted during learning and feedback processing (Peterburs et al, 2016; Piray et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also assumed that activation in VS and lentiform nucleus would show this group-by-observation interaction. Recent studies have shown differences between SAD and HC in VS activation to different feedbacks implying that these differences might indicate blunted signaling of positive Pes (Boehme et al, 2014, Becker et al, 2017). Other studies have shown differences between generalized anxiety disorder and HC in activation of lentiform nucleus, implying that these differences might indicate excessive signaling of negative PEs (White et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reward Prediction Error Signaling during Reinforcement Learning in Social Anxiety Disorder is altered by Social Observation

Becker

Voegler

Peterburs

et al. 2019

Preprint

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BACKGROUNDDysfunctional expectations of impending social or performance outcomes are core features of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) but often lack formal definition in clinical research. Reinforcement learning (RL) models offer a framework to define changes in outcome expectations in a formal way by computing the prediction error (PE). This study quantifies the updating of expectations by PEs in SAD and investigates alterations in RL regions associated with PE signaling.METHOD48 adult participants (24 diagnosed with SAD and 24 age-, gender-, and education- matched healthy controls (HC)) underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while learning from probabilistic feedback. Crucially, both groups completed two parallel versions of the task: one in which they learned under scrutiny (social observation) and one in which they learned without being overtly evaluated (non-social control condition).RESULTSCoupling to prediction errors in SAD was elevated in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) when learning under observation. These findings provide the first evidence that PE signaling during social performance situations in SAD is associated with hypersensitive response signatures in DMPFC, a brain region associated with using others’ value standards as a proxy for one’s own value standards. Dynamic Causal Modelling further revealed that RPE-modulated connectivity from ventral pallidum to DMPFC during observation was reduced in SAD.CONCLUSIONSThe present results corroborate a crucial role of DMPFC in SAD, which corresponds to dysfunctional expectations about others’ alleged performance standards that play a prominent role in current models of the disorder.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Reward Prediction Error Signaling during Reinforcement Learning in Social Anxiety Disorder is altered by Social Observation

Becker

Voegler

Peterburs

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Associations between resting‐state neural connectivity and positive affect in social anxiety disorder

2023

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Introduction: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been characterized by deficits in social motivation and lack of reactivity to pleasurable stimuli (i.e., positive affect; [PA]).Recent neuroimaging work has shifted toward examining positively valenced motivational systems in SAD focused on reward responses. However, little is known about the associations of reward connectivity and PA in individuals with SAD. As such, the purpose of the current study was to determine whether connectivity among key units of reward neurocircuitry meaningfully relate to PA and whether these key units are more heterogeneous in SAD as compared to controls.Methods: Thirty-one participants who met diagnostic criteria for SAD and 33 control participants were included (M age = 24.8, SD = 6.9; 55% cisgender man). Seed-based timeseries correlations were conducted in NiTime to extract region of interest (ROI) coupling correlation strength values. ANOVAs were carried out to assess whether individuals with SAD differed in ROI-to-ROI connectivity strength as compared to controls. Correlations and variance analyses were also conducted to examine the relationship between ROI-to-ROI connectivity strength and PA, as well as heterogeneity in connectivity strength and PA expression.Results: Weaker connectivity between the left and right orbital frontal cortex was observed when comparing the SAD to the control group. Within the SAD group, PA was associated with several reward-related ROI couplings; however, these links were not observed among controls. Results further demonstrated that individuals with SAD had significantly more variability in reward connectivity strength as compared to controls. Conclusion:Overall, these results provide emergent evidence for the association between reward regions and PA in individuals with SAD. Additionally, these findings show that individuals with SAD demonstrate greater heterogeneity in reward connectivity.

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Age-dependent alterations in the coordinated development of subcortical regions in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

Liu

Xie

et al. 2022

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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Subcortical brain regions play essential roles in the onset of social anxiety disorder (SAD). While adolescence is the peak period of SAD, the relationships between abnormal development of the subcortical regions during this period and SAD are still unclear. This study investigated the agedependent alterations in structural co-variance among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions, aiming to re ect aberrant coordination during development in adolescents with SAD.High-resolution T1-weighted images were obtained from 76 adolescents with SAD and 67 healthy controls (HC), ranging from 11.0 to 17.9 years. We found that the SAD group exhibited signi cantly enhanced structural co-variance among key striatum regions (putamen and caudate). While the covariance decreased with age in healthy adolescents, the co-variance in SAD adolescents stayed high, leading to more apparent abnormalities in middle adolescence. Moreover, the striatum's mean structural co-variance with cortical regions decreased with age in HC but increased with age in SAD. The agedependence of the abnormal coordination indicates atypical developmental trajectories of the striatum and its balance with the cortical regions in adolescents with SAD.

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Altered activation of the ventral striatum under performance-related observation in social anxiety disorder

Abstract: The present findings emphasize the importance of social-context processing in SAD by showing that scrutiny prevents appropriate reward-processing-related signatures in response to positive performances in SAD.

Cited by 25 publications

References 57 publications

Reward Prediction Error Signaling during Reinforcement Learning in Social Anxiety Disorder is altered by Social Observation

Reward Prediction Error Signaling during Reinforcement Learning in Social Anxiety Disorder is altered by Social Observation

Associations between resting‐state neural connectivity and positive affect in social anxiety disorder

Age-dependent alterations in the coordinated development of subcortical regions in adolescents with social anxiety disorder

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