Anxious to see you: Neuroendocrine mechanisms of social vigilance and anxiety during adolescence

Abstract

Social vigilance is a behavioral strategy commonly used in adverse or changing social environments. In animals, a combination of avoidance and vigilance allows an individual to evade potentially dangerous confrontations while monitoring the social environment to identify favorable changes. However, prolonged use of this behavioral strategy in humans is associated with increased risk of anxiety disorders, a major burden for human health. Elucidating the mechanisms of social vigilance in animals could provide important clues for new treatment strategies for social anxiety. Importantly, during adolescence the prevalence of social anxiety increases significantly. We hypothesize that many of the actions typically characterized as anxiety behaviors begin to emerge during this time as strategies for navigating more complex social structures. Here, we consider how the social environment and the pubertal transition shape neural circuits that modulate social vigilance, focusing on the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and prefrontal cortex. The emergence of gonadal hormone secretion during adolescence has important effects on the function and structure of these circuits, and may play a role in the emergence of a notable sex difference in anxiety rates across adolescence. However, the significance of these changes in the context of anxiety is still uncertain, as not enough studies are sufficiently powered to evaluate sex as a biological variable. We conclude that greater integration between human and animal models will aid the development of more effective strategies for treating social anxiety.

The Interplay Between Adolescent Friendship Quality and Resilient Functioning Following Childhood and Adolescent Adversity

“…Thus, despite having lower resilient functioning, this does not seem to impact friendship quality in adolescent girls. Other factors, such as the emergence of gonadal hormone secretion in adolescence, may underpin higher vulnerability in girls in general (Wright, Hostinar, & Trainor, 2019). Perhaps our findings of equal friendship quality despite lower resilient functioning in girls may, in part, be due to the fact that girls report to have more positive connections with parents, teachers and adults outside the school, higher levels of communication, higher empathy and more help-seeking behaviours when compared to boys (Sun & Stewart, 2007).…”

Adolescent anxiety disorders and the developing brain: comparing neuroimaging findings in adolescents and adults

“…11 The neural networks that regulate social vigilance mainly comprise the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and prefrontal cortex. 12 Patients with anxiety disorders usually show behavioural avoidance, and the avoidance neural network includes the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, General Psychiatry sublenticular extended amygdala and temporal pole. Notably, the functional connectivity between the amygdala and the anterior insula is associated with the degree of avoidance.…”

Prevalence of and risk factors for depressive and anxiety symptoms in a large sample of Chinese adolescents in the post-COVID-19 era

“…For example, gonadal steroid surges quickly contribute to alterations within the limbic system, and the prefrontal cortex matures gradually, enabling social behavior [42]. Gonadal hormone secretion emerged and affected the structure and function of neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex and stria terminalis across adolescence and may play an important role in anxiety, especially in the gender differences observed during adolescence [43]. Previous evidence showed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms was higher among urban adolescents [44].…”