Context and domain matter: the error-related negativity in peer presence predicts fear of negative evaluation, not global social anxiety, in adolescents

Abstract

Background Social anxiety symptoms are most likely to emerge during adolescence, a developmental window marked by heightened concern over peer evaluation. However, the neurocognitive mechanism(s) underlying adolescent social anxiety remain unclear. Emerging work points to the error-related negativity (ERN) as a potential neural marker of exaggerated self/error-monitoring in social anxiety, particularly for errors committed in front of peers. However, social anxiety symptoms are marked by heterogeneity and it remains unclear exactly what domain(s) of social anxiety symptoms are associated with ERN variation in peer presence, particularly within the adolescent period. Methods To advance and deepen the mechanistic understanding of the ERN's putative role as a neural marker for social anxiety in adolescence, we leveraged a social manipulation procedure and assessed a developmentally salient domain of social anxiety during adolescence – fear of negative evaluation (FNE). Adolescents residing in Hanzhong, a small city in the southwestern region of mainland China, had EEG recorded while performing a flanker task, twice (peer presence/absence); FNE, as well as global social anxiety symptoms, was assessed. Results Overall ERN increases in peer presence. FNE specifically, but not global levels of social anxiety symptoms, predicted ERN in peer presence. Conclusions These data are the first demonstration that the ERN relates to a specific domain of social anxiety in adolescents, as well as the first evidence of such relations within a non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) sample. Results have important implications for theory and research into adolescent social anxiety.

Towards a mechanistic understanding of the role of error monitoring and memory in social anxiety

“…The observed relations between SA and enhanced error-related MFC theta oscillations are consistent with prior work linking SA to error monitoring [41]–[48]. It is worth noting that the majority of prior work investigating relations between (social) anxiety and error monitoring has focused on time-domain (ERP) analyses of the ERN.…”

“…Extensive work demonstrates EEG-based measures of error monitoring-recorded over MFC-are linked to anxiety [37]- [40], including SA [41]- [45]. For high SA individuals, error monitoring is particularly increased within social situations [46]- [48]. However, the directionality ERROR MONITORING AND MEMORY IN SOCIAL ANXIETY 4 of associations between error monitoring and (social) anxiety remain unresolved.…”

“…As a neural extension of these models, we propose that error-related MFC theta oscillations provide a neural mechanism for error monitoring to increase the likelihood of encoding error events, which could contribute to the maintenance or exacerbation of SA. First, SA is associated with increased error monitoring [41], [46], [48], [53] as well memory biases for negative aspects of performance (e.g., errors; [10]- [13], [15], [16]. Second, MFC theta oscillations are not only associated with error monitoring [31], [54], but separate research demonstrates fundamental associations with memory: MFC theta oscillations during encoding predict increased likelihood of later recall [55]- [58].…”