Frontal brain oscillations and social anxiety: A cross-frequency spectral analysis during baseline and speech anticipation

Emotional Stroop interference for threatening words is related to reduced EEG delta–beta coupling and low attentional control

“…Several papers support a hypothesis that delta-beta coupling may reflect cortical/sub-cortical crosstalk involved in affect regulation (Schutter and van Honk, 2005b;Schutter et al, 2006;van Peer et al, 2008;Velikova et al, 2010;Miskovic et al, 2010Miskovic et al, , 2011aMiskovic et al, , 2011b; for a review, see Schutter and Knyazev, in press). Theoretical models that suggest an important role for attentional control in affect regulation point at mediation of such processes through cortical/sub-cortical reciprocal networks (Ochsner and Gross, 2005;McRae et al, 2009).…”

“…A recent paper (Miskovic et al, 2011a(Miskovic et al, , 2011b did report delta-beta coupling in patients with social anxiety disorder. The results showed that delta-beta coupling was reduced after cognitive behavioral therapy, but since the EEG data were collected immediately prior to a psychosocial stress procedure designed to increase state anxiety, these results may reflect anticipatory state anxiety (Knyazev et al, 2006;Miskovic et al, 2010;Knyazev, 2011). Secondly, only a single measure of attentional threat processing was done.…”

“…Van Peer et al (2008) reported that cortisol administration acutely increased frontal delta-beta coupling. Other studies have reported associations between delta-beta coupling and motivational or affective traits (van Peer et al, 2008;Putman, 2011) or state anxiety and stress (Knyazev et al, 2006;Miskovic et al, 2010). Schutter and van Honk (2004) reported decreased delta-beta coupling after administration of the hormone testosterone, a hormone which is known to have various acute effects on affective functioning, including anxiolysis and increased approach motivation (Hermans et al, 2007;Hermans et al, 2008).…”

“…Although several converging findings suggest that delta-beta coupling increases in response to acute stressors (Knyazev et al, 2006;Miskovic et al, 2010;Knyazev, 2011), its relationship to affective traits is less clear. For instance, although van Peer et al (2008) report increased delta-beta coupling in males with increased trait behavioral inhibition (which is closely related to trait anxiety), Velikova et al (2010) reported reduced delta-beta coupling in anxiety disorder patients (obsessive compulsive disorder patients who as a rule report increased trait anxiety; e.g., Foa et al, 1993).…”

Treatment of Adult Social Anxiety Disorder: A Treatments-by-Dimensions Review

“…Based on previous research showing an association between greater delta-beta coupling and anxiety-related situations (Miskovic et al, 2010) and traits (i.e., behavioral inhibition; van Peer, Roelofs, & Spinhoven, 2008), Miskovic and colleagues (2011) hypothesized and found a significant decrease in delta-beta coupling from pre-treatment to posttreatment. This reduction in delta-beta coupling was found for both the rest period and anticipatory period before a speech task and was particularly evident in the frontocentral cortex.…”