Amygdala and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Function during Anticipated Peer Evaluation in Pediatric Social Anxiety

Authors

Amanda E. Guyer, National Institutes of Health
Jennifer Y. Lau, National Institutes of Health
Erin B. McClure, Georgia State UniversityFollow
Jessica Parrish, Department of Psychology, Catholic UniversityFollow
Nina D. Shiffrin, National Institutes of HealthFollow
Richard C. Reynolds, National Institutes of Health
Gang Chen, National Institutes of Health
R J.R. Blair, National Institutes of Health
Ellen Leibenluft, National Institutes of Health
Nathan A. Fox, University of Maryland - College Park
Monique Ernst, National Institutes of Health
Daniel S. Pine, National Institutes of HealthFollow
Eric E. Nelson, National Institutes of HealthFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

1. Context. Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction manifests in adolescents with anxiety disorders when they view negatively-valenced stimuli in threatening contexts. Such fear-circuitry dysfunction may also manifest when anticipated social evaluation leads socially anxious adolescents to misperceive peers as threatening. 2. Objective. To determine whether photographs of negatively-evaluated smiling peers, viewed during anticipated evaluation, engage the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex differentially in adolescents with and without social anxiety. 3. Design. Case-control study. 4. Setting. Government clinical research institute. 5. Participants. Fourteen adolescents with anxiety disorders associated with marked social concerns and 14 diagnosis-free adolescents, matched on sex, age, IQ, and socio-economic status. 6. Main Outcome Measure(s). Blood oxygenation level-dependent signal measured with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Before and during neuroimaging scans, participants anticipating social evaluation completed peer- and self-appraisals. Event-related analyses were tailored to participants’ ratings of specific peers. 7. Results. Participants classified 40 pictures of same-age peers as ones they wanted to engage or not engage with for a social interaction. Anxious adolescents showed greater amygdala activation than healthy adolescents when anticipating evaluation from peers rated as undesired for an interaction. Viewing undesired peers engaged stronger positive amygdala-ventrolateral-prefrontal-cortex connectivity in anxious vs. healthy adolescents. 8. Conclusions. Anticipating social evaluation from negatively-perceived peers modulates amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex engagement differentially in anxious and healthy 3 adolescents. Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex abnormalities in adolescent anxiety disorders are heightened in specific contexts of potential peer evaluation.

Comments

Published as:

Guyer, A. E., Lau, J. Y. F., McClure-Tone, E. B., Parrish, J., Shiffrin, N. D., Blair, R. J. R., Leibenluft, E., Fox, N. A., Ernst, M., Pine, D. S., & Nelson, E. E. (2008). Amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex function during anticipated peer evaluation in pediatric social anxiety. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(11), 1303-1312. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.65.11.1303

Recommended Citation

Guyer, Amanda E.; Lau, Jennifer Y.; McClure, Erin B.; Parrish, Jessica; Shiffrin, Nina D.; Reynolds, Richard C.; Chen, Gang; Blair, R J.R.; Leibenluft, Ellen; Fox, Nathan A.; Ernst, Monique; Pine, Daniel S.; and Nelson, Eric E., "Amygdala and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Function during Anticipated Peer Evaluation in Pediatric Social Anxiety" (2008). Psychology Faculty Publications. 133.
https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/psych_facpub/133