%T Emotional dysregulation in social anxiety insights from an fMRI resting-state study
%P 339
%O Proceedings of the 16th World Congress of Psycophysiology of the International Organization of Psychophysiology (IOP) Pisa, Italy September 13-17, 2012
%I Elsevier
%V 85
%A Claudio Gentili
%A Nicola Vanello
%A Ioana Cristea
%A Emiliano Ricciardi
%A Daniel David
%A Pietro Pietrini
%A Mario Guazzelli
%D 2012
%L eprints2879
%X The relationship between Social Phobia (SP) and subclinical social anxiety (SA), as well as with normal shyness is not completely defined. We used the Hurst Exponent (HE) to test the hypothesis that, even in a not socially anxious condition, relevant regions for the neurobiology of SP will display a relation between Social Anxiety levels as measured by psychological scales and HE of the BOLD signal. Resting-state fMRI time series were recorded in 26 subjects (12 F; mean age ? SD. = 26 ? 3). All the subjects were drug free and did notrefer any psychiatric disorder in the anamnesis. Each subject completed the following scales: Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE), Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS), Liebowitz Social Anxiety scale (LSAS), Social Anxiety Spectrum Self-Report (SHI-SR) and State-Trait Anxiety Scale. The Hurst exponent was estimated by using the discrete second-order derivative approach and its relationship with SA has been tested in the whole brain and in regions known to be involved in SP. LSAS score predicted the HE in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala, cerebellum (all negatively) and precuneus (positively). ROI analysis showed an inverse correlation between LSAS and SHI-SR scores and HE in the amygdala and a direct correlation between IAS and BFNE scores in the precuneus. Our results suggest that the brain pattern of spontaneous activity is influenced by the degree of SA on a continuum in relevant regions for reappraisal and emotional regulation. We discuss our results in the framework of available knowledge on SA including the Clark ]";and Wells (1995) model of SA and the etiologic theories on emotional dysregulation in SA.
%N 3
%R 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.132
%J International Journal of Psychophysiology