Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Oct;65(10):1176-84.
doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.65.10.1176.

Neural response to self- and other referential praise and criticism in generalized social phobia

Karina Blair  1 , Marilla Geraci, Jeffrey Devido, Daniel McCaffrey, Gang Chen, Meena Vythilingam, Pamela Ng, Nick Hollon, Matthew Jones, R J R Blair, Daniel S Pine
Affiliations

Neural response to self- and other referential praise and criticism in generalized social phobia

Karina Blair et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

Context: Generalized social phobia (GSP) is characterized by fear/avoidance of social situations. Previous studies have examined the neural responses in GSP to one class of social stimuli, facial expressions. However, studies have not examined the neural response in GSP to another equally important class of social stimuli, the communication of praise or criticism.

Objective: To examine the neural response to receipt of praise or criticism in GSP; specifically, to determine whether patients with GSP show an increased response to the receipt of both praise and criticism and whether self-relevance modulates this relationship.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: Government clinical research institute.

Participants: Unmedicated individuals with GSP (n = 17) and age-, IQ-, and sex-matched healthy comparison individuals (n = 17).

Main outcome measure: Blood oxygenation level-dependent signal, as measured via functional magnetic resonance imaging. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, individuals read positive (eg, You are beautiful), negative (eg, You are ugly), and neutral (eg, You are human) comments that could be either about the self or about somebody else (eg, He is beautiful).

Results: Hypothesized significant group x valence x referent interactions were observed within regions of the medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral amygdala. In these regions, the patients with GSP showed significantly increased blood oxygenation level-dependent responses, relative to comparison individuals, to negative comments (criticism) referring to themselves. However, in contrast, there were no significant group differences with respect to negative comments referring to others or neutral or positive comments referring to self or others.

Conclusions: These results implicate the medial prefrontal cortex, involved in the representation of the self, together with the amygdala, in the pathophysiology of GSP. Further, findings demonstrate a meaningful effect of psychological context on neural-circuitry hyperactivity in GSP.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interactions of group×referential target×valence in the amygdala. Bold oxygen level–dependent responses within the right (R) amygdala (A) (x, y, z=24, –2, –22) and left (L) amygdala (B) (x, y, z=–23, –3, –22) to negative, neutral, and positive comments about the self or somebody else for the 2 groups. HC indicates healthy comparison; GSP, generalized social phobia.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interactions of group×referential target×valence in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Bold oxygen level–dependent responses within the right (R) MPFC (A) (x, y, z=16, 35, 48) and left (L) MPFC (B) (x, y, z=–26, 35, 38) to negative, neutral, and positive comments about the self or somebody else for the 2 groups. HC indicates healthy comparison; GSF, generalized social phobia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kessler RC. The impairments caused by social phobia in the general population: implications for intervention. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl. 2003;(417):19–27. - PubMed
    1. Magee WJ, Eaton WW, Wittchen HU, McGonagle KA, Kessler RC. Agoraphobia, simple phobia, and social phobia in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1996;53(2):159–168. - PubMed
    1. Kaufman J, Charney D. Comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders. Depress Anxiety. 2000;12(suppl 1):69–76. - PubMed
    1. Blair K, Shaywitz J, Smith BW, Rhodes R, Geraci M, Jones M, McCaffrey D, Vythilingam M, Finger E, Mondillo K, Jacobs M, Charney D, Blair RJR, Drevets WC, Pine DS. Response to emotional expressions in generalized social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder: evidence for separate disorders. Am J Psychiatry. [published online ahead of print May 15, 2008] doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07071060. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stein MB, Goldin PR, Sareen J, Zorrilla LT, Brown GG. Increased amygdala activation to angry and contemptuous faces in generalized social phobia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2002;59(11):1027–1034. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms