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
. 2019 Aug;36(8):690-700.
doi: 10.1002/da.22941.

Limbic and prefrontal neural volume modulate social anxiety in children at temperamental risk

Eran S Auday  1   2 , Koraly E Pérez-Edgar  1
Affiliations

Limbic and prefrontal neural volume modulate social anxiety in children at temperamental risk

Eran S Auday et al. Depress Anxiety. 2019 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Clinical levels of a social anxiety disorder (SAD) often appear during childhood and rise to a peak during late adolescence. The temperament trait behavioral inhibition (BI), evident early in childhood, has been linked to increased risk for SAD. Functional and structural variations in brain regions associated with the identification of, and response to, fear may support the BI-SAD relation. Whereas relevant functional studies are emerging, the few extant structural studies have focused on adult samples with mixed findings.

Methods: A moderated-mediation model was used to examine the relations between BI, SAD symptoms, and brain-volume individual differences in a sample of children at risk for anxiety (ages 9-12; N = 130, 52 BI).

Results: Our findings indicate that at higher levels of BI, children with smaller anterior insula volumes showed stronger correlations between BI and SAD. In addition, larger ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) volumes were associated with fewer SAD symptoms.

Conclusions: These findings support previous reports linking SAD levels with variations in volume and reactivity in both limbic (insula) and prefrontal (vlPFC) regions. These findings set the foundation for further examination of networks of neural structures that influence the transition from BI to SAD across development, helping further clarify mechanisms of risk and resilience.

Keywords: SAD/social anxiety disorder/social phobia; anxiety/anxiety disorders; brain imaging/neuroimaging; child/adolescent; phobia/phobic disorders.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No conflicts of interest are related to this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A Moderated-Mediation Model: ROI volume mediating the relation between BI and Anxiety Symptoms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Significant Two-Way Interaction of BI-Score by Left Anterior Insula Volume Predicting SAD Symptoms Level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alexander-Bloch A, Raznahan A, Bullmore E, & Giedd J (2013). The Convergence of Maturational Change and Structural Covariance in Human Cortical Networks. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(7), 2889–2899. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3554-12.2013 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Amir N, Klumpp H, Elias J, Bedwell JS, Yanasak N, & Miller LS (2005). Increased activation of the anterior cingulate cortex during processing of disgust faces in individuals with social phobia. Biological Psychiatry, 57(9), 975–981. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.044 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Auday ES, Taber-Thomas BC, & Pérez-Edgar KE (2018). Neural correlates of attention bias to masked facial threat cues: Examining children at-risk for social anxiety disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical, 19, 202–212. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ballespí S, Jané MC, & Riba MD (2012). Parent and Teacher Ratings of Temperamental Disposition to Social Anxiety: The BIS 3–6. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(2), 164–174. doi:10.1080/00223891.2011.645929 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baur V, Brühl AB, Herwig U, Eberle T, Rufer M, Delsignore A, … Hänggi J (2013). Evidence of frontotemporal structural hypoconnectivity in social anxiety disorder: A quantitative fiber tractography study. Human Brain Mapping, 34(2), 437–446. doi:10.1002/hbm.21447 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types