Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 148, Issue 1 , Pages 55-59, 22 November 2006

Amygdala activation in the processing of neutral faces in social anxiety disorder: Is neutral really neutral?

Department of Psychology, Bldg. 420, Jordan Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States

Received 26 January 2006; received in revised form 3 May 2006; accepted 10 May 2006.

Abstract 

Previous research has suggested that Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is associated with a tendency to interpret ambiguous social stimuli in a threatening manner. The present study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine patterns of neural activation in response to the processing of neutral facial expressions in individuals diagnosed with SAD and healthy controls (CTLs). The SAD participants exhibited a different pattern of amygdala activation in response to neutral faces than did the CTL participants, suggesting a neural basis for the biased processing of ambiguous social information in SAD individuals.

Keywords: Amygdala, Social phobia, Social anxiety disorder, Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

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PII: S0925-4927(06)00092-8

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.05.003

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 148, Issue 1 , Pages 55-59, 22 November 2006

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