title: Common and distinct brain activation to threat and safety signals in social phobia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the functional neuroanatomy underlying the processing of emotional stimuli in social phobia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate specific brain activation that is associated with the processing of threat and safety signals in social phobics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation was measured in social phobic and nonphobic subjects during the presentation of angry, happy and neutral facial expressions under free viewing conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls, phobics showed increased activation of extrastriate visual cortex regardless of facial expression. Angry, but not neutral or happy, faces elicited greater insula responses in phobics. In contrast, both angry and happy faces led to increased amygdala activation in phobics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support the hypothesis that the amygdala is involved in the processing of negative and positive stimuli. Furthermore, social phobics respond sensitively not only to threatening but also to accepting faces and common and distinct neural mechanisms appear to be associated with the processing of threat versus safety signals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University, Am Steiger 3/1, DE-07743 Jena, Germany. straube@biopsy.uni-jena.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Straube
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Mentzel
authors.forename: Wolfgang H R
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Miltner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology