Defensive startle response to emotional social cues in social anxiety.
Potentiation of fear-related defense behaviours coordinated by the amygdala in response to environmental threat characterizes several anxiety disorders. We compared eye-blink startle responses to startle probes delivered during the presentation of emotional and neutral social cues in high and low generalized social anxiety. Socially anxious individuals exhibited larger startle responses to emotional (positive and negative) relative to neutral social cues, compared to non-anxious individuals.
Garner
Matthew
M
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK; Division of Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK. m.j.garner@soton.ac.uk
Clarke
Greg
G
Graystone
Hannah
H
Baldwin
David S
DS
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors