title: Neuroimaging studies of pediatric social anxiety: paradigms, pitfalls and a new direction for investigating the neural mechanisms.
abstract: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a common and debilitating condition that typically manifests in adolescence. Here we describe cognitive factors engaged by brain-imaging tasks, which model the peer-based social interactions that evoke symptoms of SAD. We then present preliminary results from the Virtual School paradigm, a novel peer-based social interaction task. This paradigm is designed to investigate the neural mechanisms mediating individual differences in social response flexibility and in participants' responses to uncertainty in social contexts. We discuss the utility of this new paradigm for research on brain function and developmental psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Section on Developmental and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 15 K, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Johanna M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jarcho
authors.affiliation: Section on Bipolar Spectrum Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Olga Lydia
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA ; Department of Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Section on Developmental and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 15 K, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.affiliation: Section on Developmental and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 15 K, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Eric E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Nelson
keywords: Affect; Behavioral inhibition; Bullying; Development; Peer victimization; Peers; Response flexibility; Social cognition; Uncertainty; fMRI