title: Altered cortical-amygdala coupling in social anxiety disorder during the anticipation of giving a public speech.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Severe stress in social situations is a core symptom of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Connectivity between the amygdala and cortical regions is thought to be important for emotion regulation, a function that is compromised in SAD. However, it has never been tested if and how this connectivity pattern changes under conditions of stress-inducing social evaluative threat. Here we investigate changes in cortical-amygdala coupling in SAD during the anticipation of giving a public speech.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty individuals with SAD and age-, gender- and education-matched controls (n = 20) participated in this study. During the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session, participants underwent three 'resting-state' fMRI scans: one before, one during, and one after the anticipation of giving a public speech. Functional connectivity between cortical emotion regulation regions and the amygdala was investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to controls, SAD participants showed reduced functional integration between cortical emotion regulation regions and the amygdala during the public speech anticipation. Moreover, in SAD participants cortical-amygdala connectivity changes correlated with social anxiety symptom severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The distinctive pattern of cortical-amygdala connectivity suggests less effective cortical-subcortical communication during social stress-provoking situations in SAD.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Science Institute (BSI), Radboud University,Nijmegen,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Cremers
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Veer
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spinhoven
authors.affiliation: Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: S A R B
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rombouts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,University of Texas,Austin,USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yarkoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,University of Colorado,Boulder,USA.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Wager
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Science Institute (BSI), Radboud University,Nijmegen,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roelofs
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D063132:Connectome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: speech anticipation