Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the frontal-striatal reward system in social anxiety disorder.
We investigated differences in the intrinsic functional brain organization (functional connectivity) of the human reward system between healthy control participants and patients with social anxiety disorder. Functional connectivity was measured in the resting-state via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 53 patients with social anxiety disorder and 33 healthy control participants underwent a 6-minute resting-state fMRI scan. Functional connectivity of the reward system was analyzed by calculating whole-brain temporal correlations with a bilateral nucleus accumbens seed and a ventromedial prefrontal cortex seed. Patients with social anxiety disorder, relative to the control group, had (1) decreased functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens seed and other regions associated with reward, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex; (2) decreased functional connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex seed and lateral prefrontal regions, including the anterior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices; and (3) increased functional connectivity between both the nucleus accumbens seed and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex seed with more posterior brain regions, including anterior cingulate cortex. Social anxiety disorder appears to be associated with widespread differences in the functional connectivity of the reward system, including markedly decreased functional connectivity between reward regions and between reward regions and lateral prefrontal cortices, and markedly increased functional connectivity between reward regions and posterior brain regions.
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Joshua
J
Manning
Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Gretchen
G
Reynolds
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Zeynep M
ZM
Saygin
Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Stefan G
SG
Hofmann
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
Mark
M
Pollack
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
John D E
JD
Gabrieli
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Susan
S
Whitfield-Gabrieli
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult