title: Psychophysiological responses to eye contact in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.
abstract: We investigated whether eye contact is aversive and negatively arousing for adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Participants were 17 adolescents with clinically diagnosed SAD and 17 age- and sex-matched controls. While participants viewed the stimuli, a real person with either direct gaze (eye contact), averted gaze, or closed eyes, we measured autonomic arousal (skin conductance responses) and electroencephalographic indices of approach-avoidance-motivation. Additionally, preferred viewing times, self-assessed arousal, valence, and situational self-awareness were measured. We found indications of enhanced autonomic and self-evaluated arousal, attenuated relative left-sided frontal cortical activity (associated with approach-motivation), and more negatively valenced self-evaluated feelings in adolescents with SAD compared to controls when viewing a face making eye contact. The behavioral measures and self-assessments were consistent with the physiological results. The results provide multifaceted evidence that eye contact with another person is an aversive and highly arousing situation for adolescents with SAD.
authors.affiliation: Human Information Processing Laboratory, School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: aki.myllyneva@uta.fi.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Myllyneva
authors.affiliation: Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, Helsinki University Hospital, and University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ranta
authors.affiliation: Human Information Processing Laboratory, School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Jari K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hietanen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Electroencephalography; Face perception; Skin conductance; Social cognition; Social phobia