title: Neural correlates of emotional interference in social anxiety disorder.
abstract: Disorder-relevant but task-unrelated stimuli impair cognitive performance in social anxiety disorder (SAD); however, time course and neural correlates of emotional interference are unknown. The present study investigated time course and neural basis of emotional interference in SAD using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Patients with SAD and healthy controls performed an emotional stroop task which allowed examining interference effects on the current and the succeeding trial. Reaction time data showed an emotional interference effect in the current trial, but not the succeeding trial, specifically in SAD. FMRI data showed greater activation in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and left opercular part of the inferior frontal gyrus during emotional interference of the current trial in SAD patients. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation between patients' interference scores and activation in the mPFC, dorsal ACC and left angular/supramarginal gyrus. Taken together, results indicate a network of brain regions comprising amygdala, insula, mPFC, ACC, and areas strongly involved in language processing during the processing of task-unrelated threat in SAD. However, specifically the activation in mPFC, dorsal ACC, and left angular/supramarginal gyrus is associated with the strength of the interference effect, suggesting a cognitive network model of attentional bias in SAD. This probably comprises exceeded allocation of attentional resources to disorder-related information of the presented stimuli and increased self-referential and semantic processing of threat words in SAD.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychophysiology and functional Imaging, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics & Psychotherapy, University Hospital Würzburg, Fuechsleinstr. 15, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany; Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Am Steiger 3 // 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boehme
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Varrentrappstr. 40-42, D-60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Viktoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ritter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychosocial Medicine and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital-Friedrich Schiller University, Stoystr. 3, D-07740 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tefikow
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Varrentrappstr. 40-42, D-60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Stangier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychosocial Medicine and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital-Friedrich Schiller University, Stoystr. 3, D-07740 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Am Steiger 3 // 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang H R
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Miltner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, D-48149 Muenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Straube
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001519:Behavior; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009420:Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires