title: Neural basis of distorted self-face recognition in social anxiety disorder.
abstract: The observer perspective causes patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) to excessively inspect their performance and appearance. This study aimed to investigate the neural basis of distorted self-face recognition in non-social situations in patients with SAD.
  
  
  
  Twenty patients with SAD and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy controls participated in this fMRI study. Data were acquired while participants performed a Composite Face Evaluation Task, during which they had to press a button indicating how much they liked a series of self-faces, attractively transformed self-faces, and attractive others' faces.
  
  
  
  Patients had a tendency to show more favorable responses to the self-face and unfavorable responses to the others' faces compared with controls, but the two groups' responses to the attractively transformed self-faces did not differ. Significant group differences in regional activity were observed in the middle frontal and supramarginal gyri in the self-face condition (patients < controls); the inferior frontal gyrus in the attractively transformed self-face condition (patients > controls); and the middle frontal, supramarginal, and angular gyri in the attractive others' face condition (patients > controls). Most fronto-parietal activities during observation of the self-face were negatively correlated with preference scores in patients but not in controls.
  
  
  
  Patients with SAD have a positive point of view of their own face and experience self-relevance for the attractively transformed self-faces. This distorted cognition may be based on dysfunctions in the frontal and inferior parietal regions. The abnormal engagement of the fronto-parietal attentional network during processing face stimuli in non-social situations may be linked to distorted self-recognition in SAD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Kyeong
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yu-Bin
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung-Koo
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Radiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Jin
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Attractiveness; Face evaluation; Self-face recognition; Social anxiety disorder; fMRI