title: Task-dependent modulation of amygdala connectivity in social anxiety disorder.
abstract: Increased amygdala activation is consistently found in patients suffering from social anxiety disorder (SAD), a psychiatric condition characterized by an intense fear of social situations and scrutiny. Disruptions in the amygdalar-frontal network in SAD may explain the inability of frontal regions to appropriately down-regulate amygdalar hyper-activation. In this study, we measured 15 SAD patients and 15 healthy controls during an affective counting Stroop task with emotional faces to assess the interaction of affective stimuli with a cognitive task in SAD, as well as to investigate the causal interactions between the amygdala and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) using dynamic causal modeling (DCM). Here we show for the first time that differences in OFC-amygdala effective connectivity between SAD patients and healthy controls are influenced by cognitive load during task processing. In SAD patients relative to controls dysfunctional amygdala regulation was observed during passive viewing of harsh faces This could be linked to ongoing self-initiated cognitive processes (such as rumination and anticipation of negative events) that hinder successful amygdala regulation. However, between-group differences diminished during cognitive processing, suggesting that attentional load interfered with emotional processing in both patients and controls.
authors.affiliation: MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Lora
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minkova
authors.affiliation: MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sladky
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Georg S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Kranz
authors.affiliation: MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Woletz
authors.affiliation: MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Geissberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kraus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Rupert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lanzenberger
authors.affiliation: MR Center of Excellence, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: christian.windischberger@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Windischberger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001288:Attention; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affective counting Stroop task; DCM; Effective connectivity; FMRI; SAD