Abstract
Objective: The present meta-analysis aimed to explore the cognitive and neural mechanism of social anxiety disorder (SAD) from a whole-brain view, and compare the differences in brain activations under different task paradigms. Methods: We searched Web of Science Core Collection and other databases with the keywords related to social anxiety, social phobia, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for comparing persons with SAD to healthy controls and used the activation likelihood estimation method. Thirty-seven papers met the inclusion criteria, including 15 with emotional faces as stimuli, 8 presenting specific situations as stimuli, and 14 using other types of tasks as stimuli. Among these papers, 654 participants were in the SAD group and 594 participants were in the control group with 335 activation increase points and 115 activation decrease points. Results: Whole-brain analysis showed that compared with healthy controls, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left anterior cingulate gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = −6, y = 22, z = 38; p 0.001). Sub-group analysis based on task indicated that when performing tasks with emotional faces as stimuli, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left cerebellar slope and fusiform gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = −26, y = −68, z = −12; p 0.001), and significantly higher activation of the right supramarginal gyrus and angular gyrus, than healthy controls (MNI coordinate: x = 58, y = −52, z = 30; p 0.001). Conclusion: Individuals with social anxiety disorder show abnormal activation in the cingulate gyrus, which is responsible for the process of attention control, and task type can influence the activation pattern.
Highlights
Social anxiety disorder (SAD; previously called social phobia) has been defined as the experience of constant fear, nervousness, and avoidance in the presence of a stranger, or in social situations that involve being observed [1]
The following data were extracted from each paper: (a) study ID, (b) author, (c) publicaA total of 1297 publications were retrieved from initial search, among which 37 tion year, (d) age, (e) coordinates, (f) number of extracted coordinates (SAD groups > healthy studies met the inclusion criteria (654 participants in the SAD groups and 594 participants controls), (g) number of extracted coordinates (SAD groups < healthy controls), (h) brain in the control groups)
A total of 1297 publications were retrieved from initial search, among which 37 studies met the inclusion criteria (654 participants in the SAD groups and 594 participants in the control groups)
Summary
Social anxiety disorder (SAD; previously called social phobia) has been defined as the experience of constant fear, nervousness, and avoidance in the presence of a stranger, or in social situations that involve being observed [1]. More and more researchers are using neuroimaging technology (especially magnetic resonance imaging technology) to explore the cognitive neural mechanism of SAD. This basic research may one day have applied value in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. Not all these studies have obtained concordant conclusions. Some researchers believed that a largescale system of neural activity should be concerned in the diagnosis of SAD, while others
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