Abstract
Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) between frontal delta (1–4 Hz) and beta (14–30 Hz) oscillations has been suggested as a candidate neural correlate of social anxiety disorder, a disorder characterized by fear and avoidance of social and performance situations. Prior studies have used amplitude-amplitude correlation (AAC) as a CFC measure and hypothesized it as a candidate neural mechanism of affective control. However, using this metric has yielded inconsistent results regarding the direction of CFC, and the functional significance of coupling strength is uncertain. To offer a better understanding of CFC in social anxiety, we compared frontal delta-beta AAC with phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) – a mechanism for information transfer through neural circuits. Twenty high socially anxious (HSA) and 32 low socially anxious (LSA) female undergraduates participated in a social performance task (SPT). Delta-beta PAC and AAC were estimated during the resting state, as well as the anticipation and recovery conditions. Results showed significantly more AAC in LSA than HSA participants during early anticipation, as well as significant values during all conditions in LSA participants only. PAC did not distinguish between LSA and HSA participants, and instead was found to correlate with state nervousness during early anticipation, but in LSA participants only. Together, these findings are interpreted to suggest that delta-beta AAC is a plausible neurobiological index of adaptive stress regulation and can distinguish between trait high and low social anxiety during stress, while delta-beta PAC might be sensitive enough to reflect mild state anxiety in LSA participants.
Highlights
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating disorder affecting 10.2% of adults each year and can be characterized by a persistent fear and avoidance of one or more social situations (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Fehm, Beesdo, Jacobi, & Fiedler, 2008)
This study set out to investigate the utility of frontal delta-beta phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) and amplitude-amplitude correlation (AAC) as neural indices of stress regulation in high versus low socially anxious females in an social performance task (SPT)
Based on the notion that frontal delta-beta Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) would reflect attentional control, it was predicted that delta-beta PAC and AAC would be reflective of stress regulation efficiency, and be higher in low socially anxious (LSA) than in high socially anxious (HSA) participants during an SPT
Summary
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating disorder affecting 10.2% of adults each year and can be characterized by a persistent fear and avoidance of one or more social situations (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Fehm, Beesdo, Jacobi, & Fiedler, 2008). Increased delta-beta AAC is suggested to reflect stronger functional cortical-subcortical coherence and is associated with increased attentional control in parietal regions (Morillas-Romero et al, 2015) as well as in frontal regions (Putman, Arias-Garcia, Pantazi, & van Schie, 2012) and with reduced trait anxiety in frontal regions (Putman, 2011). This notion dovetails with fMRI findings showing that the strength of cortico-subcortical coupling between the amygdala and the frontal cortex is an index of emotion regulation efficiency (Banks, Eddy, Angstadt, Nathan, & Phan, 2007). These AAC findings seem to suggest that increased (positive) delta-beta AAC is an index of attentional control, and perhaps a plausible mechanism of regulating affective processes
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