JOURNAL ARTICLE
RESEARCH SUPPORT, N.I.H., EXTRAMURAL
RESEARCH SUPPORT, NON-U.S. GOV'T
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

A functional MRI study of amygdala responses to angry schematic faces in social anxiety disorder.

Neuroimaging studies using angry or contemptuous human facial photographic stimuli have suggested amygdala hyper-responsivity in social anxiety disorder (SAD). We sought to determine if an angry "schematic face" (simple line drawing) would evoke exaggerated amygdalar responses in SAD patients compared with healthy control (HC) subjects. Angry, happy, and neutral schematic faces were overtly presented to matched cohorts of 11 SAD and 11 HC subjects for passive viewing, whereas brain functional magnetic resonance imaging signal was measured at 1.5 Tesla. Voxel-wise analyses were performed using a random effects model in SPM99. Compared with HC subjects, SAD patients exhibited exaggerated responses in the right amygdala for the Angry versus Neutral contrast. The findings of exaggerated amygdala responses to angry schematic faces in SAD converge with results from earlier neuroimaging studies and illustrate the potential utility of schematic faces for probing amygdala function in psychiatric disorders. One prospective advantage of schematic faces is that they may minimize confounds related to gender, age, or race effects. However, extending earlier findings in healthy subjects, schematic faces appear more effective for probing amygdala responses to arousal-based (Angry versus Neutral) as opposed to valence-based (Angry versus Happy) contrasts.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app