Journal article

Neural response to the observable self in social anxiety disorder

J Pujol, M Giménez, H Ortiz, C Soriano-Mas, M López-Sola, M Farré, J Deus, E Merlo-Pich, BJ Harrison, N Cardoner, R Navinés, R Martín-Santos

Psychological Medicine | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | Published : 2013

Abstract

Background Distorted images of the observable self are considered crucial in the development and maintenance of social anxiety. We generated an experimental situation in which participants viewed themselves from an observer's perspective when exposed to scrutiny and evaluation by others. Method Twenty patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and 20 control subjects were assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the public exposure of pre-recorded videos in which they were each shown performing a verbal task. The examiners acted as the audience in the experiment and rated performance. Whole-brain functional maps were computed using Statistical Parametric Mapping. R..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Carlos III Health Institute


Awarded by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion


Awarded by FPU grant from the Ministry of Education of Spain


Awarded by Miguel Servet contract from the Carlos III Health Institute


Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Clinical Career Development Award


Funding Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by the Carlos III Health Institute (PI05/2565 and PI09/01331) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (I+D+I SAF2010-19434). Dr Deus is a member of the Research Group SGR1450 and Drs Navines and Martin-Santos of the Research Group SGR1435 from the Agency of University and Research Funding Management of the Catalonia Government. Dr Lopez-Sola is supported by an FPU grant AP2005-0408 from the Ministry of Education of Spain. Dr Soriano-Mas is funded by a Miguel Servet contract from the Carlos III Health Institute (CP10/00604). Dr Harrison is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Clinical Career Development Award (ID 628509).