Join with a free account for more service, or become a member for full access to exclusives and extra support of WorldSupporter >>
What is the background of this study?
People with SAD (social anxiety disorder) fear being negatively evaluated in social settings. The characteristics of SAD include an onset during early adolescence, often a lifelong course and a great risk of comorbid disorders. While SAD has severe effects on one’s personal life and society, current treatment is not optimal. In order to improve interventions, the risk factors of developing SAD need to become more clear.
A patient with SAD fears acting in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing in social situations. The behavioral and neurobiological correlates of that fear can be examined by using the Social Norm Processing Task. This task involves reading and evaluating stories describing (un)intentional violations of social norms. Studies using this Task found that people with social anxiety are more sensitive to unintentional violations of social norms. One study showed increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex in the participants with SAD. In comparison to the control group, they also considered the stories more embarrassing and inappropriate, especially the story describing unintentional violations. Thus, social anxiety affects the embarrassment ratings for unintentional violations of social norms. Another study showed that participants with greater social anxiety levels rated the unintentional violations just as embarrassing as the intentional violations. Experiencing embarrassment underlies the development and maintenance of social anxiety.
However, no study examined whether the correlates of altered processing of unintentional social norm violations could be SAD endophenotypes. Endophenotypes are heritable and measurable components indicative of genetic vulnerability to disorders. These endophenotypes could improve our knowledge regarding the pathways leading to severe psychopathology, help identifying vulnerable individuals and improve the current intervention programs. Endophenotypes need to be related to the disorder, independent and already present in a preclinical state, heritable and they should cosegregate with the disorder in families of probands.
Hypothesis: brain activation and behavioral ratings are associated with processing unintentional violations of social norms.
Who participated and what materials were used?
Participants were recruited through the LFLSAD: Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder (a multigenerational and multiplex family study). Eight families participated, including two generations of families carrying the gene linked to SAD. The inclusion of the families was based on the combination of a ‘proband’ parent (diagnosed with SAD) and a child who met criteria for SAD. Used were MRI scans and various measurements such as diagnostic interviews.
The Revised Social Norm Processing Task (R-SNPT) consisted of story reading, getting into the MRI scanner and rating the MRI scan. The stories described a neutral social situation and a situation in which a social norm was unintentionally or intentionally violated (baking a pie with friends: using the right amount of sugar, accidentally using salt, using salt as a prank). Participants had to imagine themselves in these social situations. After the MRI scan, they were asked to rate the stories’ inappropriateness and embarrassment.
What were the results?
No gender and age differences were observed between family members with and without SAD. Family members with SAD displayed higher levels of social anxiety.
Self-reported social anxiety was positively linked to brain activation in two brain clusters. One cluster was located in the occipital pole, the other in the frontal pole. No clusters showed negative associations with social anxiety. Heritability assessments suggest that brain activation in those clusters is heritable.
The R-SNPT ratings showed a significant relation between embarrassment and social anxiety, but none between inappropriateness and social anxiety. Follow-up analyses suggest positive associations between social anxiety and embarrassment regarding all three stories. Sensitivity analyses suggest that these findings were not driven by SAD. Embarrassment ratings in the intentional stories showed low heritability. Embarrassment scores for neutral and unintentional stories showed no heritability.
What is the conclusion of this study?
This study proves that brain activation associated with processing unintentional violations of social norms is a neurobiological candidate endophenotype of social anxiety disorder. These findings provide new insights in the neurological pathways leading to social anxiety disorder.
Summaries per article with Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at Leiden University 22/23
Summaries per article with Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at Leiden University 22/23
- 1 of 2141
- next ›
JoHo can really use your help! Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world
Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams
- Check out: Register with JoHo WorldSupporter: starting page (EN)
- Check out: Aanmelden bij JoHo WorldSupporter - startpagina (NL)
How and why would you use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?
- For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
- For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
- For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
- For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
- For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.
Using and finding summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter
There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.
- Use the menu above every page to go to one of the main starting pages
- Starting pages: for some fields of study and some university curricula editors have created (start) magazines where customised selections of summaries are put together to smoothen navigation. When you have found a magazine of your likings, add that page to your favorites so you can easily go to that starting point directly from your profile during future visits. Below you will find some start magazines per field of study
- Use the topics and taxonomy terms
- The topics and taxonomy of the study and working fields gives you insight in the amount of summaries that are tagged by authors on specific subjects. This type of navigation can help find summaries that you could have missed when just using the search tools. Tags are organised per field of study and per study institution. Note: not all content is tagged thoroughly, so when this approach doesn't give the results you were looking for, please check the search tool as back up
- Check or follow your (study) organizations:
- by checking or using your study organizations you are likely to discover all relevant study materials.
- this option is only available trough partner organizations
- Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
- by following individual users, authors you are likely to discover more relevant study materials.
- Use the Search tools
- 'Quick & Easy'- not very elegant but the fastest way to find a specific summary of a book or study assistance with a specific course or subject.
- The search tool is also available at the bottom of most pages
Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?
- Check out: Why and how to add a WorldSupporter contributions
- JoHo members: JoHo WorldSupporter members can share content directly and have access to all content: Join JoHo and become a JoHo member
- Non-members: When you are not a member you do not have full access, but if you want to share your own content with others you can fill out the contact form
Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance
Field of study
- All studies for summaries, study assistance and working fields
- Communication & Media sciences
- Corporate & Organizational Sciences
- Cultural Studies & Humanities
- Economy & Economical sciences
- Education & Pedagogic Sciences
- Health & Medical Sciences
- IT & Exact sciences
- Law & Justice
- Nature & Environmental Sciences
- Psychology & Behavioral Sciences
- Public Administration & Social Sciences
- Science & Research
- Technical Sciences
Add new contribution