Social norm processing in adult Social Phobia: Atypically increased ventromedial frontal cortex responsiveness to unintentional (embarrassing) transgressions

摘要

ObjectiveGeneralized social phobia (GSP) is defined by a persistent fear of social disapproval. However, the neural underpinnings of this increased fear and its mediating factors are unclear. Using event-related fMRI, we examined whether the intent of an event, which mediates the neural response to social disapproval in healthy individuals, differentially affects response in GSP. Specifically, would patients with GSP show particularly increased response to embarrassing, unintentional transgressions?