Impaired early visual categorization of fear in social anxiety

Abstract

Social anxiety is associated with biased social perception, especially of ambiguous cues. While aberrations in high‐level processes (e.g., cognitive appraisal and interpretation) have been implicated in such biases, contributions of early, low‐level stimulus processing remain unclear. Categorical perception represents an efficient process to resolve signal ambiguity, and categorical emotion perception can swiftly classify sensory input, “tagging” biologically important stimuli at early stages of processing to facilitate ecological response. However, early threat categorization could be disrupted by exaggerated (or disinhibited) threat processing in anxiety, resulting in biased perception of ambiguous signals. We tested this hypothesis among individuals with low and high trait social anxiety (LSA/HSA; defined relative to the current sample), who performed a two‐alternative forced‐choice (fear or neutral) task on facial expressions parametrically varied along a neutral‐fear continuum. The groups diverged in the reaction time (RT) profile along the neutral‐fear continuum, which was characteristic of categorical perception in the LSA (vs. HSA) group with drastically increased RT from neutral to intermediate (boundary) fear intensities, contrasting monotonic, nonsignificant RT changes in the HSA group. Neurometric analysis along the continuum identified an early neutral‐fear categorization operation (arising in the P1, an early visual ERP at 100 ms), which was nonetheless impaired in the HSA group (due to disinhibited response at the neutral‐fear boundary). Absent group differences in higher‐level cognitive operations (identified by later ERPs), current findings highlight a dispositional cognitive vulnerability in early visual categorization of social threat, which could precipitate further cognitive aberrations and, eventually, the onset of social anxiety disorder.

Human Sensory Cortex Contributes to the Long-Term Storage of Aversive Conditioning

“…While the neural substrates evolved drastically over time, they were similarly modulated by trait anxiety and coupled with enhanced scalp P1 amplitude. The latter could reflect perceptual categorization of CS 1 versus CSin early sensory processing (Forscher et al, 2016;Meynadasy et al, 2020). Importantly, the distinct loci for immediate versus delayed plasticity highlight different neural and cognitive processes involved in threat learning and long-term memory.…”

Stable abnormalities of contrast discrimination sensitivity in subthreshold depression: A longitudinal study

“…Deficits of visual functioning have been found in many mental illnesses, such as depression (e.g., Jung et al, 2020; Wesner & Tan, 2006), anxiety (e.g., Ferneyhough et al, 2013; Meynadasy et al, 2020), bipolar disorder (e.g., Fernandes et al, 2019; O'Bryan et al, 2014), schizophrenia (see reviews, Silverstein, 2016; Thakkar et al, 2019), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (e.g., Bartgis et al, 2009; Dönmez et al, 2020), autism spectrum disorders (e.g., Bakroon & Lakshminarayanan, 2016; Noel et al, 2021), obsessive–compulsive disorder (e.g., Gonçalves et al, 2010; Stern et al, 2017), and post‐traumatic stress disorder (van der Ham et al, 2021).…”

Review of EEG, ERP, and Brain Connectivity Estimators as Predictive Biomarkers of Social Anxiety Disorder

“…The ERPs triggered at 100 milliseconds after the stimulus are probably regulated by the physical factors of the stimulant rather than perceptual factors (Herrmann and Knight, 2001;Sa, 2005). However, highly prominent stimulants or alterations in the presentation sequence of the stimulus might affect these early ERP components (Meynadasy et al, 2019;de Bruijn et al, 2020), reflecting an influence on perception and attention (Eimer and Driver, 2001). SAD has shown a magnificent sensitivity to the amplitude of P1, as reported in certain studies (Hagemann et al, 2016;Fang et al, 2019;Torrence et al, 2019).…”

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