Increased default mode network activity in socially anxious individuals during reward processing

Abstract

BackgroundSocial anxiety has been associated with potentiated negative affect and, more recently, with diminished positive affect. It is unclear how these alterations in negative and positive affect are represented neurally in socially anxious individuals and, further, whether they generalize to non-social stimuli. To explore this, we used a monetary incentive paradigm to explore the association between social anxiety and both the anticipation and consumption of non-social incentives. Eighty-four individuals from a longitudinal community sample underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a monetary incentive delay (MID) task. The MID task consisted of alternating cues indicating the potential to win or prevent losing varying amounts of money based on the speed of the participant’s response. We examined whether self-reported levels of social anxiety, averaged across approximately 7 years of data, moderated brain activity when contrasting gain or loss cues with neutral cues during the anticipation and outcome phases of incentive processing. Whole brain analyses and analyses restricted to the ventral striatum for the anticipation phase and the medial prefrontal cortex for the outcome phase were conducted.ResultsSocial anxiety did not associate with differences in hit rates or reaction times when responding to cues. Further, socially anxious individuals did not exhibit decreased ventral striatum activity during anticipation of gains or decreased MPFC activity during the outcome of gain trials, contrary to expectations based on literature indicating blunted positive affect in social anxiety. Instead, social anxiety showed positive associations with extensive regions implicated in default mode network activity (for example, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and parietal lobe) during anticipation and receipt of monetary gain. Social anxiety was further linked with decreased activity in the ventral striatum during anticipation of monetary loss.ConclusionsSocially anxious individuals may increase default mode network activity during reward processing, suggesting high self-focused attention even in relation to potentially rewarding stimuli lacking explicit social connotations. Additionally, social anxiety may relate to decreased ventral striatum reactivity when anticipating potential losses.

Altered brain responses in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome during cued and uncued pain expectation

“…Some studies showed that during pain expectation, the precuneus and PCC were deactivated in HCs and exhibited decreased activation associated with expected pain intensity . People with anxiety had increased precuneus activity during reward anticipation, suggesting that these subjects were unable to disengage from self‐attention, leading to increased self‐focused hypervigilance . When viewed together, these reports are in line with the current findings that IBS subjects showed activation of the PCC and precuneus while HCs showed deactivation of these regions in response to contextual threat.…”

“…49 People with anxiety had increased precuneus activity during reward anticipation, suggesting that these subjects were unable to disengage from self-attention, leading to increased self-focused hypervigilance. 65 When viewed together, these reports are in line with the current findings that IBS subjects showed activation of the PCC and precuneus while HCs showed deactivation of these regions in response to contextual threat. The salience network has been suggested to play a role in switching between the default mode network and task-related networks.…”

Social anxiety disorder: a critical overview of neurocognitive research

“…This finding has been extended to subclinical social‐anxiety . Another study found increased DMN activity during the anticipation of monetary reward . The DMN has typically been established in resting‐state fMRI studies, and several aberrant functional connectivity patterns with or within the DMN have been found although not consistently .…”

Annual Research Review: Transdiagnostic neuroscience of child and adolescent mental disorders – differentiating decision making in attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, depression, and anxiety

“…Recent results suggest that social reward responsivity to reward valuation in patients with social anxiety disorder may be reduced as reflected by diminished activity in putamen and reduced ventral striatal-anterior cingulate cortex connectivity (Cremers, Veer, Spinhoven, Rombouts, & Roelofs, 2014). However, these effects may be specific to social reward cues and not apply to monetary rewards (Maresh, Allen, & Coan, 2014). Contingency learning in anxiety has received little attention from researchers.…”