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. 2014 Jul 23:4:7.
doi: 10.1186/2045-5380-4-7. eCollection 2014.

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

Erin L Maresh  1 , Joseph P Allen  1 , James A Coan  1
Affiliations

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

Erin L Maresh et al. Biol Mood Anxiety Disord. .

Abstract

Background: Social 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.

Results: Social 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.

Conclusions: Socially 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.

Keywords: Anticipation; Consumption; Default mode network; Punishment; Reward; Social anxiety; fMRI.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monetary incentive delay (MID) task. Each run of the MID task consisted of 72 trials. The first box shows the cue types presented, with circles indicating the potential to win money (gain cue), squares indicating the potential to lose money (loss cue), and a triangle indicating no money will be won or lost (neutral cue). A cue was presented for 500 ms, followed by a fixation cross (2,000 to 2,500 ms) and then the target square (160 to 260 ms), during which the participant was instructed to press a button as quickly as possible to win or avoid losing money. A feedback screen (1,650 ms), in which the top number indicated the amount of money won or lost during that trial and the bottom number indicated the participant’s total amount, was presented at the end of each trial.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main effects of reward and punishment in anticipation and outcome phases. Colored regions indicate clusters more active during (A) anticipation during gain versus neutral cues, (B) anticipation during loss versus neutral cues, (C) outcome after gain versus neutral cues, and (D) outcome after loss versus neutral cues. Clusters were identified using whole brain, cluster-wise correction with a z threshold of 1.96 and a corrected cluster significance threshold of P <0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Clusters related to social anxiety during reward anticipation. Colored regions indicate clusters positively associated with social anxiety in the gain anticipation > neutral anticipation contrast. Shown are models (A) with social anxiety alone, and (B) with both social and trait anxiety included. For top row, Y = −56; for bottom row, X = −4. ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; PCC = posterior cingulate cortex.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Clusters related to social anxiety during reward outcome. Colored regions indicate clusters positively associated with social anxiety in the gain outcome > neutral outcome contrast. Shown are models (A) with social anxiety alone, and (B) with both social and trait anxiety included. For top row, Y = −42; for bottom row, Z = 54.
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