McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery and Study, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012 Jan;36(1):459-78. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.08.002. Epub 2011 Aug 10.
Social fearfulness is expressed on a continuum of severity from moderate distress to incapacitating fear. The present article focuses on the brain states associated with this broad dimension of social anxiety in humans. In total, 70 published studies are summarized documenting the neural correlates of social anxiety during states of rest, threat-related cognitive-affective activation, and acute symptom provocation. Neural exaggeration in limbic (amygdala) and paralimbic (insula) regions appears to be associated with functional outcomes involving increased attention for and processing of social threat. Evidence is also reviewed showing that social anxiety is characterized by atypical functional connectivity in certain brain networks. Despite a higher prevalence of social anxiety disorder among females, males have been overrepresented in the published clinical studies (constituting approximately 56% of the total participants). We evaluate the prospects of nonhuman animal models of social anxiety and discuss several promising directions for future research. The review highlights the need to adopt an integrative, network-based approach to the study of the neural substrates underlying social anxiety.
社交恐惧是一种从中度困扰到使人丧失能力的恐惧的严重程度连续体。本文主要关注与人类社交焦虑这一广泛维度相关的大脑状态。总共有 70 项已发表的研究被总结，记录了在休息状态、与威胁相关的认知情感激活以及急性症状诱发期间社交焦虑的神经相关性。边缘（杏仁核）和边缘旁（脑岛）区域的神经夸大似乎与涉及增加对社交威胁的关注和处理的功能结果有关。证据还表明，社交焦虑的特点是某些大脑网络中出现异常的功能连接。尽管女性中社交焦虑障碍的患病率较高，但在已发表的临床研究中男性的比例过高（占总参与者的约 56%）。我们评估了社交焦虑的非人类动物模型的前景，并讨论了未来研究的几个有前途的方向。该综述强调需要采用基于网络的综合方法来研究社交焦虑的神经基础。
