Department of Psychology, Temple University, Weiss Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology, University of Buffalo, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2019 Jul;47(7):1153-1164. doi: 10.1007/s10802-019-00543-4.
Wariness in early childhood manifests as shy, inhibited behavior in novel social situations and is associated with increased risk for developing social anxiety. In youth with childhood wariness, exposure to a potent social stressor, such as peer victimization, may potentiate brain-based sensitivity to unpredictable social contexts, thereby increasing risk for developing social anxiety. To test brain-based associations between early childhood wariness, self-reported peer victimization, and current social anxiety symptoms, we quantified neural responses to different social contexts in low- and high-victimized pre-adolescents with varying levels of early childhood wariness. Measures of early childhood wariness were obtained annually from ages 2-to-7-years. At age 11, participants were characterized as having low (N = 20) or high (N = 27) peer victimization. To index their neural responses to peer evaluation, participants completed an fMRI-based Virtual School paradigm (Jarcho et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 13, 21-31, 2013a). In highly victimized, relative to low-victimized participants, wariness was differentially related to right amygdala response based on the valence and predictability of peer evaluation. More specifically, in highly victimized participants, wariness was associated with greater right amygdala response to unpredictably positive peer evaluation. Effects of wariness were not observed in participants who reported low levels of victimization. Moreover, in victimized participants, high wariness and right amygdala response to unpredictably positive peer evaluation was associated with more severe social anxiety symptoms. Results can be interpreted using a diathesis-stress model, which suggests that neural response to unexpectedly positive social feedback is a mechanism by which exposure to peer victimization potentiates the risk for developing social anxiety in individuals exhibiting high levels of early childhood wariness.
儿童期早期的警惕性表现为在新的社交情境中害羞、抑制的行为，并且与发展社交焦虑的风险增加有关。在具有儿童期警惕性的年轻人中，暴露于强大的社交应激源（如同伴受害）可能会增强大脑对不可预测社交环境的敏感性，从而增加发展社交焦虑的风险。为了测试早期儿童期警惕性、自我报告的同伴受害和当前社交焦虑症状之间的大脑关联，我们量化了具有不同早期儿童期警惕性水平的低和高受害前青少年对不同社交情境的神经反应。早期儿童期警惕性的测量值是从 2 岁到 7 岁每年获得的。在 11 岁时，参与者被分为低（N=20）或高（N=27）同伴受害。为了评估他们对同伴评价的神经反应，参与者完成了基于 fMRI 的虚拟学校范式（Jarcho 等人，发展认知神经科学，13，21-31，2013a）。在高度受害的参与者中，相对于低受害的参与者，警惕性与右杏仁核反应的差异与同伴评价的效价和可预测性有关。更具体地说，在高度受害的参与者中，警惕性与对不可预测的积极同伴评价的右杏仁核反应更大有关。在报告低受害水平的参与者中未观察到警惕性的影响。此外，在受害的参与者中，高度警惕性和对不可预测的积极同伴评价的右杏仁核反应与更严重的社交焦虑症状有关。结果可以使用素质应激模型进行解释，该模型表明，对意外积极社交反馈的神经反应是暴露于同伴受害增强具有高水平儿童期警惕性的个体发展社交焦虑风险的机制。
