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. 2020 May 19;15(3):285-291.
doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa038.

Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety

Ruolei Gu  1   2 , Xiang Ao  3 , Licheng Mo  3 , Dandan Zhang  3   4
Affiliations

Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety

Ruolei Gu et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. .

Abstract

Social anxiety has been associated with abnormalities in cognitive processing in the literature, manifesting as various cognitive biases. To what extent these biases interrupt social interactions remains largely unclear. This study used the Social Judgment Paradigm that could separate the expectation and experience stages of social feedback processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in these two stages were recorded to detect the effect of social anxiety that might not be reflected by behavioral data. Participants were divided into two groups according to their social anxiety level. Participants in the high social anxiety (HSA) group were more likely to predict that they would be socially rejected by peers than did their low social anxiety (LSA) counterparts (i.e. the control group). Compared to the ERP data of the LSA group, the HSA group showed: (a) a larger P1 component to social cues (peer faces) prior to social feedback presentation, possibly indicating an attention bias; (b) a difference in feedback-related negativity amplitude between unexpected social acceptance and unexpected social rejection, possibly indicating an expectancy bias; and (c) a diminished sensitivity of the P3 amplitude to social feedback valence (be accepted/be rejected), possibly indicating an experience bias. These results could help understand the cognitive mechanisms that comprise and maintain social anxiety.

Keywords: P1; P3; event-related potential; expectancy bias; feedback-related negativity; social anxiety; social rejection.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Illustration of an example trial. On both sides of the photograph, ‘A’ and ‘R’ indicate ‘acceptance’ and ‘rejection’, respectively. RT: response time. Concerning the right of portrait, a picture of the corresponding author (D.Z.) was used here to replace the ID photograph in the real task.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Grand-mean ERP waveforms elicited by cue presentation at the O1 and O2 sites, representing the occipital P1 component. Pre: prediction; LSA/HSA: low/high social anxiety group.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Grand-mean ERP waveforms (as the averages across the Fz, FC1 and FC2 sites) elicited by feedback presentation, representing the FRN and P3a components. Unexp: unexpectedly; exp: expectedly.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Grand-mean ERP waveforms (as the averages across the P3, P4, Pz, CP1 and CP2 sites) elicited by feedback presentation, representing the P3b component and LPP. unexp: unexpectedly; exp: expectedly.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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