Neural correlates of face processing in social anxiety disorder and their modulation by therapeutic interventions

• Applicant: Dr. Oliver Döhrmann
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2009 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 162324543

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a highly prevalent mental health disorder, in which patients suffer from an intense fear of social interactions and negative evaluations by others. In line with these symptoms, SAD patients process socially relevant stimuli such as faces in a hypersensitive manner. However, despite these results comparatively little is known about corresponding dysfunctional processing in the brains of SAD patients. The experiments proposed here are designed to further our knowledge of the neural correlates of SAD by focusing on 1) face compared to object processing, 2) processing of novel versus familiar face and object stimuli to investigate the impact of behavioral inhibition, and 3) conscious versus unconscious stimulus processing. A second study aim is to investigate which brain regions show changes after the application of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and thirdly, if these neural effects of CBT can be further enhanced by the application of D-cycloserine (DCS), a substance known to support extinction learning. To address these issues, subjects and patients will undergo two sessions of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the previously described experiments. Between these sessions the patient group will be treated for 12 weeks with CBT, with half of the group receiving an additional treatment with DCS. It is expected that the neural responses of SAD patients will become more similar to the ones of the control subjects and that this effect will be more pronounced for the DCS group.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Hosts: Professor Dr. John Gabrieli; Professor Dr. Stefan Hofmann