• About
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   Institutional Repository Home
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Institutional Repository Home
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of Institutional RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartmentThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsDepartment

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Slow to warm up: the role of habituation in social fear

    Avery, Suzanne Nicole
    : https://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/etd-07312015-102916
    http://hdl.handle.net/1803/13760
    : 2015-07-31

    Abstract

    Rapid habituation to repeated presentations of stimuli that are neither threatening nor rewarding is crucial for effectively navigating the constantly changing environment. Failure to habituate has been proposed as a neuronal mechanism underlying social anxiety. In this study, we test the hypothesis that social fearfulness is associated with reduced neural habituation to social stimuli. Twenty-nine individuals representing the full dimension of social fearfulness (low to high) viewed repeated presentations (up to 7) of neutral social and nonsocial stimuli during an fMRI study. Percent signal change was extracted from a priori regions of interest—including the amygdala, hippocampus, medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), fusiform face area (FFA), extrastriate cortex, and primary visual cortex (V1)—areas that have been previously implicated in social anxiety disorder. Social fearfulness was correlated with elevated initial response to faces in the hippocampus and vmPFC, and habituation differences to faces in the amygdala, hippocampus, mOFC, vmPFC, extrastriate, and V1 (p < .05). Higher social fear was associated with a sustained response relative to individuals with low social fear, who showed rapid habituation to repeated social stimuli. Social fearfulness was also correlated with sustained functional connectivity between the amygdala and two visual cortex regions—the extrastriate cortex and V1. Importantly, social fearfulness findings were similar when controlling for neural response to non-social stimuli (objects), suggesting that differences were specific to social stimuli. Individual differences in habituation to social stimuli may provide an important neurobiological marker for risk for psychiatric illness, such as social anxiety disorder.
    Show full item record

    Files in this item

    Icon
    Name:
    Avery_Dissertation_final.pdf
    Size:
    2.378Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    View/Open

    This item appears in the following collection(s):

    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations

    Connect with Vanderbilt Libraries

    Your Vanderbilt

    • Alumni
    • Current Students
    • Faculty & Staff
    • International Students
    • Media
    • Parents & Family
    • Prospective Students
    • Researchers
    • Sports Fans
    • Visitors & Neighbors

    Support the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries

    Support the Library...Give Now

    Gifts to the Libraries support the learning and research needs of the entire Vanderbilt community. Learn more about giving to the Libraries.

    Become a Friend of the Libraries

    Quick Links

    • Hours
    • About
    • Employment
    • Staff Directory
    • Accessibility Services
    • Contact
    • Vanderbilt Home
    • Privacy Policy