Altered effective connectivity network of the amygdala in social anxiety disorder: a resting-state FMRI study.

ABSTRACT: The amygdala is often found to be abnormally recruited in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients. The question whether amygdala activation is primarily abnormal and affects other brain systems or whether it responds "normally" to an abnormal pattern of information conveyed by other brain structures remained unanswered. To address this question, we investigated a network of effective connectivity associated with the amygdala using Granger causality analysis on resting-state functional MRI data of 22 SAD patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). Implications of abnormal effective connectivity and clinical severity were investigated using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Decreased influence from inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) to amygdala was found in SAD, while bidirectional influences

SUBMITTER: Liao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3008679 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature