Processing of Social Learning and Social Decision Making in Social Anxiety Disorder

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Becker
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411743888

Dysfunctional Expectancies are a core feature of mental disorders. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is specifically associated with biased expectancies regarding evaluative and interactive social situations. In these situations, patients expect to be evaluated unfavorably by others or they expect not be able to adequately interact with others. It is assumed that disorder-specific expectancies in SAD are shaped by discrepancies between self-assessments of one’s (inadequate) performance and an assumed (exaggerated) performance standard of others. On a brain functional level, processing of discrepant expectancies is tightly coupled to activation of the ventral striatum (VS) and positive performance feedback during an evaluative situation leads to reduced activation of the VS in SAD. This project aims to formally describe and test these BOLD-signal alterations in VS and the reward network in SAD using disorder-relevant reinforcement learning models. Furthermore, the disorder-specific role of networks associated with perspective taking of others’ intentions (“mentalizing”) will be investigated. Additionally, interactions between these networks will be assessed. The general goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the SAD-specific role of positive and negative discrepancies in performance feedback processing during evaluative social situations. The reinforcement learning models used in this project allow a first investigation of social reward and punishment learning in SAD. Thus, the results of this study could clarify the role of disorder-specific expectations, provide a deeper understanding of the perpetuating factors of SAD and therefore contribute to assessments of therapy effectiveness.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants