The interplay of social anxiety and depression on EEG coherence during speech anticipation and recovery
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Sophomore
Major
Psychology
Minor
Biology
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Herring
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Social anxiety is a debilitating psychopathology involving fear and avoidance of social situations where one might face criticism or scrutiny. Despite widespread interest in the pathophysiology of social anxiety, reliable measures remain elusive. One candidate measure of emotional engagement is the coherence between certain scalp-recorded neural oscillations. Notably, higher positive delta-beta correlations or coherence in socially anxious individuals (SAI) has been found during the anticipation and recovery from a social performance task. These data suggest that heightened EEG cross-talk may reflect aberrant emotion processing for SAIs. In the present study, resting state EEG data will be collected from a wide range of individuals varying in social anxiety and depression before an impromptu speech. Afterwards, anticipation data will be collected before participants perform the speech and then recovery data will be recorded after the speech. We predict that greater social anxiety will positively relate with delta-beta coherence during anticipation and recovery. With high comorbidity prevalence with social anxiety, one question that remains is how the interplay of social anxiety and depression may influence the delta-beta coherence? Taken together, progress in investigating prospective measures of emotional engagement using EEG coherence will further the understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of social anxiety, and in doing so, potentially contributing to future clinical research in the early detection, prevention, and treatment of social anxiety disorder.
Key terms: Psychophysiology, EEG, social anxiety, depression, performance task
Fall Scholars Week 2019 Event
Psychology: Projects In-Progress
The interplay of social anxiety and depression on EEG coherence during speech anticipation and recovery
Social anxiety is a debilitating psychopathology involving fear and avoidance of social situations where one might face criticism or scrutiny. Despite widespread interest in the pathophysiology of social anxiety, reliable measures remain elusive. One candidate measure of emotional engagement is the coherence between certain scalp-recorded neural oscillations. Notably, higher positive delta-beta correlations or coherence in socially anxious individuals (SAI) has been found during the anticipation and recovery from a social performance task. These data suggest that heightened EEG cross-talk may reflect aberrant emotion processing for SAIs. In the present study, resting state EEG data will be collected from a wide range of individuals varying in social anxiety and depression before an impromptu speech. Afterwards, anticipation data will be collected before participants perform the speech and then recovery data will be recorded after the speech. We predict that greater social anxiety will positively relate with delta-beta coherence during anticipation and recovery. With high comorbidity prevalence with social anxiety, one question that remains is how the interplay of social anxiety and depression may influence the delta-beta coherence? Taken together, progress in investigating prospective measures of emotional engagement using EEG coherence will further the understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of social anxiety, and in doing so, potentially contributing to future clinical research in the early detection, prevention, and treatment of social anxiety disorder.
Key terms: Psychophysiology, EEG, social anxiety, depression, performance task