Face-Word Association Paradigm.

<p>Subjects were asked to learn pairs of neutral face and emotional (positive or negative) words related to personality-trait by pressing a button. After the control task in which subjects were asked to press one of the target button, each face was shown with 3 words and subjects were asked to indicate, via button press, which word was previously paired with that face. (The picture of one of the authors was used in the Figure instead of that from the database of SOFTPIA JAPAN to protect the privacy of subjects participated in the database).</p

Results of one sample t-test for positive word and neutral face pairs.

<p>BA, Brodmann area; L, Left; R, Right; Z, Z value of the peak activation within the cluster; Coordinates for the peak voxel are listed as MNI coordinates. p, corrected p value for whole brain or region of interest (^a bilateral hippocampus which include 1667 voxels or ^b bilateral amygdala which include 306 voxels); k_E, cluster size (voxels) difined by the same peak-level FWE thresholds and used for cluster level testing.</p

Correlation between activations in regions detected by one sample t-tests and associative memory performances.

<p><i>r</i>, correlation coefficiency; <i>p</i>, p-value;</p><p>*, <i>p</i><0.05.</p

Results of one sample t-test for negative word and neutral face pairs.

<p>BA, Brodmann area; L, Left; R, Right; Z, Z value of the peak activation within the cluster; Coordinates for the peak voxel are listed as MNI coordinates. p, corrected p value for whole brain or region of interest (^a bilateral hippocampus which include 1667 voxels or ^b bilateral amygdala which include 306 voxels); k_E, cluster size (voxels) difined by the same peak-level FWE thresholds and used for the cluster level testing.</p

Correlation between amygdala activation and associative memory performance.

<p>A. shows the graph illustrates the inverse correlation between correct response rate of negative word - face pairs and the contrast estimates during encoding of negative word - face pairs in the region of interest shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0024862#pone-0024862-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2A</a>. B. shows the graph illustrates the positive correlation between correct response rate of positive word - face pairs and the contrast estimates during encoding of positive word - face pairs in the region of interest shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0024862#pone-0024862-g002" target="_blank">Fig. 2A</a>.</p

fMRI Study of Social Anxiety during Social Ostracism with and without Emotional Support

<div><p>Social anxiety is characterized by an excessive fear of being embarrassed in social interactions or social performance situations. Emotional support can help to decrease or diminish social distress. Such support may play an important role at different points of social interaction. However, it is unclear how the beneficial effects of social support are represented in the brains of socially anxious individuals. To explore this, we used the same paradigm previously used to examine the effects of emotional support on social pain caused by exclusion. Undergraduates (n = 46) showing a wide range of social anxiety scores underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a Cyberball game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session in which participants were excluded, they were provided with supportive messages. In line with our previous work, we found that social exclusion led to increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, whereas emotional support led to increased left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite validation of the paradigm, social anxiety was not associated with increased ACC activity during social exclusion, or during perceived emotional support. Instead, fear of negative evaluation as assessed by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale showed positive associations with left DLPFC activation while receiving emotional support, compared to while being socially excluded. The more socially anxious an individual was, the greater was the left DLPFC activity increased during receipt of messages. This suggests that highly socially anxious people still have the ability to perceive social support, but that they are nevertheless susceptible to negative evaluation by others.</p></div

Correlation of the activation in the DLPFC between social anxiety and social distress.

<p>The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L.DLPFC), for which significant positive correlation between changes of brain activation and BFNE scores were found (A). To illustrate the correlation between L.DLPFC activation and social anxiety, a scatter plot of the relationship between changes in blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signals in the L.DLPFC and BFNE scores during the social support condition compared to during the social exclusion condition is presented (B). To illustrate the correlation of L.DLPFC activation and subjective feelings of social distress, a scatter plot of the relationship between changes in blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal in the L.DLPFC and subjective feelings of social distress during the social support condition compared to during the social exclusion condition is presented (C). BFNE = the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale.</p

Local maxima of brain activity showing significant social exclusion and social support effects.

<p>BA, Brodmann area, Size, cluster size, T, t value of the peak activation within the cluster, Bi, bilateral, L, Left, R, Right, ACC, Anterior Cingulate Cortex, MCC, Middle Cingulate Cortex, SMA, Supplementary Motor Area. Coordinates for the peak voxel are listed as MNI coordinates.</p><p>Local maxima of brain activity showing significant social exclusion and social support effects.</p

Brain regions indicating ostracism and social support.

<p>The brain regions indicating ostracism-induced activation were identified during the social exclusion condition compared to during the social inclusion condition (A) and brain areas indicating social-support-induced activation were identified during the social support condition compared to the social exclusion condition (B).</p

Cyberball Paradigm.

<p>Each block was composed of a ball catching phase for 26~28 seconds, with messages provided on the top center of the screen. Two messages and intervals of 12~18 seconds were provided for each block. There were five blocks in each condition.</p