• Melle J W van der Molen, Anita Harrewijn, and P Michiel Westenberg.
• Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands. Electronic address: m.j.w.van.der.molen@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
• Biol Psychol. 2018 May 1; 135: 18-28.

AbstractThe current study examined neural and behavioral responses to social-evaluative feedback processing in social anxiety. Twenty-two non-socially and 17 socially anxious females (mean age = 19.57 years) participated in a Social Judgment Paradigm in which they received peer acceptance/rejection feedback that was either congruent or incongruent with their prior predictions. Results indicated that socially anxious participants believed they would receive less social acceptance feedback than non-socially anxious participants. EEG results demonstrated that unexpected social rejection feedback elicited a significant increase in theta (4-8 Hz) power relative to other feedback conditions. This theta response was only observed in non-socially anxious individuals. Together, results corroborate cognitive-behavioral studies demonstrating a negative expectancy bias in socially anxiety with respect to social evaluation. Furthermore, the present findings highlight a functional role for theta oscillatory dynamics in processing cues that convey social-evaluative threat, and this social threat-monitoring mechanism seems less sensitive in socially anxious females.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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