Social anxiety linked to stronger brain responses to mixed social cues
Ever catch someone looking your way and wonder what they're thinking? For people with social anxiety, that moment may trigger a heightened response in the brain, even though it does not improve their later judgments about what the gaze means.
A University of Michigan study published in the journal Psychophysiology reveals that individuals with higher levels of social anxiety exhibit stronger brain responses when confronted with conflicting social cues. While this heightened sensitivity may aid in detection of important social signals, it may also increase the risk of anxiety-provoking concerns about others' perceptions.
The research, led by Irene Melani, a recent psychology Ph.D. from U-M and now a postdoctoral fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, analyzed young adults' brain activity while they observed gaze patterns paired with words describing mental states. People with greater social anxiety showed a stronger brain response, known as the N400, when the gaze and the word did not align, indicating that the response was specifically related to interpreting others' thoughts or feelings.
However, despite this heightened response, these individuals did not perform better in explicitly judging what someone's gaze meant. The study suggests that while heightened sensitivity to social cues might offer advantages, such as better detection of others' intentions, it could also result in increased stress and rumination during everyday interactions.
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