Social anxiety and the involved brain structures
Hello all, this is another attempt to retain information for school, this time for my psychology class.
There are two main parts of the brain that are involved in social anxiety. The first is the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which is at the very front of the brain. The OFC is heavily involved in 'higher' brain functions, especially those that deal with social behavior, decision-making, and emotional regulation. The second major brain structure is the amygdala, which allows us to experience emotion. It is commonly referred to as the brain's 'fear center'.
As these two descriptions imply, in a 'normal' brain, the OFC has very tight control over the amygdala. Most of its 'job,' so to speak, is to keep the amygdala in check. However, in a person who experiences social anxiety, the connections between these two structures have been changed or twisted in some way. The amygdala has far more control than it normally would, allowing for feelings of panic and/or fear in situations where said feelings would not logically be occurring; in this case, those situations involve social interaction.
It is an interesting topic to think about. There are different degrees of social anxiety, so does that correlate to different amounts of change from 'normal' in the connections? What causes the difference in the connections in the first place? Is it just happenstance? That's the wonderful thing about science and research; there is always more to learn.