J Mood Anxiety Disord. 2025 Apr 23;11:100124. doi: 10.1016/j.xjmad.2025.100124. eCollection 2025 Sep.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Social anxiety typically onsets in adolescence as salience of peer feedback increases. While dopamine system function has been linked to social anxiety, such mechanisms are rarely tested in youth due to the invasiveness of traditional methods. Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI), a non-invasive proxy measure of central dopamine system function in the substantia nigra (SN), offers a novel approach.
METHODS: Adolescents (N = 43; M = 12.40 ± 1.45 years) with varying levels of social anxiety underwent NM-MRI. Relations between NM signal intensity in SN and symptom severity were assessed. Effect specificity was tested with generalized anxiety symptoms.
RESULTS: Higher NM signal intensity was associated with more severe symptoms of social (p = .03) but not generalized anxiety (p = .93).
DISCUSSION: These preliminary results suggest specificity for neural mechanisms associated with adolescent social and generalized anxiety and provide a new avenue for testing symptom etiology and developing targeted treatment.
PMID:40657353 | PMC:PMC12244091 | DOI:10.1016/j.xjmad.2025.100124
