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Abstract #3598

Alterations in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Social Anxiety Disorder

Sheeba Arnold Anteraper1, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli2, Alice Sawyer3, John Gabrieli2, Christina Triantafyllou4

1A.A. Martinos Imaging Center at McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; 2Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; 3Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States; 4A.A. MArtinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States


Cerebellar role in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) remains yet to be explored using resting state functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI). Here, we are investigating additional neuronal pathways in a patient population with SAD. Compared to healthy controls, we report hyper-connectivity in left amygdala in the medication nave patient group. Furthermore, significantly stronger temporal correlations revealed between cerebellar seeds and amygdala in the patient group, underscore the involvement of cerebellum in SAD, which could subsequently serve as guidelines for treatment.