TY - JOUR
T1 - Increased default mode network activation in depressed and socially anxious participants during upward social comparison
AU - Acuña, A
AU - Morales, S
AU - Uriarte-Gaspari, L
AU - Brandani, A
AU - Pèrez, A
AU - Cuña, E
AU - Waiter, Gordon D.
AU - Steele, Douglas
AU - Cabana, Á
AU - Garcia-Fontes, M
AU - Gradin, V. B.
AU - Armony, J
PY - 2025/1/26
Y1 - 2025/1/26
N2 - Social comparison is at the core of human social life. All the time we make judgments about how we are in relation to others. Theories posit that social comparison plays a critical role in depression and social anxiety triggering negative evaluations about the self and feelings of not being as good as others. We investigated the neural basis of social comparison in participants with depression and/or social anxiety (MD-SA, n=56) and healthy controls (n=47) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri). While being scanned participants performed a social comparison task where they received feedback about their performance and the performance of a co-player in answering general knowledge questions. Upward social comparison (being worse than the co-player) elicited high levels of negative emotions (shame, guilt, nervousness) across participants, with this effect being enhanced in the MD-SA group. Crucially, during upward comparison the MD-AS group showed greater activation than the control group in regions of the Default Mode Network (DMN). Specifically, for upward comparison MD-SA participants showed increased activation in the dmPFC and reduced deactivation in the posteromedial cortex. These regions have been linked to selfreferential processing, inferences about other people’s thoughts, memory and rumination. Findings suggest that people with depression and social anxiety react to upward comparison with a more negative emotional response, which could be linked to an enhanced introspective thinking style characterized by self-focusing and rumination mediated by the DMN.
AB - Social comparison is at the core of human social life. All the time we make judgments about how we are in relation to others. Theories posit that social comparison plays a critical role in depression and social anxiety triggering negative evaluations about the self and feelings of not being as good as others. We investigated the neural basis of social comparison in participants with depression and/or social anxiety (MD-SA, n=56) and healthy controls (n=47) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri). While being scanned participants performed a social comparison task where they received feedback about their performance and the performance of a co-player in answering general knowledge questions. Upward social comparison (being worse than the co-player) elicited high levels of negative emotions (shame, guilt, nervousness) across participants, with this effect being enhanced in the MD-SA group. Crucially, during upward comparison the MD-AS group showed greater activation than the control group in regions of the Default Mode Network (DMN). Specifically, for upward comparison MD-SA participants showed increased activation in the dmPFC and reduced deactivation in the posteromedial cortex. These regions have been linked to selfreferential processing, inferences about other people’s thoughts, memory and rumination. Findings suggest that people with depression and social anxiety react to upward comparison with a more negative emotional response, which could be linked to an enhanced introspective thinking style characterized by self-focusing and rumination mediated by the DMN.
M3 - Article
SN - 1749-5016
JO - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
JF - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
ER -
