ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1581517
Altered Microstate C and D Dynamics in High Social Anxiety: A Resting-State EEG Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 2School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 3Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Social anxiety is characterized by altered neural processing patterns, yet its temporal brain dynamics remain poorly understood. This study employed EEG microstate analysis to investigate the millisecond-level neural mechanisms underlying social anxiety. Using eyes-closed resting-state EEG recordings, we examined differences in microstate temporal parameters and transition probabilities between individuals with high and low social anxiety traits. Results revealed that the high social anxiety group showed significantly increased duration and coverage of microstate C, while exhibiting decreased duration and coverage of microstate D.Analysis of transition probabilities demonstrated significantly higher rates of transitions involving microstate C (A ↔ C, B ↔ C) and lower rates of transitions involving microstate D (A↔D) in the high social anxiety group. Further correlation analysis revealed that B → C transition probability was negatively correlated with social anxiety severity in the low social anxiety group. These findings reveal distinct temporal dynamics in social anxiety, particularly enhanced processing of personally significant information and self-referential internal mentation (microstate C) alongside reduced executive functioning (microstate D). These temporal dynamic patterns provide new insights into the neurophysiological characteristics of social anxiety, though the precise relationship between these EEG patterns and specific cognitive processes requires further investigation.
Keywords: social anxiety, EEG microstates, Resting-state EEG, Microstate C, Microstate D
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Peng, Liu, Xi and Lei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yi Lei, Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610101, Sichuan Province, China
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