Elucidation of Brain Regions and Gaze Information That Visualize Self-Focused Attention and Other-Focused Attention in Social Anxiety

Abstract

Self-focused attention (SFA) and other-focused attention (OFA) are central maintenance factors of social anxiety, but few studies have investigated both simultaneously in social situations. In this review, we introduced our studies of Tomita et al. (2020) and Tomita & Kumano (2021), in which we aimed to measure both that could be compared by visualizing SFA and OFA from eye tracking and brain activity. These studies suggested that greater activities in the rFPA and the lSTG are useful objective measures of SFA and OFA during speech tasks in high social anxiety individuals, respectively. By real-time monitoring of brain activities in these regions during social situations, we could assess how changes in SFA and OFA occur in people with high social anxiety without asking for subjective SFA and OFA. In addition, these studies suggested that SFA and OFA are independent attentional processes based on specific brain activities.