Dopamine function in adolescent social anxiety: Insights from neuromelanin-sensitive MRI.

Margherita L Calderaro, Ronan M Cunningham, Megan Quarmley, Tessa Clarkson, Helen Schmidt, Clifford M Cassidy, Johanna M Jarcho

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Article in Journal of mood and anxiety disorders, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Social anxiety and the positive valence system: A scoping review.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026
Review

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Margherita L CalderaroDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Ronan M CunninghamDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Megan QuarmleyDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Tessa ClarksonDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Helen SchmidtDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Clifford M CassidyDepartment of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.

Johanna M JarchoDepartment of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

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.

Indexed as

AdolescenceNeuromelaninNeuromelanin-sensitive MRISocial anxietySubstantia nigra

Identifiers

PMID40657353

DOI10.1016/j.xjmad.2025.100124

PMCPMC12244091

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.