Social anxiety is a common problem that usually emerges at puberty, during which great developmental changes occur both in the brain and mental state. However, little is known about the influence of social anxiety on adolescents’ brain and behavior. The present study investigated the neural basis of social anxiety using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and functional connectivity analysis. Then we investigated whether social anxiety is associated with attention bias. Furthermore, we investigated the neural basis of this association. Finally, longitudinal data was used to test if these biomarkers could predict social anxiety. The results indicated that social anxiety is positively associated with the grey matter volume (GMV) of orbital-frontal cortex (OFC), and the functional connectivity (FC) of OFC-amygdala. Mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between social anxiety and attention avoidance is partly mediated by the FC of OFC-amygdala. Finally, the present study demonstrated a close relationship between FC of the OFC-amygdala, the GMV of the OFC and the individual’s social anxiety one year later. The present study suggested the aberrant structure of OFC and its connectivity with amygdala as the neural underpinning of social anxiety, which might serve as a compensatory mechanism to decrease attention avoidance and promote effective emotion regulation.

社交焦虑症是一个常见问题，通常会在青春期出现，在此期间，大脑和精神状态都会发生巨大的发展变化。然而，关于社交焦虑对青少年大脑和行为的影响知之甚少。本研究使用基于体素的形态计量学（VBM）和功能连接性分析研究了社交焦虑的神经基础。然后，我们调查了社交焦虑是否与注意力偏差有关。此外，我们研究了这种关联的神经基础。最后，使用纵向数据来测试这些生物标记物是否可以预测社交焦虑。结果表明，社交焦虑与眼眶额皮质（OFC）的灰质体积（GMV）和OFC-杏仁核的功能连通性（FC）呈正相关。调解分析显示，社交焦虑与回避注意力之间的关系部分由OFC-杏仁核的FC介导。最后，本研究证明一年后OFC-杏仁核的FC，OFC的GMV和个人的社交焦虑之间存在密切的关系。本研究表明，OFC的异常结构及其与杏仁核的连通性是社交焦虑的神经基础，这可能是减少注意力回避和促进有效情绪调节的补偿机制。