25.2 SOCIAL BUFFERING OF CONDITIONED AND INNATE FEAR RESPONSES

Objectives: The social modulation of fear and anxiety represents a highly conserved trait. Humans and rodents display decreases in fear, anxiety, and stress responses when a conspecific is present. The neural basis of this is not well understood. Methods: To identify neural populations that may contribute to social buffering of fear responses, we used a mouse line in which Arc-expressing neurons are indelibly labeled after interaction with a novel conspecific. Results: We identified cells within the infralimbic prefrontal cortex (ILPFC) of male and female mice that are labeled in response to interaction with a novel, ovariectomized female but not in response to a novel object or a food reward. Optogenetic reactivation of conspecific-labeled ChR2-eYFP+ neurons decreases freezing in contextual and innate fearful contexts. Conclusions: These studies suggest that activation of neurons associated with social interaction in the ILPFC may be sufficient to mediate the effects of conspecific presence on fear responses and present novel opportunities for new therapeutic targets. 1 predicted lower social anxiety approximately 6 months later at time 2 (b = -0.94; P < 0.05). Social anxiety did not predict friendship quality. Conclusions: Although the results support the view that social anxiety and friendship quality have an important causal relationship, the results run contrary to the assumption that high social anxiety causes poor friendship quality. Currently, specific relationship quality components are lacking from treatment models of social anxiety disorder. These results suggest fruitful areas for improvement in clinical interventions to increase relationship quality and social involvement among individuals with social anxiety. It is likely that interventions to assist socially anxious individuals in challenging negative perceptions of their friendships and increasing their social involvement will alleviate negative effects of social anxiety and comorbid psychopathology.