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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDTranslational psychiatry

Autism with social anxiety is associated with acquiescent behaviors and enlarged amygdala volume.

  • Yu Hao1,2,3,4,5,6
  • Sarah M Banker7
  • Matthew Schafer8
  • Ember Zhang9
  • Sarah Barkley10
  • Jadyn Trayvick10
  • Arabella W Peters11
  • Abigaël A Thinakaran12
  • Christopher McLaughlin13
  • Xiaosi Gu14
  • Jennifer H Foss-Feig15,16,17
  • Daniela Schiller18,19,20,21
21 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. [email protected].
  2. 2Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  3. 3Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  4. 4Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  5. 5Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  6. 6Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  7. 7Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
  8. 8School of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
  9. 9School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
  10. 10Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
  11. 11Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA.
  12. 12Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Cook County, IL, USA.
  13. 13Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
  14. 14Psychiatry and Biomedical Informatics & Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
  15. 15Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  16. 16Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  17. 17Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  18. 18Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  19. 19Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  20. 20Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
  21. 21Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
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Abstract

Social anxiety (SA) frequently co-occurs with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but it remains unclear whether SA in ASD reflects greater symptom severity or a distinct subtype. Across two complementary studies, we characterized the behavioral and neural correlates of SA in ASD using a naturalistic social navigation task measuring affiliative and power-related behaviors. In Study 1 (ASD = 575; controls = 357), autistic individuals with SA exhibited significantly reduced task-derived power behaviors (e.g., compliance with others' requests) compared to those without SA-a pattern not observed in non-autistic individuals. In Study 2 (ASD = 72; controls = 72), individuals with both ASD and SA showed enlarged amygdala volumes relative to both ASD without SA and non-autistic individuals. These behavioral and neural differences found in Study 1 and Study 2 were not observed in ASD with co-occurring depression or generalized anxiety disorder. Moreover, in Study 2, larger amygdala volume in the ASD group was associated with reduced task-derived power behaviors, indicating a neural signature linking social-behavioral differences and anxiety-related features. Together, these findings point to a distinct ASD phenotype marked by social anxiety, altered interpersonal dynamics, and amygdala enlargement, with implications for diagnosis and tailored intervention.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{hao2026autism,
  title = {{Autism with social anxiety is associated with acquiescent behaviors and enlarged amygdala volume.}},
  author = {Yu Hao and Sarah M Banker and Matthew Schafer and Ember Zhang and Sarah Barkley and Jadyn Trayvick and Arabella W Peters and Abigaël A Thinakaran and Christopher McLaughlin and Xiaosi Gu and Jennifer H Foss-Feig and Daniela Schiller},
  journal = {Translational psychiatry},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1038/s41398-026-04179-z},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907464},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Autism with social anxiety is associated with acquiescent behaviors and enlarged amygdala volume.
AU  - Yu Hao
AU  - Sarah M Banker
AU  - Matthew Schafer
AU  - Ember Zhang
AU  - Sarah Barkley
AU  - Jadyn Trayvick
AU  - Arabella W Peters
AU  - Abigaël A Thinakaran
AU  - Christopher McLaughlin
AU  - Xiaosi Gu
AU  - Jennifer H Foss-Feig
AU  - Daniela Schiller
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/01
JO  - Translational psychiatry
DO  - 10.1038/s41398-026-04179-z
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907464
AB  - Social anxiety (SA) frequently co-occurs with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but it remains unclear whether SA in ASD reflects greater symptom severity or a distinct subtype. Across two complementary studies, we characterized the behavioral and neural correlates of SA in ASD using a naturalistic social navigation task measuring affiliative and power-related behaviors. In Study 1 (ASD = 575; controls = 357), autistic individuals with SA exhibited significantly reduced task-derived power behaviors (e.g., compliance with others' requests) compared to those without SA-a pattern not observed in non-autistic individuals. In Study 2 (ASD = 72; controls = 72), individuals with both ASD and SA showed enlarged amygdala volumes relative to both ASD without SA and non-autistic individuals. These behavioral and neural differences found in Study 1 and Study 2 were not observed in ASD with co-occurring depression or generalized anxiety disorder. Moreover, in Study 2, larger amygdala volume in the ASD group was associated with reduced task-derived power behaviors, indicating a neural signature linking social-behavioral differences and anxiety-related features. Together, these findings point to a distinct ASD phenotype marked by social anxiety, altered interpersonal dynamics, and amygdala enlargement, with implications for diagnosis and tailored intervention.
SN  - 2158-3188
ER  -