The neurobiology of social phobia has been examined using four research strategies employed to investigate the neurobiology of patients with other anxiety or mood disorders--chemical challenge paradigms, psychoneuroendocrine assessments, naturalistic challenges, and neuropharmacologic challenges. This article reviews the studies that used each of the research paradigms in patients with social phobia. The author describes these results in the context of the results of other anxiety disorder studies using these four strategies and discusses implications for future research.

A new study suggests that complement proteins, which tag bacteria and other bad guys for elimination, may have a surprising yet analogous function in the developing brain, tagging unwanted synapses for removal.