A study was conducted to assess whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) could predict the after-effects of cognitive behavioral therapy in patients with social anxiety disorder better than clinical measures or self-reports on their own. In this study, patients with social anxiety disorder had an fMRI while looking at images of scenes or faces that evoked either negative or neutral emotional reactions. Then, the researchers compared brain activations in response to these images. The types of images in the study were an image of an angry face to evoke a negative reaction, an image of a neutral face to evoke a neutral reaction, an image of a neutral scene that evokes a neutral reaction, an image of a negative scene to evoke a negative reaction, and an image of a more severely negative scene that evoke a strong negative reaction. This allows the researchers to find out which brain regions have the most activation as a reaction for these images, thus, allowing them to find out the patient variance and better predict their response to therapy. Images of faces were used in this study because of the social nature of social anxiety disorder and the researchers expected that images of angry faces would be the best way to evoke activation in brain regions that are affected by social anxiety disorder since these images suggest disapproval and induce an anxious response.