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The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain
Abstract
Experiences of social rejection, exclusion or loss are generally considered to be some of the most 'painful' experiences that we endure. Indeed, many of us go to great lengths to avoid situations that may engender these experiences (such as public speaking). Why is it that these negative social experiences have such a profound effect on our emotional well-being? Emerging evidence suggests that experiences of social pain--the painful feelings associated with social disconnection--rely on some of the same neurobiological substrates that underlie experiences of physical pain. Understanding the ways in which physical and social pain overlap may provide new insights into the surprising relationship between these two types of experiences.
... Research demonstrates that social exclusion and friendship loss can lead to physical pain. Experimental studies have shown that experiencing social exclusion (Eisenberger, 2012;Papini, Fuchs, & Torres, 2015), witnessing social exclusion (Novembre, Zanon, & Silani, 2015), and friendship loss (Macdonald & Leary, 2005;Mee et al., 2006;Zhang et al., 2019) all increase the likelihood of physical pain. This forms a vicious cycle: persistent physical pain can alter social networks, as individuals living with pain often grow dissatisfied with the support their friends can provide, leading them to drift apart (Yang et al., 2022;Zhang, 2024). ...
... Researchers have proposed that the stressor of losing a close social network member may activate the same neural pathways as physical pain (Bernardes et al., 2023;Coan & Sbarra, 2015;Weir, 2012;Macdonald & Leary, 2005), increasing the likelihood of reporting higher levels of chronic pain (Mee et al., 2006;Papini et al., 2015;Zhang et al., 2019). In other words, social factorssuch as friendship losscan drastically impact an individual's experience of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012;Moore, 2019). However, the stability of these neural activations remains uncertain. ...
... This will be a fruitful new area of research, as each mechanism may imply distinct pathways linking friendship loss to persistent physical pain. For example, if friendship loss predominantly reflects the death of a friend, the hypothesized pathways might emphasize grief and bereavement processes, which prior research suggests can activate neural pain pathways similar to those of physical injury (Coan & Sbarra, 2015;Eisenberger, 2012). In contrast, friendship dissolution through conflict, or deliberate distancing might entail ongoing interpersonal stress, feelings of rejection, lowered self-worth, or chronic social tension. ...
While research demonstrates that social network characteristics influence the experience of persistent physical pain, existing studies primarily focus on psychological aspects and are often confined to laboratory settings. This leaves critical gaps in understanding how these dynamics unfold in real-world contexts. One such gap involves the role of discretionary time availability, a key determinant of wellbeing. This is particularly important because friendship loss has temporal dimensions, as individuals must reallocate the time once shared with friends. Using data from the Canadian Time for Health Survey, this study adopts a three-stage analytical approach. First, bivariate analyses explore the distribution of self-reported pain by socioeconomic status (SES) and friendship loss. Next, binary logistic regressions examine the relationship between friendship loss and self-reported pain, accounting for time availability and relevant sociodemographic control variables. Finally, propensity score weighting and robustness tests evaluate whether otherwise similar individuals — differing only in their experience of friendship loss — report distinct levels of persistent physical pain. This research illustrates that: (i) friendship loss is a significant predictor of persistent physical pain; (ii) respondent sociodemographic characteristics shape the experience; (iii) both time excess and time poverty increase the expected risk of pain, suggesting the presence of Temporal Goldilocks Zones. In short, physical pain is concurrently a sociotemporal phenomenon, transcending individual characteristics.
... Prior research has highlighted that ostracism can be an exceptionally distressing encounter; the emotional pain arising from seclusion has been equated to physical pain (Riva et al., 2011;Eisenberger, 2012). Moreover, these experiences of ostracism are not only highly distressing, but under specific circumstances, they can have an even more harmful impact compared to other negative workplace behaviors such as harassment and aggression (Williams & Zadro, 2001; O'Reilly et al., 2014). ...
... Research underscores the significance of workplace ostracism, emphasizing its impact as more pronounced than cases of bullying and harassment (Robinson et al., 2013). Research indicates that experiencing ostracism or neglect can trigger a distinct type of distress like physical discomfort (Eisenberger, 2012;Riva et al., 2011, Ng, 2017. Ostracism can manifest in various ways, such as, ignoring or avoiding an individual, exclusion from discussions and decision-making, information withholding, social isolation and discrediting or belittling the person's contributions. ...
Workplace ostracism is increasingly recognized as a significant social phenomenon that can have a detrimental impact on individuals. A growing body of literature by scholars worldwide highlights its widespread prevalence and impact across organizational settings. Considering the contribution of various scholars in the area of ostracism, a comprehensive review is attempted here. Towards this, the present study aims to achieve three main objectives. Firstly, it seeks to consolidate and analyze existing research, examining various definitions of workplace ostracism and based on this, proposing an all-encompassing definition of workplace ostracism. Secondly, it assesses how current theories are applied to investigate workplace ostracism. Lastly, it outlines the limitations of this study and suggests potential avenues for future research on ostracism within organizational settings, pinpointing the most robust and frequently examined connections related to workplace ostracism. Additionally, this study explores various forms of negative workplace behaviors and draws comparisons with workplace ostracism.
... However, researchers have investigated whether they share biological features with physical pain. 2,3,[16][17][18][19] Conducting research on the biology of non-physical pain raises many challenges, such as conceptualising a subjective experience for the purpose of experimental research, developing models of non-physical pain in humansand non-humansand the question of how to measure this pain. 1,20,21 A critical challenge lies in how to effectively operationalise this deeply subjective human experience for biological research, a process crucial for translating findings into clinical practice. ...
... We therefore decided to expand the keywords by asking experts in cognitive neuroscience, who recommended that we add 'social pain' and 'social distress' because they are considered as non-physical pain in this field. 2,37 We also included 'emotional pain', which was formalised in psychological science by Bolger and has been used as a synonym of non-physical pain in various works. [38][39][40][41] Also, we included 'spiritual pain' and 'soul pain', coined by Saunders as one of the dimensions of total pain. ...
Background
Researchers explore the biology of painful experiences not primarily felt in the body (‘non-physical pain’), sometimes referred to as mental, social or emotional pain. A critical challenge lies in how to operationalise this subjective experience for biological research, a crucial process for translating findings into clinical practice.
Aims
To map studies investigating biological features of non-physical pain, focusing on their conceptual features (i.e. terms and definitions of non-physical pain) and methodological characteristics (e.g. experimental paradigms and measures).
Method
This methodological systematic review searched reports of primary research on the biological features of non-physical pain across Embase, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Using a meta-research approach, we synthetised results on terms, definitions, populations, experimental paradigms, confounders, measures of non-physical pain and investigation methods (e.g. functional magnetic resonance imaging).
Results
We identified 92 human studies, involving 7778 participants. Overall, 59.1% of the studies did not report any definition of non-physical pain, and 82% of studies did not use a specific measure. Regarding the possibility of translating results to clinical settings, most of the human studies involved only healthy participants (71.7%) and the seven different experimental paradigms used to induce non-physical pain had unknown external validity. Confounders were not considered by 32.4% of the experimental studies. Animal studies were rare, with only four rodent studies.
Conclusions
Biomedical studies of non-physical pain use heterogeneous concepts with unclear overlaps and methods with unknown external validity. As has been done for physical pain, priority actions include establishing an agreed definition and measurement of non-physical pain and developing experimental paradigms with good external validity.
... Social exclusion is painful [25,46,51,69,70,166,175,258] and lowers people's sense of belonging and acceptance at work [175]. It has negative impacts on employees' psychological health (e.g., well-being, depression, anxiety, emotional exhaustion), perception (e.g., job satisfaction, self-perception, voice, justice), and behavior (e.g., performance, organization citizenship behavior, deviance, absenteeism, turnover) [37,105,145]. ...
... In addition, our studies underline the relevance of team dynamics [5,34,42,48,71,91,108,142,156,157,173,181,210,233] also in human-agent teams [2,49,66,96,111,120,144,172,196,226] and with respect to social exclusion [38,60,141,199,231,241]. Social exclusion is a deeply distressing [202] and painful experience [25,46,51,69,70,166,175,258] that is associated with a series of negative effects on employees' psychological health (e.g., well-being, depression, anxiety, emotional exhaustion), perception (e.g., job satisfaction, self-perception, voice, justice), and behavior (e.g., performance, organization citizenship behavior, deviance, absenteeism, turnover) [37,105,145]. Our findings demonstrate that excluding behavior from humans is more need threatening than excluding behavior from robots. ...
Nowadays, we can observe more and more work situations where humans and robots work together (e.g., in manufacturing, care, or gastronomy). Consequently, the question arises if work still satisfies fundamental social needs (e.g., belonging, self-esteem, meaningful existence) or if human-robot teams make people feel excluded with severe consequences for individuals and organizations. Buildingon the temporal need-threat model, we examined restaurant employees’ reactions to social inclusion and exclusion from human or robot coworkers in two pre-registered studies (N 1 = 74; N 2 = 256). Our findings demonstrate that social inclusion from human or robot coworkers leads to higher need fulfillment, while social exclusion (ostracism and rejection) from human or robot coworkers triggers need-threat (i.e., low need fulfillment). However, the effect was more pronounced when being included or excluded by human coworkers, possibly due to more internal and uncontrollable attributions. Participants assumed interpersonal like/dislike when included/excluded by human coworkers, whereas they blamed the robots’ programming for being included or excluded by robot coworkers. Ignored participants show more organizational citizenship behavior (e.g., relieving a coworker’s workload) and less counterproductive behavior (e.g., insultinga coworker) towards their human coworkers but not towards their robot coworkers. Both studies showed that people do not mindlessly interpret robot behavior as like social behavior by humans and, therefore, demonstrate a case where the “Computers Are Social Actors” paradigm is not supported. Consequently, social dynamics within human team members should be prioritized in human-robot teams to maintain a healthy work environment.
... Individuals describe negative experiences arising from social injury as "painful" and "hurting". Evidence from animal and human brain imaging studies gave support to the notion that social rejection hurts, and that this reference to "pain" is not simply metaphorical, but an expression of an overlap in neural and biological systems underlying physical and social pain [26][27][28] . Social pain can be assessed using either the cyberball experiment or self-report instruments. ...
... No financial rewards were offered. The autism-spectrum Quotient-28 (AQ- 28) The AQ-28 is a self-report measure that assesses ATs through a total of 28 items and the following five factors : Preference for routine (e.g., "New situations make me anxious"), Attention switching difficulties (e.g., "I find it easy to do more than one thing at once"), Difficulties with imagination (e.g., "I find it difficult to work out people's intentions"), Difficulties with social skills (e.g., "I find it hard to make new friends") and Fascination for numbers/patterns (e.g., "I notice patterns in things all the time") 77 . Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale, with "Definitely agree"/"Slightly agree" scoring 1 and "Definitely disagree"/"Slightly disagree" scoring 0. Fifteen items are reverse scored. ...
Understanding of the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of psychotic experiences (PEs) in highly autistic individuals is crucial for identifying appropriate prevention and intervention strategies. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of susceptibility to social pain and loneliness in the relationship between autistic traits (ATs) and PEs in adults from the general population of 12 Arab countries. This cross-sectional study is part of a large-scale multi-country research project. A total of 7646 young adults (age range 18–35 years, mean age of 22.55 ± 4.00 years and 75.5% females) from twelve Arab countries (i.e., Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, and Tunisia) were included. Mediation analyses showed that, after adjusting over confounding variables, both loneliness (indirect effect: Beta = 0.18; Boot SE = 0.02; Boot CI 0.14; 0.21) and social pain (indirect effect: Beta = 0.03; Boot SE = 0.01; Boot CI 0.001; 0.05) partially mediated the association between ATs and PEs. Higher ATs were significantly associated with more loneliness and susceptibility to social pain, and directly associated with more severe PEs. Finally, higher loneliness and susceptibility to social pain were significantly associated with greater PEs scores. Findings indicated that individuals with higher ATs tend to experience greater loneliness and feel more pain from rejection, which can in turn be associated with higher levels of PEs. Interventions targeting susceptibility to social pain and loneliness as a means of mitigating PEs among highly autistic adults should be considered.
... Ostracism is a painful experience that threatens an individual's self-concept and leads to depression and suicidal behaviors [2,3]. Suicide risk represents a major public health issue, with 700,000 people dying by suicide annually, according to the World Health Organization, making it the fourth leading cause of death among individuals aged [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. This statistic underscores the importance of addressing risk factors associated with suicidal behaviors, such as social exclusion. ...
... Compared with PRT, ACT resulted in a reduction in the NTS total score in patients with a history of suicide attempt in the past year, independent of the improvement in depressive symptomatology. The Cyberball game elicits painful feelings due to social exclusion (i.e., social pain), which shares features with physical pain [27]. Our finding is particularly compelling because it underscores the capacity of ACT to address social perceptions, in addition to its effect on depressive symptoms. ...
Introduction
Ostracism increases the risk of depression and suicidal behaviors. Mindfulness training, which is at the core of third-wave behavioral therapies such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), might reduce social distress and inhibit negative affect.
Methods
This randomized controlled trial included 32 patients with a history of suicide attempt in the past year who followed seven weekly sessions of ACT or progressive relaxation therapy (PRT). To assess and compare the effects of ACT and PRT on social distress, patients performed a validated paradigm of social exclusion (the Cyberball Game) followed by completion of the Need Threat Scale (NTS) at inclusion (baseline) and within two weeks after the intervention ended (posttherapy).
Results
The included patients were mainly women (N = 28; 87.5%), and their mean age was 40 years (SD: 12 years). Twenty-six patients (81%) experienced current depression. The postintervention NTS score was greater (lower social distress) in the ACT group than in the PRT group (group × time interaction; β = 0.47, p < 0.05), even after controlling for depressive symptoms (β = 0.27, p < 0.05). The NTS score change (between baseline and posttherapy) was correlated with changes in dispositional mindfulness (r = 0.46, p = 0.03), cognitive fusion (r = − 0.61, p < 10–3) and acceptance (r = 0.57, p < 10–2).
Conclusion
ACT decreased social pain independently of its effect on depression. Reduced social pain was correlated with improved therapeutic processes and decreased suicidal ideation, highlighting the therapeutic potential of ACT for managing ostracism and suicide risk.
... This suggested that the process of emotional regulation is not solely executed by a single brain region independently but requires the coordinated action of multiple brain regions. As part of the neural circuitry regulating social emotions, the inferior frontal gyrus is activated under social pressure [58], reflecting social emotional processing [59]. The inferior frontal gyrus is involved in regulating social emotions during the willingness-to-pay selection process [58], where purchasing green products may induce feelings of social pressure and expectations, and the inferior frontal gyrus participates in regulating this social pressure. ...
... As part of the neural circuitry regulating social emotions, the inferior frontal gyrus is activated under social pressure [58], reflecting social emotional processing [59]. The inferior frontal gyrus is involved in regulating social emotions during the willingness-to-pay selection process [58], where purchasing green products may induce feelings of social pressure and expectations, and the inferior frontal gyrus participates in regulating this social pressure. Awe emotions are believed to reduce the importance of personal interests and mitigate conflicts between social and personal interests [19]. ...
The development of the construction industry has generated a large amount of construction waste, and resource utilization of construction waste is an effective means of recycling. However, such recycled construction waste products still lack market competitiveness and recognition. Consumers’ psychological activities are often influenced by emotions, and the sense of awe plays an important role in green consumption. This study aims to investigate how the sense of awe affects consumers’ willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products. The study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a willingness-to-pay task paradigm for experiments, which aims to reveal how different types of awe affect willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products. The behavioral results showed that two conditions effectively induced awe and enhanced consumers’ willingness to pay, but the difference between nature awe and social awe was not significant. The neural activation results showed significant activation in the inferior prefrontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In particular, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity was significantly enhanced in the social awe condition. The functional connectivity results showed that, compared to the control condition experiment, the awe condition experiment triggered stronger functional connectivity. Therefore, exploring the effect of awe on the willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products can provide a basis reference for companies to develop marketing strategies and corporate pricing and promote the promotion and application of construction waste recycled products in the market.
... In line with this, chronically rejected adolescents show increased neural activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during ostracism (e.g., , an area that is also activated during other experiences that threaten belonging (e.g., Eisenberger, 2012;Eisenberger et al., 2003), indicating more threat perception. ...
... Ostracism may be a specific, yet more subtle, form of discrimination against sexual minorities (e.g., DeSouza et al., 2017). Even though targets of ostracism are not physically harmed, ostracism causes the affected individuals a tremendous amount of psychological pain that is neurologically similar to experiencing physical pain (e.g., Eisenberger, 2012;Eisenberger et al., 2003). As a consequence, ostracism bears immense individual and societal costs such as lowering well-being, reducing productivity, and increasing burnout, mental illness, and suicidality (e.g., Chen et al., 2020;Qian et al., 2019;Rudert et al., 2021). ...
This thesis leverages experience sampling as an innovative approach to investigate real-life experiences of ostracism (i.e., being ignored and excluded), filling gaps left by traditional survey and experimental approaches. In three projects, I explore the frequency, behavioral responses, risk factors, and perceived reasons for everyday ostracism. First, I discuss how Büttner, Ren et al. (2024) use event-contingent and time-contingent experience sampling to quantify ostracism frequency in daily life. Further, this project investigates the behaviors that follow ostracism. Büttner, Ren et al. (2024) propose and find support for a framework
suggesting that the severity of need threat after ostracism influences whether individuals approach, avoid, or behave antisocially towards others. In the second project, Büttner, Rudert, & Kachel (2024) identify sexual minorities as a group that is particularly at risk for experiencing frequent ostracism. A complementing experiment reveals that the reason why sexual minorities frequently face ostracism is their deviation from gender-role expectations. Finally, Büttner & Greifeneder (2024) investigate how depression critically shapes targets’ frequency, experience, and attribution of ostracism. Depressed individuals not only experience more frequent everyday ostracism and exhibit heightened need threat responses; their depression also leads to maladaptive attributions of ostracism. Together, the three presented projects underscore the value of experience sampling in providing nuanced insights into the psychological impact of real-life ostracism. Traditional survey and experimental approaches alone are insufficient to capture the dynamics and the pervasive, immediate impact of ostracism in everyday life, but experience sampling bridges this gap. The presented projects not only deepen the empirical understanding of ostracism but also set a precedent for future research and practical applications to mitigate the effects of ostracism through targeted interventions.
... Additionally, neuroscience research has shown that social exclusion can trigger emotional pain responses (Eisenberger, 2012), which may serve as a psychological mechanism underlying the link between family ostracism and work-related outcomes like alienation. Although we did not measure emotional pain in this study, future research could incorporate this construct to better understand individual variability in emotional responses to family-based exclusion. ...
Research on the workplace implications of leader family ostracism (LFO) remains limited. Drawing on the work–home resources (W‐HR) model and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we develop and test a model explaining how LFO depletes personal resources and shapes both leader and employee outcomes in service settings. In Study 1, an experimental design with hotel managers revealed that leaders experiencing family ostracism reported greater work alienation and engaged in more laissez‐faire leadership. Study 2, a multi‐wave, multisource field study in the service sector, replicated these findings and extended the model by showing that LFO indirectly undermines frontline employees' customer stewardship behaviour via work alienation and laissez‐faire leadership. Moreover, the leader's political skill buffered the negative effects, weakening both the direct and indirect paths. These findings highlight the cross‐domain spillover of family‐based exclusion into workplace dynamics, emphasizing the critical role of personal resources and leader capabilities in shaping service performance.
... lead to psychosocial consequences. In this context, social pain is defined as a specific emotional response to the perception of being excluded from desired relationships or devalued by desired relationship partners or groups [20][21][22]. ...
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder causing widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive issues, linked to central nervous system dysfunction. This cross-sectional study compared the psychological profiles of women with fibromyalgia (N = 76) and women with non-fibromyalgic chronic pain (N = 73). Using cluster analysis, scale score comparisons using MANCOVA, and correlation difference tests, we examined whether these conditions present distinct psychological profiles in terms of touch avoidance, anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms, self-criticism, pain acceptance, pain impact, and positive emotions. Cluster analysis successfully differentiated between FM and non-FM CP patients with 76% accuracy with and an adjusted Rand index of.26, suggesting distinct psychological profiles while acknowledging substantial overlap. FM patients reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, and psychotic symptoms, along with greater self-criticism and reduced activity engagement (p < .001 for all significant comparisons expect psychotic symptoms, p = .07, and opposite sex touch avoidance, p = .014). Both groups showed elevated touch avoidance, with no significant differences between them. Correlation analysis revealed that self-criticism played a more central role in FM patients’ psychological distress, showing stronger associations with depression, anxiety, and positive emotions compared to non-FM CP patients (Jennrich test for differences between the two correlation matrices: Χ² = 436.72, p < .001). These findings suggest that while FM and non-FM CP share common psychological features, FM patients experience more severe psychological distress, with self-criticism potentially playing a crucial maintaining role. Results suggest that psychological interventions for FM patients should prioritize reducing self-criticism and enhancing self-reassurance, while healthcare providers should be mindful of the significant psychological burden these patients carry.
... Social avoidance motivation, in contrast to social approach, is focused on moving away from socially punishing, undesirable, or threatening outcomes (e.g., rejection, betrayal, discord). In the brain, this system primarily involves the insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and amygdala (Vrtička and Vuilleumier, 2012;Eisenberger, 2012), regions implicated in threat detection, risk assessment, and conflict monitoring. Context-dependent modulation of dopaminergic and opioid signaling in these pathways is implicated in threat avoidance and pain regulation (Loseth et al., 2014). ...
Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are characterized by social impairments. Social impairment also occurs in the general community. Across clinical and nonclinical groups social impairment may be related to deficits in social approach and/or social avoidance motivation. However, the neural basis of social motivation deficits in SZ and BD is not well understood, nor is it known if they reflect features of the illness or are secondary to other factors such as social isolation. To fill these knowledge gaps, 31 individuals with SZ, 27 with BD, and 42 community comparisons (CCs) completed a team-based task during fMRI in which positive and negative feedback was provided by pictures of teammates or opponents. Importantly, the CC group was enriched for self-reported social isolation. fMRI analyses in five key regions of interest (ROIs; ventral striatum, orbital frontal cortex, insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala), secondary whole-brain analyses, and associations between ROI activity and social approach/avoidance motivation were performed. Across groups, ventral striatum and amygdala showed greater activation to positive versus negative feedback. In SZ, ventral striatum activity to positive feedback was correlated with social approach motivation. In CCs, amygdala activity during negative feedback was correlated with social avoidance motivation. Whole-brain analyses revealed greater activation in BD compared to SZ and CCs in fronto-parietal regions when feedback was provided by an opponent. Findings support disturbed reward sensitivity as a core component of poor social approach motivation in SZ and offer avenues for future research into neural mechanisms underlying social impairment in BD and the general community.
... The functional model also systematically integrates the understanding of how lifestyle and environment influence central and peripheral mechanisms of nociception [65]. Physical inactivity, exposure to environmental pollutants, sleep deprivation, and social isolation are not considered simple aggravating factors but primary determinants of the pathophysiology of chronic pain through their influence on redox balance, mitochondrial activity, and systemic inflammatory processes [66]. This expanded view of pain determinants offers new therapeutic opportunities, overcoming the limitations of conventional approaches mainly focused on analgesic drugs and psychological interventions. ...
... Despite the widespread use of the Cyberball paradigm in social neuroscience to investigate responses to ostracism, our findings using hypothetical Cyberball games cast doubt on its effectiveness in eliciting physiological responses of distress that are detectable through thermal infrared imaging. While the Cyberball paradigm facilitates comparisons across studies using measures such as skin conductance level (e.g., Kelly et al. 2012;Kouchaki and Wareham 2015;Sijtsema et al. 2011), fMRI (e.g., Eisenberger 2012Eisenberger , 2015aRotge et al. 2015), and heart rate deceleration (e.g., Gunther Moor et al. 2010), our study suggests the need for additional experimental methods to accurately assess distress-related temperature changes. By comparing temperature changes in different body regions, such as the nose versus extremities like the fingertips, researchers can evaluate whether changes are localized to specific areas typically associated with SNS activity. ...
Ostracism (feeling ignored and excluded) triggers psychophysiological responses associated with distress. We investigated different coping responses after ostracism and explored whether these were preceded by unique facial thermal signatures, reflecting autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Using thermal infrared imaging, we recorded facial cutaneous temperature variations in female participants (N = 95) experiencing inclusion and ostracism using hypothetical Cyberball games. Coping after ostracism was assessed during a hypothetical Allocation Game, where participants could do nothing (withdrawal), reduce (antisocial), or increase (prosocial) the hypothetical earnings of their ostracizer. Contrary to expectations, most participants chose to withdraw (52%), with fewer opting for antisocial responses (30%) or prosocial responses (18%) after ostracism. Results from linear mixed‐effects modeling revealed that substantial temperature variability occurred only in the nose region of the face. Both ostracism and inclusion showed a decrease in nasal temperature relative to baseline, but the average drop was greater during inclusion, suggesting stronger ANS activation during inclusion rather than ostracism. Crucially, exploratory findings showed that only participants who responded antisocially after ostracism exhibited steeper decreases in nasal temperature during ostracism compared to inclusion. This pattern suggests greater physiological reactivity among antisocial responders, particularly in contrast to those who chose to withdraw. Future research should integrate thermal imaging with other physiological measures and strengthen ostracism manipulations to understand the relationship between thermal responses and different coping behaviors.
... 3. L'exclusion sociale et le risque suicidaire L'exclusion sociale correspond au fait d'être seul ou isolé, et peut être soit réelle et explicite de la part d'un groupe ou d'un tiers, soit subjective et ressentie par le sujet. [85] Elle est responsable d'une souffrance provenant d'un besoin non satisfait d'appartenance, d'estime de soi, de sens donné à la vie, et de sentiment de contrôle. [86] Le sentiment d'isolement, qu'il soit perçu ou réel, apparaît fréquemment dans les discours d'individus suicidaires [39] et plus particulièrement chez les adolescents. ...
INTRODUCTION – La perte du lien social joue un rôle majeur dans les troubles psychiques des adolescents, en particulier dans la crise suicidaire, ce qui est soutenu par les travaux sur l’exclusion sociale et la théorie interpersonnelle du suicide. À l’adolescence, une situation fréquente d’exclusion et de perte du lien social est le harcèlement scolaire (un tiers des adolescents selon l’UNESCO) qui a des conséquences potentiellement graves.
OBJECTIFS – Cette étude vise à comparer le taux de récidive suicidaire entre les adolescents ayant subi du harcèlement scolaire et les adolescents non-harcelés et à mettre en évidence des facteurs de vulnérabilité spécifiques aux adolescents harcelés par leurs pairs.
MÉTHODE – Cette étude s’intègre dans une étude initiale menée sur une population pédiatrique hospitalisée pour une crise suicidaire en service de médecine pédiatrique des hôpitaux de Nice. Il s’agit d’une étude de cohorte prospective et longitudinale sur 12 mois comprenant des évaluations sociodémographiques, cliniques, dimensionnelles et diagnostiques.
RÉSULTATS – L’analyse descriptive des adolescents harcelés à l’inclusion a montré une association significative (p≤0.05) entre l’antécédent de harcèlement scolaire et l’antécédent d’abus dans l’enfance. L’analyse qualitative des discours des adolescents et de leur famille a également montré plusieurs caractéristiques psychologiques spécifiques aux adolescents harcelés tels que le vécu abandonnique, la faible estime de soi et la sensibilité au rejet. Bien que similaire à celui des adolescents non-harcelés, le taux de récidive des adolescents était élevé et semblait refléter le taux de récidive des adolescents avec antécédent d’abus. Enfin, un résultat non attendu dans l’analyse était la qualité du taux de suivi sur 12 mois qui était deux fois plus important chez les adolescents harcelés. DISCUSSION – L’association retrouvée entre harcèlement scolaire et abus dans l’enfance ainsi que le rôle constaté des facteurs interpersonnels offrent plusieurs pistes thérapeutiques et préventives du risque suicidaire, notamment celles qui sont basées sur le maintien du lien social et celles basées sur les relations interpersonnelles. Il serait intéressant d’explorer davantage cette association entre harcèlement scolaire et abus dans l’enfance dans la population générale afin de compléter les résultats de cette étude.
Mots-clés : adolescents, tentative de suicide, suicide, harcèlement, trauma, relations.
... Isolation and loneliness are strongly correlated with psychological and physical ill-health (Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2003;Rokach, 2016Rokach, , 2019. This is perhaps unsurprising knowing that negative social experiences, like rejection or exclusion, trigger responses in parts of the brain responsible for physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012;Kross et al. 2011). ...
... Higher levels of loneliness are frequently associated with later levels of depression [13,14] and acute or chronic pain [15]. It has been suggested that common brain mechanisms underlie both physical and social pain [16,17] as well as immunometabolic pathologies [18], thereby establishing a connection between loneliness and elevated levels of pain and depression [18,19]. It has been argued that patients with pain-related depression may be more likely to report somatic symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disturbances or physical pain rather than more cognitive symptoms such as persistent sadness, anhedonia, and feelings of worthlessness [20]. ...
Background/Objectives: Patients with rheumatic diseases often experience pain-related depressive symptoms, potentially exacerbated by feelings of loneliness and social isolation. This study explores the role of mentalizing, i.e., the understanding of inner mental states in oneself and others, as a protective factor in this context. Methods: In this secondary analysis, n = 76 patients completed the FESV depression scale, MZQ UCLA loneliness scale and pain severity items from the German Pain Questionnaire. Structural equation models and mediation analyses were employed to test different theoretical models. Results: The best model fit was found for Model 3, which described the association of loneliness with pain severity (β = 0.34, p = 0.004). The association was fully mediated by a sequential mediation of mentalizing and pain-related depression. Adding the mediators increased the overall explained variance of pain severity from 12% to 41% with an excellent model fit (CFI > 0.99; TLI > 0.99; RMSEA = 0.001). Conclusions: The study suggests that patients’ pain severity may be influenced by the interaction between loneliness, depressive symptoms and mentalizing abilities. The negative impact of pain-related depressive symptoms and loneliness on pain severity underscores the need for their targeted management in routine care for chronic pain patients. Improvement of mentalizing may be a resilience factor for these patients.
... Based on shortterm and long-term emotional outcomes and their impact on mental well-being or psychopathology, emotion regulation strategies can be classified as 'adaptive' (e.g., reappraisal, putting into perspective, refocus on the planning) and 'maladaptive' (e.g., rumination, self-blame, catastrophizing) (Aldao et al., 2010). Neuroimaging studies have shown that high rejection-sensitivity individuals exhibit reduced activation in prefrontal cortex regions involved in regulating distress from rejection (Kross et al., 2007;Onoda et al., 2009;Eisenberger, 2012;He et al., 2018) compared to low rejection-sensitivity individuals (Kross et al., 2007). They also report greater emotion regulation difficulties in general, using more maladaptive strategies and less adaptive strategies (Casini et al., 2022;Ramadas et al., 2024). ...
Rejection sensitivity is the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to rejection. It is increasingly recognized as a transdiagnostic mechanism involved in many interpersonal outcomes and mental health issues. The present study aimed to validate a French adaptation of the Adult Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (A-RSQ) and assess its psychometric properties and factor structure in a sample of 584 adults. Participants completed the A-RSQ, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for depression and anxiety symptoms, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) for emotion regulation difficulties, and 53 completed a follow-up survey on the A-RSQ two weeks later. Item distribution analysis results indicated that all 18 items were appropriate. Exploratory factor analysis identified two underlying components: rejection concern and rejection expectancy, which both demonstrated good test-retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the two-factor and bifactor models as the best fits for the data. However, the general factor exhibited insufficient reliability and accounted for an inadequate portion of the total and common variance to justify interpreting the A-RSQ as purely unidimensional. Both rejection concern and expectancy were associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, as indicated by partial correlations. These results and their implications were discussed regarding the original scale development, subsequent adaptation procedures, and the complex nature of rejection sensitivity. Further research is needed to understand the intricate relationship between A-RSQ factors and investigate the distinct and cumulative effects of rejection sensitivity components on mental health outcomes.
... Social exclusion can have many negative effects on an individual's life. Eisenberger found that individuals who suffer from social exclusion feel negative emotions such as psychological irritability, feelings of hurt, and social pain [4] . McGraw went further and stated that social exclusion can lead to symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness, which directly affect an individual's psychological well-being [5] . ...
Objective This study employs experimental methods to investigate the boundary conditions of the influence of social exclusion on social communication willingness. Methods Adopting the 2 (exclusion condition: exclusion group、inclusion group) × 2(gender: males、females) × 2 (social interaction object: exclusion perpetrator, non-exclusion perpetrator) mixed experimental design. Exclusion condition and gender were the between-subjects variables, social interaction object was the within-subjects variable, and the dependent variable was the subject's score on the Interpersonal Communication Tendency Scale. Results (1) There was a significant interaction between exclusion condition and social interaction object, the simple effects analysis showed that: in the exclusion condition, individuals were significantly more social communication willingness for non-exclusion perpetrator than for exclusion perpetrator; in the inclusion condition, individuals did not differ in their social communication willingness for exclusion perpetrator and non-exclusion perpetrator. (2) In terms of social communication intention to exclusion perpetrator, the exclusion group were significantly lower than the inclusion group, whether female or male. However, in terms of social communication intention to non-exclusion perpetrator, the exclusion group were significantly lower than the inclusion group among males, while there was no significant difference among females. Conclusion The effect of social exclusion on social communication intention is influenced by social interaction object and gender differences.
... In fact, brain imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that perceived rejection and other forms of long-term emotional trauma are often linked to changes in brain chemistry, which can ultimately impair the central nervous system and hinder the psychosocial development of children [42]. When individuals experience feelings of rejection, the brain's anterior cingulate cortex and right prefrontal cortex are activated [43,44]. In addition, Luby et al. reported that early maternal experiences were strong predictors of greater hippocampal volume in the same children during their school years [45]. ...
Family emotional expression is considered one of the key contributors to children’s development and functions as a precondition that is linked with educational equality in the preschool living environment for young children, especially those who live in rural areas. This study explored the family emotional expression of parents who were once left-behind children and its influence on their children’s social–emotional competence (SEC) in less developed areas of western China. A total of 522 families and their children (Mage = 31.86 months, SDage = 5.66; 280 boys, 242 girls) from three rural counties in western China participated in this study. The parents completed the family emotional expression questionnaire, parent impulsivity questionnaire, parent acceptance–rejection questionnaire, and parenting stress scale. Their children took part in the Bayley-III assessment of social–emotional ability. The results indicated that (1) positive family emotional expression enhances children’s social–emotional competence (SEC), whereas negative family emotional expression, parental acceptance and rejection, dysfunctional impulsivity, and parenting stress hinder children’s SEC. (2) Family emotional expression, parenting stress, and children's SEC exhibit significant group differences between left-behind and non-left-behind parents, suggesting the unique challenges faced by children in left-behind families. (3) Parenting stress negatively predicts the development of children’s SEC in both groups, highlighting the detrimental impact of stress on emotional development. (4) In non-left-behind families, positive family emotional expression predicts improvements in children’s SEC, whereas negative emotional expression, parental impulsivity, and rejection negatively affect SEC development.
... These emotional responses can create a psychological vulnerability that may increase susceptibility to extremist ideologies. Research in neuroscience has demonstrated that social pain, like humiliation, triggers the same brain regions as physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). This neurological overlap suggests that experiences of humiliation can be as impactful and traumatic as physical injuries, potentially leading to longlasting psychological effects. ...
This study explores the relationships between humiliation, perceived power loss, discrimination, and vulnerability to radicalisation across Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Analysing survey data from 5,501 respondents, we developed a measure of radicalisation vulnerability that captures both general vulnerability factors and specific ideological orientations. Muslims and ethnic minorities were marginally more likely to experience humiliation than ethnic majorities, though this relationship varied by national context. A strong positive association was found between perceived ethnic power loss and radicalisation vulnerability, with higher perceived power loss linked to increased vulnerability. While humiliation positively correlated with discrimination, our analysis distinguished between discrete discrimination experiences and broader perceptions of ethnic power loss, suggesting distinct pathways to radicalisation vulnerability. Notably, humiliation mediated the relationship between Muslim or foreign-born status and radicalisation vulnerability, suggesting that addressing humiliation may be more effective than targeting specific demographic groups or ideologies. Cross-national comparisons revealed significant differences in radicalisation vulnerability, with the Netherlands showing the highest mean score and Denmark the lowest. These findings highlight the role of the national context in radicalisation processes and emphasise the need for culturally informed, holistic prevention strategies that address underlying psychological and social factors, particularly humiliation and perceived power loss. ARTICLE HISTORY
... First, we further highlighted the severity of ostracism by providing experimental evidence of its effect on nonsuicidal self-injury. Research has demonstrated that ostracism leads to aggression Poon and Wong 2019), sleep problems (Jiang and Poon 2023b), suicidal thoughts , physical pain (Eisenberger 2012), and self-defeating behaviors, including financial risk-taking, unhealthy choices, and procrastination (Duclos, Wan, and Jiang 2013;Twenge, Catanese, and Baumeister 2002). However, nonsuicidal self-injury is a particularly dangerous consequence of ostracism that has not been sufficiently examined. ...
Despite the high prevalence and dangerous implications of nonsuicidal self‐injury, researchers have seldom investigated how this may be influenced by interpersonal experiences, often focusing on intrapersonal factors. By examining the role of interpersonal experiences in influencing nonsuicidal self‐injury and the psychological mechanisms underlying these relationships, we may achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. Across three studies (total valid N = 851), we tested whether ostracism, interpersonal maltreatment that could happen daily, promotes perceived objectification, thereby increasing nonsuicidal self‐injury, using cross‐sectional, and experimental designs. The results consistently showed that, compared with participants with neutral or nonsocial negative experiences, participants with ostracism experiences reported higher perceived objectification and were more likely to engage in nonsuicidal self‐injurious behaviors. Moreover, perceived objectification mediated the effect of ostracism on nonsuicidal self‐injury. We discuss our findings' significance for theoretical advancement and practical nonsuicidal self‐injury prevention and intervention strategies, particularly those emphasizing belongingness and rehumanization.
... Thus, it would be necessary to design a laboratory task generating shared psychosocial stressors to explore how it would influence social functions in depressed individuals. Of note, social rejection or social exclusion is a common risk factor for depression (1), and it can be easily manipulated via laboratory tasks (8). Meanwhile, social preference during interpersonal interaction is important in forming social relationships (9). ...
Background
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common in adolescents, and the special development stage, during which adolescents’ brain and neuroendocrine system develop intensively, makes it subtly difficult to develop prevention and treatment strategies for depressed adolescents compared with depressed adults. Meanwhile, public psychosocial stressors significantly influence adolescents’ mental health and social interaction, rendering it essential to explore how a shared psychosocial stressor, i.e., shared excluded experiences, influences social interaction in depressed adolescents.
Methods
We designed a 4-player cyberball game to probe adolescents’ responses to shared excluded experiences and explore the underlying interpersonal neural synchronization (INS) with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Results
We found that shared excluded experiences could enhance adolescents’ social interaction preferences but decreased INS in each pair of excluded adolescents, which indicates a reduced willingness to interact with others after the exclusion. However, no significantly different behavioral responses to the shared excluded experiences were found in depressed adolescents compared to adolescents as healthy controls (HC). Further analyses revealed that adolescents with MDD experienced more negative feelings than HC after exclusion. Of note, adolescents with MDD demonstrated stronger INS than HC, indicating the potential empathic stress in depressed adolescents. In addition, there existed altered brain-behavioral association patterns in responses to shared excluded experiences in depressed adolescents.
Conclusions
In summary, our study gives us deeper insights into how a shared psychosocial stressor impacts the INS in depressed adolescents, and it might be demonstrated that INS could be more sensitive than behavioral responses to detect social interaction deficits in depressed adolescents.
... While grief is no longer viewed solely as a reaction to the disruption of an attachment bond with a deceased loved one, the significance of attachment continues to be a crucial element of our development, growth, and sense of self. We inherently need to feel a sense of belonging (Eisenberger 2012). Our survival depends on the attachments we form, and the individuals within our social circles greatly influence us. ...
Grief is often seen as a personal response to losing a loved one, but it can also arise from the loss of deeply held values and identities linked to social, structural, and religious spheres. Political grief is a unique form of this, stemming from political policies, laws, and social messaging that certain groups perceive as losses. As societies face political decisions and systemic failures, grief can emerge from losing trust in institutions, shared beliefs, and a sense of belonging. An outgrowth of political grief is a strain on relationships due to polarization, heightened by threat-activating events and resulting tensions. Many people turn to religion to counter feelings of vulnerability and incoherence in today’s political climate. While this may relieve anxiety and provide stability, it can also exacerbate some sources of grief. Understanding these dimensions is crucial for addressing political grief’s broader implications, as individuals and communities seek meaning and attempt to rewrite their narratives in adversity. This discussion includes defining grief beyond death-loss and exploring the interplay between social/political structures and culture. It also considers specific threats and responses, including religious alignment, focusing on recent events in the United States.
... 44 Importantly, a homologous region (ACC) in both primates and rodents mediates pain and emotional processing. Moreover, social pain recruits the ACC and IC when processing pain perception and painrelated behavior, 45,46 and neurobiological changes in these regions also mediate physical pain. 47,48 Our findings show that AIC, but not ACC, neurons exhibit increased c-Fos expression in MS mice, indicating that AIC neuronal activity contributes to the processing of MS-induced social pain. ...
... The mechanisms connecting loneliness to pain are not yet fully understood. Loneliness, as a form of social pain, may share neurocognitive substrates with physical pain, since experiencing social pain can activate neural regions involved in processing physical pain 38 . Specifically, in the nervous system, the insula is a part of physiological and social pain 39 , particularly in the formation of pain perception 40 , whereas the frontal pole is engaged in the affective networks of the social-physical pain matrix 41,42 . ...
This study investigates the long-term effects of loneliness on pain experiences in older Chinese adults, focusing on the mediating role of depression. Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2013–2020) included 1,592 participants aged 60 and above. Using robust mixed-effects logistic regression models, the study found that lonely participants were more likely to experience 12 site pain: headache (OR 1.23; 95% CI 1.09–1.39), shoulder (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.04–1.30), wrist (OR 1.14; 95%CI 1.01–1.28), finger (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.02–1.28), chest (OR 1.26; 95% CI 1.10–1.44), stomach (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.12–1.46), back (OR 1.23; 95% CI 1.00–1.51), waist (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.17–1.83), buttock (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.02–1.30), leg (OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.08–1.33), knee (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.04–1.30), and toe (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.04–1.34) than participants who were not lonely. No such finding was found for neck, arm, or ankle pain. The risk of pain due to loneliness did not decrease with an increase in the frequency of social activities. These findings emphasize the need to address mental health as a crucial factor in pain prevention and management.
... Isolation and loneliness are strongly correlated with psychological and physical ill-health (Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2003;Rokach, 2016Rokach, , 2019. This is perhaps unsurprising knowing that negative social experiences, like rejection or exclusion, trigger responses in parts of the brain responsible for physical pain (Kross et al., 2011;Eisenberger, 2012). The brain is also primed to learn from social information: mirror neurons fire both when we perform actions and when we also observe others doing the same (Jacob, 2008), which some have argued is to facilitate empathy and understanding of intentions (Iacoboni, 2009), though evidence is mixed (Heyes and Catmur, 2021). ...
Humans strive to design safe AI systems that align with our goals and remain under our control. However, as AI capabilities advance, we face a new challenge: the emergence of deeper, more persistent relationships between humans and AI systems. We explore how increasingly capable AI agents may generate the perception of deeper relationships with users, especially as AI becomes more personalised and agentic. This shift, from transactional interaction to ongoing sustained social engagement with AI, necessitates a new focus on socioaffective alignment-how an AI system behaves within the social and psychological ecosystem co-created with its user, where preferences and perceptions evolve through mutual influence. Addressing these dynamics involves resolving key intrapersonal dilemmas, including balancing immediate versus long-term well-being, protecting autonomy, and managing AI companionship alongside the desire to preserve human social bonds. By framing these challenges through a notion of basic psychological needs, we seek AI systems that support, rather than exploit, our fundamental nature as social and emotional beings.
... According to the temporal need-threat model (Williams, 2009), any indication of potential ostracism is detected quickly and activates social pain (MacDonald & Leary, 2005) to focus the individual's attention on addressing the social situation. In the reflexive stage, the immediate response to ostracism, social pain, manifests as activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right ventral prefrontal cortex, which are regions of the brain set to detect physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012;Eisenberger et al., 2003). The reflexive stage also involves other aversive outcomes including threatening fundamental needs (i.e., belonging, control, self-esteem, meaningful existence), which are necessary for everyday functioning, and negative affect (see Hartgerink et al., 2015 for a meta-analysis). ...
People leave groups. We examined the psychological consequences for the remaining group members; specifically , whether the departure of a member can produce feelings of ostracism (being excluded and ignored). We manipulated systematically the number of group members who left (zero, one, or two out of the two other group members) during a get to know you interaction (Study 1), a word creativity task (Study 2), and a virtual ball-toss game (Cyberball; Study 3). We measured participants' feelings of ostracism and associated outcomes overall and based on the relationships with each group member. Overall, participants felt worse when two group members left compared to one or no group members leaving. At the individual relationship level, we found evidence of partial ostracism as participants felt negative when evaluating their interaction with a group member who left. By using a multi-level approach, we found the everyday experience of a group member leaving produces a void, harming those left behind. We considered how this void could have implications for group dynamics theory and organizational practices. Groups do not stay the same forever-rather, a group's composition changes over time. For instance, after playing for the New England Patriots for 20 seasons and winning six Super Bowls, Tom Brady,
... Relatedly, most of the studies examining the neural correlates of social exclusion have focused on ostracism. Initial studies on ostracism found neural activation in areas related to pain and disgust, such as the dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) and the Anterior Insula (Rainville et al., 1997;Eisenberger et al., 2003;Onoda et al., 2010;Eisenberger, 2012). However, recent research has questioned the role of the dACC in ostracism, suggesting instead a more prominent role of the ventral Anterior Cingulate (vACC) and superior and inferior frontal gyri together with the Anterior Insula (Mwilambwe-Tshilobo & Spreng, 2021;Sebastian et al., 2011). ...
Witnessing rejection against one’s group can have similar impacts on psychological distress and aggression as experiencing rejection personally. In this study, we investigated the neural activity patterns of group rejection and whether they resemble those of personal-level rejection. We first identified the neural correlates of social rejection (exclusion based on negative attention) compared with ostracism (exclusion based on lack of social connection) and then compared group-level to personal-level rejection. We employed a novel social exclusion task, “RateME,” to induce group and personal rejection and Cyberball to evoke ostracism during fMRI scans. Our results showed that personal rejection increased activity in regions associated with autobiographical memory and self-identity, such as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the lingual gyrus, whereas ostracism engaged areas related to social pain and salience, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula. Additionally, group and personal-level rejection elicited similar neural activity patterns, regardless of participants’ fusion with the rejected groups. Therefore, group membership seems sufficient for group rejection to trigger self-referential processing pathways similar to those activated by personal rejection. Our findings highlight the overlapping neural mechanisms underlying personal and group-level grievances, which may explain the detrimental effects of group rejection on aggression, extremism, and intergroup conflict.
... Violators or transgressors are also biologically prepared to submit, withdraw, and experience shame and embarrassment (see Tangney et al., 2007). When an Us Group member loses standing, faces rejection, or is excluded, thus becoming an "Other," it activates brain regions associated with social pain (e.g., Ellemers & van Nunspeet, 2020), which can be as distressing as physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012;Eisenberger et al., 2003;Kross et al., 2011;Rotge et al., 2015). ...
In this paper, I provide a concise overview of the state of the scientific study of moral injury (MI). I argue that the state of science is immature, characterized by the lack of a paradigmatic theory and a lack of rigor in terms of construct definition and measurement. Because researchers, clinicians, and the media reify the results of empirical and clinical outcome studies that are chiefly exploratory and fraught with internal validity problems, enthusiasm about MI continues to far outweigh scientific and actionable, practice‐based knowledge. I posit that the field needs to have epistemic humility about MI, focus on building a paradigmatic model to generate and test hypotheses that will ultimately create knowledge about the causes and consequences of MI, and employ evidence‐based assessment and intervention approaches to mitigate and treat the problem. To facilitate research in this area, I summarize the social–functional theory of moral behavior and a new theory of MI based on it. I also make recommendations for future research to advance the field into a normal science, which requires hypothesis‐driven research and valid measurement.
... Similarly, lower concentrations of NPY have been associated with worsening PTSD-related symptoms (Scioli et al., 2020). The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is another circuit of interest as it has been shown to be integral in processing both physical and social pain (Eisenberger, 2012). The dACC provides sensory input to the amygdala and plays an important role in emotional salience (Selemon et al., 2019). ...
Posttraumatic stress disorder is part of a spectrum of psychological symptoms that are frequently linked with a single defining traumatic experience. Symptoms can vary over the lifespan in intensity based on additional life stressors, individual stability, and connectedness to purpose. Historically, treatment has centered on psychotropic agents and individual and group therapy to increase the individual’s window of tolerance, improve emotional dysregulation, and strengthen relationships. Unfortunately, there is a growing segment of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder who do not respond to these traditional treatments, perhaps because they do not address the multidirectional relationships between chronic cortisol, changes in the brain gut microbiota system, neuroinflammation, and posttraumatic symptoms. We will review the literature and explain how trauma impacts the neuroendocrine and neuroimmunology within the brain, how these processes influence the brain gut microbiota system, and provide a mechanism for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Finally, we will show how the lifestyle psychiatry model provides symptom amelioration.
Parental alienating behaviors represent a critical risk factor for adolescent mental health, yet their underlying mechanisms within the Chinese cultural context remain underexplored. This longitudinal study investigated the temporal dynamics through which parental alienating behaviors influence adolescent mental health outcomes via parent-child attachment and emotion regulation strategies. Utilizing three waves of data collected over two years from 837 Chinese adolescents in Yunnan Province, we administered validated measures including the Baker Strategy Questionnaire, Parent-Child Attachment Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Strategies Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Depression-Anxiety-Loneliness Scale. Results demonstrated that parental alienating behaviors significantly predicted reduced adolescent subjective well-being and heightened adolescent depression-anxiety-loneliness. Parent-child attachment emerged as a primary mediator, while both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression significantly mediated these relationships. Crucially, chain mediation analyses revealed sequential pathways where parental alienating behaviors first compromised parent-child attachment, subsequently impairing adolescents’ emotion regulation capacity, and ultimately exacerbating adolescent mental health risks. These findings delineate the developmental trajectory through which family dysfunction impacts adolescent adjustment, suggesting that interventions strengthening parent-child relationships and enhancing adaptive emotion regulation strategies could mitigate the psychological consequences of parental alienation. The study advances cross-cultural understanding of family dynamics in mental health development while providing empirically grounded guidance for targeted interventions.
The “Pain Overlap Theory” ¹ proposes that the experience of social pain overlaps with and amplifies the experience of physical pain by sharing parts of the same underlying processing systems 2–6 . In humans, the insular cortex has been implicated in this overlap of physical and social pain, but a mechanistic link has not been made 2,4,5,7–9 . To determine whether social pain can subsequently impact responses to nociceptive stimuli via convergent electrical signals (spikes) or convergent chemical signals (neuromodulators), we designed a novel Social Exclusion paradigm termed the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Task which facilitates a mechanistic investigation in mice. We found that socially-excluded mice display more severe responses to physical pain, disrupted valence encoding, and impaired neural representations of nociceptive stimuli. We performed a systematic biosensor panel and found that endocannabinoid and oxytocin signaling in the insular cortex have opposing responses during trials where mice were attending or not attending to the Social Exclusion events respectively, demonstrating distinct neuromodulatory substrates underpin different states of Social Exclusion. We also found that intra-insular blockade of oxytocin signaling increased the impact of Social Exclusion on physical pain. Together these findings suggest Social Exclusion effectively alters physical pain perception using neuromodulatory signaling in the insular cortex.
Background: Clinicians' fear-avoidance beliefs (FABs) can significantly impact their clinical decisions and the advice they give to patients, but it is less investigated. This study aimed to examine the FABs of physiotherapists about chronic low-back pain (LBP). Methods: A cross-sectional study of 149 Nigerian physiotherapists in musculoskeletal practice from eight public hospitals was conducted. FABs about chronic LBP were assessed using the Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS). Multiple regression analysis was applied. Results: About 84.60% of the respondents had moderate FABs. The mean total HC-PAIRS score was 30.06 ± 18.11. The highest and lowest mean scores were observed in factors 1 (19.52 ± 11.76) and 4 (4.54 ± 2.73) of the HC-PAIRS. With an explained variance of 3%, the model showed that age, sex and marital status are not associated with the total HC-PAIRS score. Conclusions: FABs about chronic LBP are prevalent among Nigerian Physiotherapists but are not influenced by socio-demographic factors.
Background:
We experience physical pain and social pain. While rejection sensitivity measures, such as Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNES), were previously used to evaluate social pain sensitivity, Social Pain Questionnaire (SPQ) has been developed to specifically evaluate social pain sensitivity. Although physical pain and social pain seem quite distinct from each other, research shows a close link between them. However, the association between physical pain sensitivity and SPQ remains unclear. This study examined the association of SPQ with BFNES and Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ), an instrument to evaluate physical pain sensitivity, and involvement of anxiety in the association between physical pain and social pain sensitivity.
Methods:
One-hundred forty young adults participated in this cross-sectional survey study and completed the general information questionnaire, PSQ, BFNES, SPQ, and Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI). Data were analyzed using correlation and partial correlation analyses.
Results:
SPQ was associated with both PSQ and BFNES, while TAI was associated with PSQ, BFNES, and SPQ. The association between PSQ and BFNES remained significant after controlling TAI, but the association between PSQ and SPQ disappeared.
Conclusion:
The results demonstrate convergent validity of SPQ in pain. Anxiety may explain the association between physical pain and social pain sensitivity.
This study examined the relationships between organizational culture, workplace ostracism, and occupational well-being among employees. It was hypothesized that workplace ostracism mediates the relationship between organizational culture and occupational well-being. Correlational research design was used and data were collected from 300 employees aged 25–45 years (M = 32.13, SD = 6.85) through purposive sampling across educational, banking, and telecommunication sectors. The study employed the Working Environment Scale (WES-10; Rossberg, Eiring & Friis, 2004), the Workplace Ostracism Scale (Ferris et al., 2008), and the Occupational Well-Being Scale (OWB; Daovisan & Intarakamhang, 2024). Results revealed that workplace ostracism significantly mediated the relationship between organizational culture and occupational well-being. A more intense work environment was associated with higher levels of ostracism, which in turn negatively impacted employee well-being. The findings highlight the importance of fostering an affective organizational culture to reduce ostracism and enhance employee well-being.
The Pain Overlap Theory proposes that the experience of social pain overlaps with and amplifies the experience of physical pain by sharing parts of the same underlying process- ing systems. In humans, the insular cortex has been implicated in this overlap of physical and social pain, but a mechanistic link has not been made. To determine whether social pain can subsequently impact responses to nociceptive stimuli via convergent electrical signals (spikes) or convergent chemical signals (neuromodulators), we designed a novel Social Exclusion paradigm termed the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Task which facilitates a mechanistic investigation in mice. We found that socially-excluded mice display more severe responses to physical pain, disrupted valence encoding, and impaired neural representations of nociceptive stimuli. We performed a systematic biosensor panel and found that endocannabinoid and oxytocin signaling in the insular cortex have opposing responses during trials where mice were attending or not attending to the Social Exclusion events respectively, demonstrating distinct neuromodulatory substrates that underpin different states of Social Exclusion. We also found that intra-insular blockade of oxytocin signaling increased the response to physical pain following Social Exclusion. Together these findings suggest Social Exclusion effectively alters physical pain perception using neuromodulatory signaling in the insular cortex.
Social exclusion is a form of bullying that can lead to various negative consequences, and even extreme forms of violence. Certain groups, such as people with poor mental health and adolescents, are particularly vulnerable. This paper features a systematic review of experiments that investigated the impact of social exclusion on adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Experiments were searched via: PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, ERIC, Cochrane, and a manual search. The search yielded 174 experiments, and 12 remained after screening. These met the inclusion criteria, which included: having an empirical design, participants aged 10–19, and a clinical sample with at least one psychiatric disorder. Among the clinical samples, the most common disorder was depression, featured in seven experiments. The most common paradigm was Cyberball. Results showed that social exclusion impacts adolescents with psychiatric disorders differently than inclusion (e.g., leading to a more negative mood). However, the difference in the impact of social exclusion on adolescents with vs. without psychiatric disorders was only conclusive via fMRI measurements. Compared to healthy controls, adolescents with psychiatric disorders seem to display altered neural reactivity during social exclusion. Based on identified research gaps, future studies are needed to explore the impact of social exclusion on adolescents with a wider range of psychiatric disorders. Other recommendations are included, such as a brain region checklist for future experiments using fMRI.
Previous work suggests blood pressure (BP) relates to social algesia, where those with higher BP are more tolerant of social pain. The neural correlates of this association, however, are unknown. Based on findings suggesting neural regions involved in physical pain are activated during social pain, the current study explores whether BP relates to subjective and neural responses to social pain, apart from emotional responding. BP was measured, after which participants completed emotional processing and social exclusion fMRI paradigms. Results replicated previous findings, with higher systolic BP related to lower trait sensitivity to social pain. However, there were no associations between BP and reported social pain sensitivity during social exclusion. Moreover, after accounting for adiposity, we found no association between BP and anterior insula (AI) or dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity to exclusion. Finally, there were no reliable associations between BP and reported valence or arousal, or AI and dACC activity to emotional images. Findings partly replicate and extend prior findings on BP and emotional responding to social pain; however, they appear inconsistent with predictions at the neural level. Future experimental manipulation of BP may allow for causal inferences and adjudication of conceptual perspectives on cardiovascular contributions to social algesia.
Purpose of Review
The pain-suicide relationship is one of the most debated in recent literature, but theories and clinical evidence have often reached contrasting conclusions. Through a critical overview of theoretical, meta-analytical and empirical contributions, we aimed at advancing the conversation on the pain-suicide relationship by integrating research on related concepts, specifically inflammation and dissociation, and their effects on interoceptive processes and pain perception.
Recent Findings
Ideation-to-action theories consider increased pain tolerance a key risk factor for the transition from suicidal ideation to attempt. However, several meta-analytical findings suggest that suicidal thoughts and behaviors are associated with inflammation-induced pain sensitization. On the one hand, inflammation contributes to the development and maintenance of chronic pain conditions and mood disorders, and is associated with interoceptive hypervigilance and pain hypersensitivity. Moreover, a trait of increased pain tolerance does not seem to distinguish the individuals attempting suicide among those living with suicidal thoughts. On the other, temporary hypoalgesia is often activated by dissociative experiences. Highly dissociative individuals can indeed be exposed to frequent disintegration of interoceptive processes and transitory hyposensitivity to pain. In light of this, two different patterns of responses to stress (i.e. inflammation vs. dissociation) may characterize different kinds of patients at risk of suicide, associated with specific patterns of interoceptive functioning, pain sensitivity and possibly suicidal ideation. This proposition is partially supported by neuroimaging studies on post-traumatic stress disorder and psychodynamic perspectives on neurodevelopment, as well as alternative clustering models of suicidal behavior.
Summary
Theoretical, meta-analytical and neurobiological evidence highlight two opposite directions in the pain-suicide relationship: hyper- vs. hyposensitivity. Such contrasts may be explained by the existence of two tendencies in stress-response, namely inflammation and dissociation, defining two different subtypes of patients at risk of suicide. We thus propose the existence of a hypersensitive subtype, defined by underlying neuroinflammatory processes, increased vulnerability to chronic pain and mood disorders, interoceptive hypervigilance, pain hypersensitivity and potentially more persistent suicidal ideation. We further hypothesize a dissociative subtype, characterized by greater trait dissociation, vulnerability to depersonalization and derealization, frequent disintegration of interoceptive processes, transient pain hyposensitivity and abrupt peaks in suicidal ideation.
Empathy can be elicited by physiological pain, as well as in social contexts. Although physiological and different social contexts induce a strong subjective experience of empathy, the general and context‐specific neural representations remain elusive. Here, it is combined fMRI with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to establish neurofunctional models for social pain triggered by observing social exclusion and separation naturistic stimuli. The findings revealed that both social contexts engaged the empathy and social function networks. Notably, the intensity of pain empathy elicited by these two social stimuli does not significantly differentiate the neural representations of social exclusion and separation, suggesting context‐specific neural representations underlying these experiences. Furthermore, this study established a model that traces the progression from physiological pain to social pain empathy. In conclusion, this study revealed the neural pathological foundations and interconnectedness of empathy induced by social and physiological stimuli and provide robust neuromarkers to precisely evaluate empathy across physiological and social domains.
Identifying safe and efficient pharmaceutical pain treatments remains an enduring challenge. However, despite significant advancements in pharmacological pain management, the inconsistent effectiveness of many analgesics between people remains puzzling. To address this problem, we introduce a new hypothesis suggesting that psychosocial factors exacerbate or attenuate (i.e., moderate) pain-relieving effects of analgesics: the psychosocial moderation hypothesis of pharmacological analgesia. According to this hypothesis, psychosocial factors can be categorized into three groups: (a) dispositional psychological factors, (b) situational cognitive or affective factors, and (c) contextual and social factors. The psychosocial moderation hypothesis is intended to extend the biopsychosocial model of pain to pharmacological pain management, with the goals to deepen the understanding of how analgesic drugs function and to open new paths to pain research and management beyond the traditional biomedical approach in pharmacological pain treatment. This hypothesis thus points toward a more comprehensive, psychosocial approach to pharmacological pain management and encourages the development of analgesic models that take the psychosocial context of analgesic consumers into account. We hope that this hypothesis will stimulate novel empirical and theoretical efforts in identifying the most beneficial analgesic for different types of people in different situations and, thus, to optimize analgesic dosing to provide adequate pharmacological pain relief while minimizing adverse side effects.
Moral injury (MI) is a potential clinical problem characterized by functionally impairing moral emotions, beliefs, and behaviors as well as adverse beliefs about personal or collective humanity and life's meaning and purpose. MI can arise from personal transgressive acts or from being a victim of or bearing witness to others’ inhumanity. Despite widespread interest in MI, until recently, there was no reliable measure of MI as an outcome, and prior research has revealed little about its causes, consequences, and intervention approaches. This review provides background information on the history of MI, defines key terms, and critically reviews assessment tools. Additionally, we describe a social-functional theory of the etiology of MI and a social-functional rehabilitation approach to treatment. This treatment approach, which can be used by any clinician regardless of clinical context, employs cross-cutting change agents to promote lasting corrective and humanizing prosocial experiences, enhancing belonging through valued actions and relationships.
This article refers to the topic of psychological (mental/emotional) and social pain in the prediction of suicidality (suicide and its associated behaviors) as an extraordinarily complex and pressing societal and adult educational challenge. The aim of this review article is to present a literature review of the current picture of the evidence regarding the impact of psychological and social pain on suicidal behavior as a societal and adult educational problem. Currently known biological factors are weak predictors of future suicidal behaviors. Psychological pain is a transdiagnostic significant predictive factor of suicidality, even in the absence of a diagnosed depression. Psychological pain has been rarely evaluated or examined in routine practice for suicide reduction. A valid tool to measure social pain is a necessary step in decreasing and minimizing rates of suicidal behavior in an at risk population of socially excluded adults. Additional practical implications for the impact of psychological and social pain on suicidality prediction in the settings of adult education are highly and urgently recommended. The hypothetical impact of different social factors (e.g., immigration status, gender, multiple psychoactive substance use as social norms, general self-efficacy) on the experience of psychological pain will be studied by mixed methods research in the field of sociology in an at risk population of socially excluded adults.
Pain interrupts and demands attention. The authors review evidence for how and why this interruption of attention is achieved. The interruptive function of pain depends on the relationship between pain-related characteristics (e.g., the threat value of pain) and the characteristics of the environmental demands (e.g., emotional arousal). A model of the interruptive function of pain is developed that holds that pain is selected for action from within complex affective and motivational environments to urge escape. The implications of this model for research and therapy are outlined with an emphasis on the redefinition of chronic pain as chronic interruption.
This study examined the relationship of naturally occurring social support from the spouse with the preoperative anxiety and postoperative recovery of 56 male coronary-bypass patients. Patients were divided into groups based on whether the overall quality of their marital relationship was perceived to be relatively good or bad at the time of surgery and on whether they received relatively high or low spouse support in the hospital (defined in terms of frequency of visits). A fifth group (n = 16), consisting of unmarried patients, enabled additional comparisons. The results indicated that, although groups were essentially equivalent in preoperative physical status, married patients who received higher hospital support took less pain medication and recovered more quickly than their low-support counterparts. In contrast, perceived quality of the marital relationship was a relatively insignificant factor. Speed of recovery for unmarried patients was generally slower than for married, high-support patients and faster than for married, low-support patients.
Key words: social support, coronary bypass, surgical recovery
Assessments of anterior cingulate cortex in experimental animals and humans have led to unifying theories of its structural organization and contributions to mammalian behaviour The anterior cingulate cortex forms a large region around the rostrum of the corpus callosum that is termed the anterior executive region. This region has numerous projections into motor systems, however since these projections originate from different parts of anterior cingulate cortex and because functional studies have shown that it does not have a uniform contribution to brain functions, the anterior executive region is further subdivided into 'affect' and 'cognition' components. The affect division includes areas 25, 33 and rostral area 24, and has extensive connections with the amygdala and periaqueductal grey, and parts of it project to autonomic brainstem motor nuclei. In addition to regulating autonomic and endocrine functions, it is involved in conditioned emotional learning, vocalizations associated with expressing internal states, assessments of motivational content and assigning emotional valence to internal and external stimuli, and maternal-infant interactions. The cognition divi sion includes caudal areas 24' and 32', the cingulate motor areas in the cingulate sulcus and nociceptive cortex. The cingulate motor areas project to the spinal cord and red nucleus and have premotor functions, while the nociceptive area is engaged in both response selection and cognitively demanding information processing. The cingulate epilepsy syndrome provides important support of experimental animal and human functional imaging studies for the role of anterior cingulate cortex in movement affect and social behaviours. Excessive cingulate activity in cases with seizures confirmed in anterior cingulate cortex with subdural electrode recordings, can impair consciousness alter affective stare and expression, and influence skeletomotor and autonomic activity. Interictally, patients with anterior cingulate cortex epilepsy often display psychopathic or sociopathic behaviours. In other clinical examples of elevated anterior cingulate cortex activity it may contribute to ties, obsessive-compulsive behaviours, and aberrent social behaviour. Conversely, reduced cingulate activity following infarcts or surgery can contribute to behavioural disorders including akinetic mutism, diminished self-awareness and depression, motor neglect and impaired motor initiation, reduced responses to pain, and aberrent social behaviour. The role of anterior cingulate cortex in pain responsiveness is suggested by cingulumotomy results and functional imaging studies during noxious somatic stimulation. The affect division of anterior cingulate cortex modulates autonomic activity and internal emotional responses, while the cognition division is engaged in response selection associated with skeletomotor activity and responses to noxious stimuli. Over-all, anterior cingulate cortex appears to play a crucial role in initiation, motivation, and goal-directed behaviours. The anterior cingulate cortex is part of a larger matrix of structures that are engaged in similar functions. These structures from the rostral limbic system and include the amygdala, periaqueductal grey, ventral striatum, orbitofrontal and anterior insular cortices. The system formed by these interconnected areas assesses the motivational content of internal and external stimuli and regulates context-dependent behaviours.
Four studies examined the hypothesis that intense emotional experiences are more often centered on interdependent than independent experiences. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that when asked to write about emotionally intense events, participants were more likely to write about interdependent than independent experiences. Study 3 provided evidence that these effects were not due to recall effects based on mere exposure. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated that when asked to write about the most positive and negative interdependent and independent experiences of their lives and then rate their impact, participants were more likely to indicate that interdependent experiences had more emotional impact than independent experiences. Study 4 also provided evidence that the extent to which an experience fostered belonging motivations predicted the emotional impact of that event. Implications of the current research in terms of the need to belong and research on motivation and appraisal theories of emotion are discussed.
Current theories suggest that social and physical pain overlap in their neurological and physiological outcomes. We investigated how social and physical pain overlap in their psychological responses by testing the hypothesis that both social and physical pain would thwart satisfaction on four human needs, worsen mood, and increase desire to aggress. In Experiment 1, recalling an experience of social or physical pain produced overlapping effects in the form of thwarted self-esteem and control needs and increased negative affect and desire to aggress. In Experiment 2, we induced social (Cyberball ostracism) or physical pain (cold pressor) within the laboratory session, and found that both pain types produced feelings of being ignored and excluded, and thwarted belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Our results provide further support to pain overlap theories and indicate that social and physical pain cause common psychological consequences, resulting in new ways to understand and manage pain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A reliable observation in neuroimaging studies of cognitive control is the response of dorsal ACC (dACC) to events that demand increased cognitive control (e.g., response conflicts and performance errors). This observation is apparently at odds with a comparably reliable association of the dACC with the subjective experience of negative affective states such as pain, fear, and anxiety. Whereas “affective” associates of the dACC are based on studies that explicitly manipulate and/or measure the subjective experience of negative affect, the “cognitive” associates of dACC are based on studies using tasks designed to manipulate the demand for cognitive control, such as the Stroop, flanker, and stop-signal tasks. Critically, extant neuroimaging research has not systematically considered the extent to which these cognitive tasks induce negative affective experiences and, if so, to what extent negative affect can account for any variance in the dACC response during task performance. While undergoing fMRI, participants in this study performed a stop-signal task while regularly reporting their experience of performance on several dimensions. We observed that within-subject variability in the dACC response to stop-signal errors tracked changes in subjective frustration throughout task performance. This association remained when controlling for within-subject variability in subjective reports of cognitive engagement and several performance-related variables indexing task difficulty. These results fit with existing models characterizing the dACC as a hub for monitoring ongoing behavior and motivating adjustments when necessary and further emphasize that such a function may be linked to the subjective experience of negative affect.
Humans observe various peoples' social suffering throughout their lives, but it is unknown whether the same brain mechanisms respond to people we are close to and strangers' social suffering. To address this question, we had participant's complete functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while observing a friend and stranger experience social exclusion. Observing a friend's exclusion activated affective pain regions associated with the direct (i.e. firsthand) experience of exclusion [dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula], and this activation correlated with self-reported self-other overlap with the friend. Alternatively, observing a stranger's exclusion activated regions associated with thinking about the traits, mental states and intentions of others ['mentalizing'; dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), precuneus, and temporal pole]. Comparing activation from observing friend's vs stranger's exclusion showed increased activation in brain regions associated with the firsthand experience of exclusion (dACC and anterior insula) and with thinking about the self [medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)]. Finally, functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that MPFC and affective pain regions activated in concert during empathy for friends, but not strangers. These results suggest empathy for friends' social suffering relies on emotion sharing and self-processing mechanisms, whereas empathy for strangers' social suffering may rely more heavily on mentalizing systems.
Some research indicates that social exclusion leads to increased emotional- and physical-pain sensitivity, whereas other work indicates that exclusion causes emotional- and physical-pain numbing. This research sought to examine what causes these opposing outcomes. In Study 1, the paradigm used to instantiate social exclusion was found to moderate the social exclusion-physical pain relation: Future-life exclusion led to a numbing of physical pain whereas Cyberball exclusion led to hypersensitivity. Study 2 examined the underlying mechanism, which was hypothesized to be the severity of the "social injury." Participants were subjected to either the standard future-life exclusion manipulation (purported to be a highly severe social injury) or a newly created, less-severe version. Supporting our hypothesis, the standard (highly severe) future-life exclusion led to physical-pain numbing, whereas the less-severe future-life exclusion resulted in hypersensitivity. Implications of these results for understanding the exclusion-pain relation and other exclusion effects are discussed.
It is well established that a lack of social support constitutes a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality, comparable to risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure. Although it has been hypothesized that social support may benefit health by reducing physiological reactivity to stressors, the mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Moreover, to date, no studies have investigated the neurocognitive mechanisms that translate experiences of social support into the health outcomes that follow. To investigate these processes, thirty participants completed three tasks in which daily social support, neurocognitive reactivity to a social stressor, and neuroendocrine responses to a social stressor were assessed. Individuals who interacted regularly with supportive individuals across a 10-day period showed diminished cortisol reactivity to a social stressor. Moreover, greater social support and diminished cortisol responses were associated with diminished activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and Brodmann's area (BA) 8, regions previously associated with the distress of social separation. Lastly, individual differences in dACC and BA 8 reactivity mediated the relationship between high daily social support and low cortisol reactivity, such that supported individuals showed reduced neurocognitive reactivity to social stressors, which in turn was associated with reduced neuroendocrine stress responses. This study is the first to investigate the neural underpinnings of the social support-health relationship and provides evidence that social support may ultimately benefit health by diminishing neural and physiological reactivity to social stressors.
Although it has long been hypothesized that attachment figures provide individuals with a sense of safety and security, the neural mechanisms underlying attachment-induced safety have not been explored. Here, we investigated whether an attachment figure acts as a safety signal by exploring whether viewing an attachment figure during a threatening experience (physical pain) led to increased activity in a neural region associated with safety signaling, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and corresponding reductions in pain. Female participants in long-term romantic relationships were scanned as they received painful stimuli while viewing pictures of their partner and control images (stranger, object). Consistent with the idea that the attachment figure may signal safety, results revealed that viewing partner pictures while receiving painful stimulation led to reductions in self-reported pain ratings, reductions in pain-related neural activity (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula), and increased activity in the VMPFC. Moreover, greater VMPFC activity in response to partner pictures was associated with longer relationship lengths and greater perceived partner support, further highlighting a role for the VMPFC in responding to the safety value of the partner. Last, greater VMPFC activity while viewing partner pictures was associated with reduced pain ratings and reduced pain-related neural activity. An implication of these findings is that, in the same way that stimuli that historically have threatened survival (e.g., snakes, spiders) are considered to be prepared fear stimuli, attachment figures, who have historically benefited survival, may serve as prepared safety stimuli, reducing threat- or distress-related responding in their presence.
Social bonds fulfill the basic human need to belong. Being rejected thwarts this basic need, putting bonds with others at risk. Attachment theory suggests that people satisfy their need to belong through different means. Whereas anxious attachment is associated with craving acceptance and showing vigilance to cues that signal possible rejection, avoidant attachment is associated with discomfort with closeness and using avoidant strategies to regulate one's relationships. Given these different styles by which people satisfy their need to belong (that can operate simultaneously within the same individual), responses to social rejection may differ according to these individual differences in attachment anxiety and avoidance. To test this hypothesis, we used neuroimaging techniques to examine how the degree to which people display each of the two attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) uniquely correlated with their neural activity during a simulated experience of social exclusion. Anxious attachment related to heightened activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula, regions previously associated with rejection-related distress. In contrast, avoidant attachment related to less activity in these regions. Findings are discussed in terms of the strategies that individuals with varying attachment styles might use to promote maintenance of social bonds.
On the basis of the importance of social connection for survival, humans may have evolved a “sociometer”—a mechanism that translates perceptions of rejection or acceptance into state self-esteem. Here, we explored the neural underpinnings of the sociometer by examining whether neural regions responsive to rejection or acceptance were associated with state self-esteem. Participants underwent fMRI while viewing feedback words (“interesting,” “boring“) ostensibly chosen by another individual (confederate) to describe the participant's previously recorded interview. Participants rated their state self-esteem in response to each feedback word. Results demonstrated that greater activity in rejection-related neural regions (dorsal ACC, anterior insula) and mentalizing regions was associated with lower-state self-esteem. Additionally, participants whose self-esteem decreased from prescan to postscan versus those whose self-esteem did not showed greater medial prefrontal cortical activity, previously associated with self-referential processing, in response to negative feedback. Together, the results inform our understanding of the origin and nature of our feelings about ourselves.
How similar are the experiences of social rejection and physical pain? Extant research suggests that a network of brain regions that support the affective but not the sensory components of physical pain underlie both experiences. Here we demonstrate that when rejection is powerfully elicited--by having people who recently experienced an unwanted break-up view a photograph of their ex-partner as they think about being rejected--areas that support the sensory components of physical pain (secondary somatosensory cortex; dorsal posterior insula) become active. We demonstrate the overlap between social rejection and physical pain in these areas by comparing both conditions in the same individuals using functional MRI. We further demonstrate the specificity of the secondary somatosensory cortex and dorsal posterior insula activity to physical pain by comparing activated locations in our study with a database of over 500 published studies. Activation in these regions was highly diagnostic of physical pain, with positive predictive values up to 88%. These results give new meaning to the idea that rejection "hurts." They demonstrate that rejection and physical pain are similar not only in that they are both distressing--they share a common somatosensory representation as well.
Empathy is generally thought of as the ability to share the emotional experiences of others. In scientific terms, this is usually operationalized as an ability to vicariously feel others' mental and emotional experiences. Supporting this account, research demonstrates that watching others experience physical pain activates similar brain regions to the actual experience of pain itself. First-hand experience of social rejection also activates this network. The current work extends these findings by examining whether the "pain" network is similarly implicated in witnessing rejection, and whether emotional closeness modulates this response. We provide evidence for each of these suppositions, demonstrating: (a) that the pain network is activated when watching a friend suffer social rejection, and (b) that interpersonal closeness with that friend modulates this response. Further, we found that the inferior frontal gyrus, critical for representing others' mental and emotional states, mediates the relationship between emotional closeness and neural responses to watching the rejection of a friend.
It has been argued that emotion, pain and cognitive control are functionally segregated in distinct subdivisions of the cingulate cortex. However, recent observations encourage a fundamentally different view. Imaging studies demonstrate that negative affect, pain and cognitive control activate an overlapping region of the dorsal cingulate--the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Anatomical studies reveal that the aMCC constitutes a hub where information about reinforcers can be linked to motor centres responsible for expressing affect and executing goal-directed behaviour. Computational modelling and other kinds of evidence suggest that this intimacy reflects control processes that are common to all three domains. These observations compel a reconsideration of the dorsal cingulate's contribution to negative affect and pain.
Involvement with friends carries many advantages for adolescents, including protection from the detrimental effects of being
rejected by peers. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which friendships may serve their protective role
at this age, or the potential benefit of these friendships as adolescents transition to adulthood. As such, this investigation
tested whether friend involvement during adolescence related to less neural sensitivity to social threats during young adulthood.
Twenty-one adolescents reported the amount of time they spent with friends outside of school using a daily diary. Two years
later they underwent an fMRI scan, during which they were ostensibly excluded from an online ball-tossing game by two same-age
peers. Findings from region of interest and whole brain analyses revealed that spending more time with friends during adolescence
related to less activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula—regions previously linked with negative
affect and pain processing—during an experience of peer rejection 2 years later. These findings are consistent with the notion
that positive relationships during adolescence may relate to individuals being less sensitive to negative social experiences
later on.
The early stages of a new romantic relationship are characterized by intense feelings of euphoria, well-being, and preoccupation with the romantic partner. Neuroimaging research has linked those feelings to activation of reward systems in the human brain. The results of those studies may be relevant to pain management in humans, as basic animal research has shown that pharmacologic activation of reward systems can substantially reduce pain. Indeed, viewing pictures of a romantic partner was recently demonstrated to reduce experimental thermal pain. We hypothesized that pain relief evoked by viewing pictures of a romantic partner would be associated with neural activations in reward-processing centers. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined fifteen individuals in the first nine months of a new, romantic relationship. Participants completed three tasks under periods of moderate and high thermal pain: 1) viewing pictures of their romantic partner, 2) viewing pictures of an equally attractive and familiar acquaintance, and 3) a word-association distraction task previously demonstrated to reduce pain. The partner and distraction tasks both significantly reduced self-reported pain, although only the partner task was associated with activation of reward systems. Greater analgesia while viewing pictures of a romantic partner was associated with increased activity in several reward-processing regions, including the caudate head, nucleus accumbens, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex--regions not associated with distraction-induced analgesia. The results suggest that the activation of neural reward systems via non-pharmacologic means can reduce the experience of pain.
A growing body of evidence suggests that empathy for pain is underpinned by neural structures that are also involved in the direct experience of pain. In order to assess the consistency of this finding, an image-based meta-analysis of nine independent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations and a coordinate-based meta-analysis of 32 studies that had investigated empathy for pain using fMRI were conducted. The results indicate that a core network consisting of bilateral anterior insular cortex and medial/anterior cingulate cortex is associated with empathy for pain. Activation in these areas overlaps with activation during directly experienced pain, and we link their involvement to representing global feeling states and the guidance of adaptive behavior for both self- and other-related experiences. Moreover, the image-based analysis demonstrates that depending on the type of experimental paradigm this core network was co-activated with distinct brain regions: While viewing pictures of body parts in painful situations recruited areas underpinning action understanding (inferior parietal/ventral premotor cortices) to a stronger extent, eliciting empathy by means of abstract visual information about the other's affective state more strongly engaged areas associated with inferring and representing mental states of self and other (precuneus, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, and temporo-parietal junction). In addition, only the picture-based paradigms activated somatosensory areas, indicating that previous discrepancies concerning somatosensory activity during empathy for pain might have resulted from differences in experimental paradigms. We conclude that social neuroscience paradigms provide reliable and accurate insights into complex social phenomena such as empathy and that meta-analyses of previous studies are a valuable tool in this endeavor.
Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a part of the brain's limbic system. Classically, this region has been related to affect, on the basis of lesion studies in humans and in animals. In the late 1980s, neuroimaging research indicated that ACC was active in many studies of cognition. The findings from EEG studies of a focal area of negativity in scalp electrodes following an error response led to the idea that ACC might be the brain's error detection and correction device. In this article, these various findings are reviewed in relation to the idea that ACC is a part of a circuit involved in a form of attention that serves to regulate both cognitive and emotional processing. Neuroimaging studies showing that separate areas of ACC are involved in cognition and emotion are discussed and related to results showing that the error negativity is influenced by affect and motivation. In addition, the development of the emotional and cognitive roles of ACC are discussed, and how the success of this regulation in controlling responses might be correlated with cingulate size. Finally, some theories are considered about how the different subdivisions of ACC might interact with other cortical structures as a part of the circuits involved in the regulation of mental and emotional activity.
Some investigators have argued that emotions, especially animal emotions, are illusory concepts outside the realm of scientific inquiry. With advances in neurobiology and neuroscience, however, researchers are proving this position wrong while moving closer to understanding the biology and psychology of emotion. In Affective Neuroscience, Jaak Panksepp argues that emotional systems in humans, as well as other animals, are necessarily combinations of innate and learned tendencies; there are no routine and credible ways to really separate the influences of nature and nurture in the control of behavior. The book shows how to move toward a new understanding by taking a psychobiological approach to the subject, examining how the neurobiology and neurochemistry of the mammalian brain shape the psychological experience of emotion. It includes chapters on sleep and arousal, pleasure and pain systems, the sources of rage and anger, and the neural control of sexuality. The book will appeal to researchers and professors in the field of emotion.
(from the book) summarize several years of research with rhesus monkeys and surrogate mothers / [demonstrate] that characteristics of mothers other than food resources are important for attachment / when presented with a wire surrogate where milk could be obtained and with a terry cloth mother without milk, infants spent most of their time with the terry cloth surrogate / when the infants were placed in a novel environment or threatened with a strange object, these monkeys appeared to derive comfort from the cloth surrogate / concluded that this effect could not be explained by secondary reinforcement from feeding and that other biological drives must make contact comfort reinforcing
The relationship between cognitions and anxiety was studied in 32 patients with anxiety neurosis. The thoughts and fantasies associated with the arousal and intensification of anxiety were mainly anticipation of physical harm, such as being violently attacked, being involved in an accident, or becoming sick; and anticipation of psychosocial trauma, ranging from humiliation or rejection in certain circumstances to complete ostracism. The patients' idiosyncratic ideation involved unrealistically heightened expectations of harm; the degree of anxiety was related to the degree of credibility of the fears (to the patient) and severity of the anticipated adversity. Of 24 patients specifically questioned about having visual images, 22 reported having typical fantasies of being in danger prior to and concomitant with their anxiety attacks. Verbal cognitions related to danger were reported in all cases.
Poor pain assessment is cited as one barrier to the adequate treatment of cancer pain. The identification of relevant psychosocial factors may improve the assessment of chronic cancer pain. This article presents: 1) a critical review of the evidence for an association between chronic cancer pain and psychological distress, social support, and coping; 2) clinical implications of the findings; and 3) recommendations for future research. Fourteen of the 19 reviewed studies on psychological distress found a significant association between increased pain and increased distress. Seven of the eight studies on social support found significant association between higher levels of pain and decreased levels of social activities and social support. Three of the four studies that examined coping strategies found that increased catastrophizing was significantly associated with more intense pain. Based on several criteria, the evidence is considered Strong for psychological distress, Moderate for social support, and Inconclusive for coping. This review suggests that comprehensive chronic pain assessment should include routine screening for psychological distress.
Social threat is a key component of mental “stress” and a potent generator of negative emotions and physiological responses in the body. How the human brain processes social context and drives peripheral physiology, however, is relatively poorly understood. Human neuroimaging and animal studies implicate the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), though this heterogeneous region is likely to contain multiple sub-regions with diverse relationships with physiological reactivity and regulation. We used fMRI combined with a novel multi-level path analysis approach to identify brain mediators of the effects of a public speech preparation task (social evaluative threat, SET) on heart rate (HR). This model provides tests of functional pathways linking experimentally manipulated threat, regional fMRI activity, and physiological output, both across time (within person) and across individuals (between persons). It thus integrates time series connectivity and individual difference analyses in the same path model. The results provide evidence for two dissociable, inversely coupled sub-regions of MPFC that independently mediated HR responses. SET caused activity increases in a more dorsal pregenual cingulate region, whose activity was coupled with HR increases. Conversely, SET caused activity decreases in a right ventromedial/medial orbital region, which were coupled with HR increases. Individual differences in coupling strength in each pathway independently predicted individual differences in HR reactivity. These results underscore both the importance and heterogeneity of MPFC in generating physiological responses to threat.
Examines the dark side of relating, an inevitable part of interacting with others. How is it that we need others so much, indeed rely on them for our survival and well-being, yet often find it so difficult to maintain satisfying relationships? How can the loved one who raises your spirits by leaving flowers for you one day be the same individual who the next day acts like an insensitive jerk? Relationships provide us with meaning and psychological well-being, but are the source of many, perhaps most, of life's greatest frustrations. Some the most commonly experienced aversive phenomena are explored in this book, including teasing, swearing, gossip, and betrayal. Rich in research and vivid examples, the chapters of this volume explore these behaviors through the eyes of both victims and perpetrators, often revealing the hidden benefits of aversive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Provides an overview of what is currently known about hurt feelings and speculates regarding its causes and functions. The chapter begins with an examination of the status of hurt feelings as an emotion. Given that the emotions of hurt feelings have not been widely studied and do not appear in most taxonomies of emotion, the authors have only partial answers regarding the characteristics of hurt feelings and how they relate to other emotions. After discussing the features of hurt feelings, the authors offer a theoretical perspective that attempts to explain why people's feelings are hurt, and then they review the sparse empirical findings that bear on this theory. Common behavioral reactions to being hurt are introduced, followed by a discussion of why people hurt one another's feelings in the 1st place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Brain imaging with positron emission tomography has identified some of the principal cerebral structures of a central network activated by pain. To discover whether the different cortical and subcortical areas process different components of the multidimensional nature of pain, we performed a regression analysis between noxious heat-related regional blood flow increases and experimental pain parameters reflecting detection of pain, encoding of pain intensity, as well as pain unpleasantness. The results of our activation study indicate that different functions in pain processing can be attributed to different brain regions; ie, the gating function reflected by the pain threshold appeared to be related to anterior cingulate cortex, the frontal inferior cortex, and the thalamus, the coding of pain intensity to the periventricular gray as well as to the posterior cingulate cortex, and the encoding of pain unpleasantness to the posterior sector of the anterior cingulate cortex. Ann Neurol 1999;45:40–47
In order to determine the relationship between endorphins and social attachment, the effects of morphine (an opiate agonist) and naloxone (an opiate antagonist) on various indices of attachment in guinea pigs were studied. In infants, crying or separation-induced distress vocalizations were significantly decreased by single injections of low morphine doses (0.25, .050 and 0.75 mg/kg) in a dose-dependent manner. Naloxone (1 mg/kg) reliably increased separation distress vocalizations in both juvenile and adult guinea pigs. Therefore, similar to opiate withdrawal symptoms, separation distress appeared to be alleviated by morphine and potentiated by naloxone. As for approach attachment, offspring/maternal proximity-maintenance time was significantly decreased by morphine (1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg), suggesting that opiates may be capable of replacing a function normally subserved by endorphins in reinforcing attachments. These data support the hypothesis that an endorphin-based addiction-like process may underlie the maintenance of social attachments, and that separation distress may reflect a state of endogenous “endorphin withdrawal”.
Since the separation of mammals serves to maintain (1) mother-offspring contanct and (2) contact between members of a group, it probably ranks as a basic mammalian vocalization. The present study is part of an investigation concerned with identifying the cerebral representation of the separation call in squirrel monkeys. For this purpose, monkeys are tested for their ability to produce spontaneous calls in isolation before and after ablations of different parts of the brain. Because of the subject's auditory and visual isolation, the call emitted during testing is referred to as the isolation call. In a preceding study, it was shown that lesions at the thalamomidbrain junction and in the ventral central gray interfere with the structure and/or production of the call. The present study focuses on the rostral midline limbic cortex, known to be one of the two cortical areas where stimulation elicits vocalization in monkeys. Evidence derived by the process of elimination indicates that the spontaneous call depends on the concerted action of a continuous band of rostral limbic cortex comprising parts of areas 24, 25, and 12. The midline frontal neocortex peripheral to this limbic zone does not appear to be essential for the call.
Peer rejection is particularly pervasive among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, how adolescents with ASD differ from typically developing adolescents in their responses to peer rejection is poorly understood. The goal of the current investigation was to examine neural responses to peer exclusion among adolescents with ASD compared to typically developing adolescents. Nineteen adolescents with ASD and 17 typically developing controls underwent fMRI as they were ostensibly excluded by peers during an online game called Cyberball. Afterwards, participants reported their distress about the exclusion. Compared to typically developing adolescents, those with ASD displayed less activity in regions previously linked with the distressing aspect of peer exclusion, including the subgenual anterior cingulate and anterior insula, as well as less activity in regions previously linked with the regulation of distress responses during peer exclusion, including the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. Interestingly, however, both groups self-reported equivalent levels of distress. This suggests that adolescents with ASD may engage in differential processing of social experiences at the neural level, but be equally aware of, and concerned about, peer rejection. Overall, these findings contribute new insights about how this population may differentially experience negative social events in their daily lives.
Experiences of social rejection or loss have been described as some of the most "painful" experiences that we, as humans, face and perhaps for good reason. Because of our prolonged period of immaturity, the social attachment system may have co-opted the pain system, borrowing the pain signal to prevent the detrimental consequences of social separation. This review summarizes a program of research that has explored the idea that experiences of physical pain and social pain rely on shared neural substrates. First, evidence showing that social pain activates pain-related neural regions is reviewed. Then, studies exploring some of the expected consequences of such a physical pain-social pain overlap are summarized. These studies demonstrate that a) individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain are also more sensitive to the other and b) factors that increase or decrease one kind of pain alter the other in a similar manner. Finally, what these shared neural substrates mean for our understanding of socially painful experience is discussed.
The ability to assess facial expressions of others involves specialised brain systems important for emotional and social learning, a skill that emerges over childhood. We investigated the development of neural responses associated with implicit processing of facial emotions using magnetoencephalography in children (7-10 yrs), adolescents (12-15 yrs) and adults. The results demonstrated spatial-temporal activations in the ACC and amygdala emotion-processing systems that changed with age. The processing of emotions first engaged the earlier-developing amygdala responses and then involved the later-maturing ACC system. With increasing age there was a shift in lateralization of amygdala responses sensitive to the fearful faces. The findings contribute to a critical understanding of the development related to functional specialization of fear perception in the frontal-limbic emotion systems. The present study offers critical insights into the developmentally time-sensitive impact on the normal functioning of these brain regions.
Social support may benefit mental and physical well-being, but most research has focused on the receipt, rather than the provision, of social support. We explored the potentially beneficial effects of support giving by examining the neural substrates of giving support to a loved one. We focused on a priori regions of interest in the ventral striatum and septal area (SA) because of their role in maternal caregiving behavior in animals.
Twenty romantic couples completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session in which the female partner underwent a scan while her partner stood just outside the scanner and received unpleasant electric shocks.
Support giving (holding a partner's arm while they experienced physical pain), compared with other control conditions, led to significantly more activity in the ventral striatum, a reward-related region also involved in maternal behavior (p values < .05). Similar effects were observed for the SA, a region involved in both maternal behavior and fear attenuation. Greater activity in each of these regions during support giving was associated with greater self-reported support giving effectiveness and social connection (r values = 0.55-0.64, p values < .05). In addition, in line with the SA's role in fear attenuation (presumably to facilitate caregiving during stress), increased SA activity during support giving was associated with reduced left (r = -0.44, p < .05) and right (r = -0.42, p < .05) amygdala activity.
Results suggest that support giving may be beneficial not only for the receiver but also for the giver. Implications for the possible stress-reducing effects of support giving are discussed.
Human peer relations provide tangible benefits, including food and protection, as well as emotional benefits. While social exclusion poses a threat to all of these benefits, the psychological threat is particularly susceptible to modulation by the relation of the excluders to the excluded person. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the effects of manipulating the gender relation of participants to their excluders during an interactive ball-toss game. Ventral anterior cingulate cortex activation was higher during exclusion by same-gender peers, while right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation negatively correlated with self-reported distress in other-gender exclusion. Results imply that exclusion by one's own gender is fundamentally different from exclusion by the opposite gender, and suggest a regulatory role for ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to out-group exclusion. Individual differences in implicit gender attitudes modulated neural responses to exclusion. The importance of these findings to investigations of social cognition is discussed.
Innate immune responses are regulated by microorganisms and cell death, as well as by a third class of stress signal from the nervous and endocrine systems. The innate immune system also feeds back, through the production of cytokines, to regulate the function of the central nervous system (CNS), and this has effects on behaviour. These signals provide an extrinsic regulatory circuit that links physiological, social and environmental conditions, as perceived by the CNS, with transcriptional 'decision-making' in leukocytes. CNS-mediated regulation of innate immune responses optimizes total organism fitness and provides new opportunities for therapeutic control of chronic infectious, inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases.
Social exclusion is a distressing experience and can result in a reduction of prosocial behavior. In this fMRI study we examined the neural networks involved in social exclusion and subsequent fairness considerations across adolescent development. Participants from 3 age groups (10-12, 14-16 and 19-21 year olds) participated in the study and performed two tasks; first, participants played Cyberball to induce feelings of social inclusion and exclusion, followed by a Dictator game in which participants were asked to divide coins between themselves and the players who previously included or excluded them. Results revealed a network of regions associated with social exclusion, which involve the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)/ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), subgenual ACC and the lateral PFC, as well as the insula and the dorsal ACC. Although social exclusion generated strong distress for all age groups, 10-12 year olds showed increased activity in the subgenual ACC in the exclusion game, which has been associated in previous studies with negative affective processing. Results of the Dictator game revealed that all age groups selectively punished the excluders by making lower offers. These offers were associated with activation in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), superior temporal sulcus (STS) and the lateral PFC. Age comparisons revealed that adults showed additional activity in the insula and dorsal ACC when making offers to the excluders. The results are discussed in the light of recent findings on neural networks involved in social exclusion and the development of social brain regions.
The present study aimed to explore the neural correlates of two characteristic deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD); social impairment and restricted, repetitive behavior patterns. To this end, we used comparable experiences of social exclusion and rule violation to probe potentially atypical neural networks in ASD. In children and adolescents with and without ASD, we used the interactive ball-toss game (Cyberball) to elicit social exclusion and a comparable game (Cybershape) to elicit a non-exclusive rule violation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we identified group differences in brain responses to social exclusion and rule violation. Though both groups reported equal distress following exclusion, the right insula and ventral anterior cingulate cortex were hypoactive during exclusion in children with ASD. In rule violation, right insula and dorsal prefrontal cortex were hyperactive in ASD. Right insula showed a dissociation in activation; it was hypoactive to social exclusion and hyperactive to rule violation in the ASD group. Further probed, different regions of right insula were modulated in each game, highlighting differences in regional specificity for which subsequent analyses revealed differences in patterns of functional connectivity. These results demonstrate neurobiological differences in processing social exclusion and rule violation in children with ASD.
Relationships between genes and social behavior have historically been construed as a one-way street, with genes in control. Recent analyses have challenged this view by discovering broad alterations in the expression of human genes as a function of differing socio-environmental conditions. The emerging field of social genomics has begun to identity the types of genes subject to social regulation, the biological signaling pathways mediating those effects, and the genetic polymorphisms that moderate socio-environmental influences on human gene expression.
Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal cognitive and ventral-rostral affective subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear or anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC and mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, whereas ventral-rostral portions of the ACC and mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.
Despite empathy's importance for promoting social interactions, neuroimaging research has largely overlooked empathy during social experiences. Here, we examined neural activity during empathy for social exclusion and assessed how empathy-related neural processes might relate to subsequent prosocial behavior toward the excluded victim. During an fMRI scan, participants observed one person being excluded by two others, and afterwards sent emails to each of these 'people.' Later, a group of raters assessed how prosocial (e.g., helpful, comforting) the emails were. Observing exclusion (vs. inclusion) activated regions associated with mentalizing (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus), and highly empathic individuals activated both mentalizing regions and social pain-related regions (anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex). Additionally, the empathy-related activity in the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex was associated with later prosocial behavior toward the victim, and exploratory mediation analyses indicated that medial prefrontal cortex activity, in particular, may support the link between trait empathy and prosocial behavior. Overall, findings suggest that empathy-related neural responses to social experiences may promote spontaneous prosocial treatment of those in need.
Social exclusion inherently involves an element of expectancy violation, in that we expect other people to follow the unwritten rule to include us in social interactions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we employed a unique modification of an interactive virtual ball-tossing game called "Cyberball" (Williams et al., 2000) and a novel paradigm called "Cybershape," in which rules are broken in the absence of social exclusion, to dissociate brain regions that process social exclusion from rule violations more generally. Our Cyberball game employed an alternating block design and removed evoked responses to events when the participant was throwing the ball in inclusion to make this condition comparable to exclusion, where participants did not throw. With these modifications, we replicated prior findings of ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), insula, and posterior cingulate cortex activity evoked by social exclusion relative to inclusion. We also identified exclusion-evoked activity in the hippocampi, left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus. Comparing social exclusion and rule violation revealed a functional dissociation in the active neural systems as well as differential functional connectivity with vACC. Some overlap was observed in regions differentially modulated by social exclusion and rule violation, including the vACC and lateral parietal cortex. These overlapping brain regions showed different activation during social exclusion compared to rule violation, each relative to fair play. Comparing activation patterns to social exclusion and rule violation allowed for the dissociation of brain regions involved in the experience of exclusion versus expectancy violation.