Intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of social exclusion

Feeling better now? Being defended diminishes daily mood problems and self-blame in victims of bullying

BACKGROUND

School bullying is a group phenomenon in which being defended by peer bystanders may buffer against the development of psychological problems in victims.

AIMS

This registered report examines whether being defended diminished victims' daily mood problems and self-blame, both from a within- and between-person perspective.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Daily diary data were collected from n = 1669 Finnish 7th-9th grade students (M age = 14.45; 55.5% girl) across 3 weeks. In n = 1329 out of 12,366 assessments (10.7%), students indicated that schoolmates victimized them on the day of bullying.

RESULTS

Multi-level regression analyses indicated that students reported lower depressed mood, greater positive mood and lower self-blame on days that they were victimized and defended as compared to days when they were victimized but non-defended. Effect sizes were medium for depressed mood and small for positive mood and self-blame. Repeated victims (n = 144) were less likely to blame themselves for victimization on days they were defended, which, in turn, diminished feelings of humiliation (mediation).

DISCUSSION

Our findings indicate that being defended benefits victims of bullying by mitigating mood problems, both directly and indirectly via diminished self-blame.

CONCLUSION

Anti-bullying programmes that encourage peer defending have the potential to improve victims' psychological adjustment, even on a daily basis.

Social exclusion: differences in neural mechanisms underlying direct versus vicarious experience

Social exclusion stands as a source of social discord and holds substantial research value. Prior investigations on social exclusion have overlooked the interactive relationship between the excluded individuals and the observers. Hence, this study comparatively explores the neural mechanisms underlying the psychological responses of two distinct roles within the same social exclusion context. A total of 35 pairs (19 pairs of females) participated in the experiment. Within each pair, one individual assumed the role of a socially excluded participant (target), while the other acted as a social exclusion observer. Targets engaged in an online ball-passing game where controlled ball allocations to the participants created an exclusion scenario. Meanwhile, observers spectated the targets playing the game. Throughout the ball-passing activity, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recorded the blood oxygen data in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) of both participants. Our findings revealed varied levels of rejection sensitivity elicited by direct or observed social exclusion experiences. Additionally, distinct patterns of neural activation were observed: targets displayed conditional differences in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), while male observers exhibited conditional activation differences in the mPFC, and female observers showed conditional activation differences in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). This study juxtaposes the behavioral and neural activation variances between targets and observers within the same social context, offering a novel perspective on investigating the neural mechanisms of social exclusion.

Effects of two different social exclusion paradigms on ambiguous facial emotion recognition

Social exclusion is an emotionally painful experience that leads to various alterations in socio-emotional processing. The perceptual and emotional consequences that may arise from experiencing social exclusion can vary depending on the paradigm used to manipulate it. Exclusion paradigms can vary in terms of the severity and duration of the leading exclusion experience, thereby classifying it as either a short-term or long-term experience. The present study aimed to study the impact of exclusion on socio-emotional processing using different paradigms that caused experiencing short-term and imagining long-term exclusion. Ambiguous facial emotions were used as socio-emotional cues. In study 1, the Ostracism Online paradigm was used to manipulate short-term exclusion. In study 2, a new sample of participants imagined long-term exclusion through the future life alone paradigm. Participants of both studies then completed a facial emotion recognition task consisting of morphed ambiguous facial emotions. By means of Point of Subjective Equivalence analyses, our results indicate that the experience of short-term exclusion hinders recognising happy facial expressions. In contrast, imagining long-term exclusion causes difficulties in recognising sad facial expressions. These findings extend the current literature, suggesting that not all social exclusion paradigms affect socio-emotional processing similarly.

The role of external factors in affect-sharing and their neural bases

Affect-sharing, the ability to vicariously feel another person's emotions, is the primary component of empathy that is typically thought to rely on the observer's capacity to feel the emotions of others. However, external signals, such as the target's physical characteristics, have been demonstrated to influence affect-sharing in the neuroscientific literature that speaks to the underappreciated role of external factors in eliciting affect-sharing. We consider factors that influence affect-sharing, including physical cues, emotional cues, situational factors, and observer-target relationships, as well as the neural circuits involved in these processes. Our review reveals that, while neural network activation is primarily responsible for processing affect-sharing, external factors also co-activate a top-down cognitive processing network to modulate the conscious process of affect-sharing. From this knowledge, an integrative framework of external factor interactions with affect-sharing are explained in detail. Finally, we identify critical areas for future research in social and affective neuroscience, including research gaps and incorporation of ecologically valid paradigms.

Uncovering the underlying factors of ERP changes in the cyberball paradigm: A systematic review investigating the impact of ostracism and paradigm characteristics

The Cyberball is the most commonly employed paradigm for the investigation of the effects of social exclusion, also called ostracism. The analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs), short-term stimulus-induced fluctuations in the EEG signal, has been employed for the identification of time-sensitive neural responses to ostracism-related information. Changes in ERPs during the Cyberball are normally attributed to the effect of ostracism, but it has been argued that characteristics of the paradigm, not ostracism, are the driving force for these changes. To elucidate the origin of the ERP changes in the Cyberball, we systematically reviewed the Cyberball-ERP literature of healthy, adult populations, and evaluated whether the social context of ostracism or characteristics of the paradigm are better suited for the explanation of the found results. Our results show that for many components no clear origin can be identified, but that expectancy violations, not ostracism, best explains the results of the P3 complex. Future research should therefore also employ other paradigms for the research into the effects of ostracism on ERPs.

Script-driven imagery of socially salient autobiographical memories in major depressive disorder

Cues of social rejection and affiliation represent proximal risk and protective factors in the onset and maintenance of depression. Such cues are thought to activate an evolutionarily primed neuro-cognitive alarm system, alerting the agent to the benefits of inclusion or the risk of social exclusion within social hierarchies focused on ensuring continued access to resources. In tandem, autobiographical memory is thought to be over-general and negatively biased in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) which can contribute to maintenance and relapse. How memories of social rejection and affiliation are experienced and processed in MDD remains unexplored. Eighteen participants with recurrent and chronic MDD and 18 never-depressed controls listened to and vividly revisited autobiographical social experiences in an ecologically valid script-driven imagery paradigm using naturalistic memory narratives in an fMRI paradigm. Memories of Social Inclusion and Social Rejection broadly activated a common network of regions including the bilateral insula, thalamus and pre/postcentral gyrus across both groups. However, having a diagnosis of MDD was associated with an increased activation of the right middle frontal gyrus irrespective of memory type. Changes in positive affect were associated with activity in the dorsal ACC in the MDD group and in the insular cortex of the Control group. Our findings add to the evidence for complex representations for both positive and negative social signals in MDD and suggest neural sensitivity in MDD towards any socially salient information as opposed to selective sensitivity towards negative social experiences.

A neurocognitive model of early onset persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood

It remains unclear which functional and neurobiological mechanisms are associated with persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood. We reviewed the empirical literature and propose a neurocognitive social information processing model for early onset persistent and desistant antisocial behavior in early adulthood, focusing on how young adults evaluate, act upon, monitor, and learn about their goals and self traits. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose that persistent antisocial behavior is characterized by domain-general impairments in self-relevant and goal-related information processing, regulation, and learning, which is accompanied by altered activity in fronto-limbic brain areas. We propose that desistant antisocial development is associated with more effortful information processing, regulation and learning, that possibly balances self-relevant goals and specific situational characteristics. The proposed framework advances insights by considering individual differences such as psychopathic personality traits, and specific emotional characteristics (e.g., valence of social cues), to further illuminate functional and neural mechanisms underlying heterogenous developmental pathways. Finally, we address important open questions and offer suggestions for future research to improve scientific knowledge on general and context-specific expression and development of antisocial behavior in early adulthood.

Excitatory Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Increases Social Anxiety

Social exclusion refers to the experience of rejection by one or more people during a social event and can induce pain-related sensations. Cyberball, a computer program, is one of the most common tools for analyzing social exclusion. Regions of the brain that underlie social pain include networks linked to the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Specifically, self-directed negative socially induced exclusion is associated with changes in DLPFC activity. Direct manipulation of this area may provide a better understanding of how the DLPFC can influence the perception of social exclusion and determine a causal role of the DLPFC. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to both the left and right DLPFC to gauge different reactions to the Cyberball experience. It was found that there were elevated exclusion indices following right DLPFC rTMS; participants consistently felt more excluded when the right DLPFC was excited. This may relate to greater feelings of social pain when the right DLPFC is manipulated. These data demonstrate that direct manipulation of the DLPFC results in changes in responses to social exclusion.

An eye-tracking study of biased attentional processing of emotional faces in severe alcohol use disorder

BACKGROUND

Social cognition impairments in severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD) are increasingly established. However, fundamental aspects of social cognition, and notably the attentional processing of socio-affective information, remain unexplored, limiting our understanding of underlying mechanisms. Here, we determined whether patients with SAUD show attentional biases to specific socio-affective cues, namely emotional faces.

METHOD

In a modified dot-probe paradigm, 30 patients with SAUD and 30 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) were presented with pairs of neutral-emotional (angry, disgusted, happy, sad) faces while having their eye movements recorded. Indices of early/automatic (first fixations, latency to first fixations) and later/controlled (number of fixations, dwell-time) processes were computed.

RESULTS

Patients with SAUD did not differ from HC in their attention to angry/disgusted/sad vs. neutral faces. However, patients with SAUD fixated/dwelled less on happy vs. neutral faces in the first block of stimuli than HC, who presented an attentional bias to happy faces.

LIMITATIONS

Sample-size was determined to detect medium-to-large effects and subtler ones may have been missed. Further, our cross-sectional design provides no explanation as to whether the evidenced biases precede or are a consequence of SAUD.

CONCLUSIONS

These results extend the social cognition literature in SAUD to the attentional domain, by evidencing the absence of a controlled attentional bias toward positive social cues in SAUD. This may reflect reduced sensitivity to social reward and could contribute to higher order social cognition difficulties and social dysfunction.

The electrophysiological characteristics of social exclusion: the perspective of close and distant relationships

The sources of social exclusion are very wide, ranging from the closest people to strangers. However, current studies mainly reveal the electrophysiological characteristics of social exclusion by means of binary comparison between social exclusion and social inclusion, and lack of in-depth analysis of the differences caused by different sources of exclusion. In this study, a static passing ball paradigm system including close and distant relationship identity information was used to reveal the electrophysiological characteristics of individuals when they were excluded by people with different close and distant relationships. The results showed that there was a degree effect of P2, P3a, and LPC components when individuals were excluded by people with different close and distant relationships. Specifically, the amplitude of P2, P3a, and LPC components was larger when individuals were excluded by more distant people. The results indicated that individuals would become more alert and perceive stronger exclusion experience when they were excluded by more distant people, which provided more diversified evidence for the conclusion that electrophysiological components were larger under the condition of exclusion, and revealed the electrophysiological basis behind the multiple motivation models. The results also helped to explain the physiological reasons behind individuals' different coping behaviors toward excluder with different importance of relationship.

Do Belonging and Social Exclusion at School Affect Structural Brain Development During Adolescence?

Students' sense of belonging presents an essential resource for academic and health outcomes, whereas social exclusion at school negatively impacts students' well-being and academic performance. Aiming to understand how feelings of school-related belonging and exclusion shape the structural brain development, this study applied longitudinal questionnaire-based data and MRI data from 71 adolescent students (37 females, M_age at t1 = 15.0; t2 = 16.1 years). All were white participants from Germany. Voxel-based morphometry revealed only an association of social exclusion (and not of belonging) and gray matter volume in the left anterior insula: From t1 to t2, there was less gray matter decrease, the more social exclusion students perceived. School-related social exclusion and disturbed neurodevelopment are thus significantly associated.

Social exclusion increases the executive function of attention networks

Previous studies in humans have shown that brain regions activating social exclusion overlap with those related to attention. However, in the context of social exclusion, how does behavioral monitoring affect individual behavior? In this study, we used the Cyberball game to induce the social exclusion effect in a group of participants. To explore the influence of social exclusion on the attention network, we administered the Attention Network Test (ANT) and compared results for the three subsystems of the attention network (orienting, alerting, and executive control) between exclusion (N = 60) and inclusion (N = 60) groups. Compared with the inclusion group, the exclusion group showed shorter overall response time and better executive control performance, but no significant differences in orienting or alerting. The excluded individuals showed a stronger ability to detect and control conflicts. It appears that social exclusion does not always exert a negative influence on individuals. In future research, attention to network can be used as indicators of social exclusion. This may further reveal how social exclusion affects individuals' psychosomatic mechanisms.

Social exclusion reliably engages the default network: A meta-analysis of Cyberball

Social exclusion refers to the experience of being disregarded or rejected by others and has wide-ranging negative consequences for well-being and cognition. Cyberball, a game where a ball is virtually tossed between players, then leads to the exclusion of the research participant, is a common method used to examine the experience of social exclusion. The neural correlates of social exclusion remain a topic of debate, particularly with regards to the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the concept of social pain. Here we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to identify brain activity reliably engaged by social exclusion during Cyberball task performance (Studies = 53; total N = 1,817 participants). Results revealed consistent recruitment in ventral anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate cortex, inferior and superior frontal gyri, posterior insula, and occipital pole. No reliable activity was observed in dACC. Using a probabilistic atlas to define dACC, fewer than 15% of studies reported peak coordinates in dACC. Meta-analytic connectivity mapping suggests patterns of co-activation are consistent with the topography of the default network. Reverse inference for cognition associated with reliable Cyberball activity computed in Neurosynth revealed social exclusion to be associated with cognitive terms Social, Autobiographical, Mental States, and Theory of Mind. Taken together, these findings highlight the role of the default network in social exclusion and warns against interpretations of the dACC as a key region involved in the experience of social exclusion in humans.

Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

Childhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered "resilient"), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

Changes in the neural correlates of self-blame following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in remitted depressed participants

Mindfulness-Based-Cognitive-Therapy (MBCT) reduces vulnerability for relapse into depression by helping individuals to counter tendencies to engage in maladaptive repetitive patterns of thinking and respond more compassionately to negative self-judgment. However, little is known about the neural correlates underlying these effects. To elucidate these correlates, we investigated fMRI brain activation during a task eliciting feelings of blaming oneself or others. Sixteen participants in remission from major depressive disorder (MDD) completed fMRI assessments before and after MBCT, alongside self-reported levels of self-compassion, mindfulness, and depression symptoms. Analyses of self-blame versus other-blame contrasts showed a reduction in activation in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate/medial superior frontal gyrus after MBCT compared to baseline. Further, exploratory analyses showed that increases in self-kindness after MBCT correlated with reduced activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus in self-blame versus rest contrasts. These findings suggest that MBCT is associated with a reduction in activations in cortical midline regions to self-blame which may be mediated by increasing self-kindness. However, this is a small, uncontrolled study with 16 participants and therefore our results will need confirmation in a controlled study.

Negative affect moderates the effect of social rejection on frontal and anterior cingulate cortex activation in borderline personality disorder

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have a heightened sensitivity to social exclusion. Experimental manipulations have produced inconsistent findings and suggested that baseline negative affect (NA) might influence the experience of exclusion. We administered a standardized social exclusion protocol (Cyberball paradigm) in BPD (n = 39) and age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 29) to investigate the association of NA on social exclusion and activation in brain regions previously implicated in this paradigm. Compared with controls, patients with BPD showed higher activation during social exclusion in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and in the right precuneus. Prescan NA ratings were associated with higher brain activation in the ACC and mPFC over all conditions, and post hoc t tests revealed that differences between the groups were only significant when controlling for NA. Brain activation during exclusion was correlated with NA separately for each group. Only BPD patients showed a significant association of NA and exclusion related precuneus activation (r = .52 p = .001). Additionally, BPD patients experienced less feelings of belonging compared with a healthy control (HC) group during inclusion and exclusion, although they estimated their ball possessions significantly higher than did the HC. These findings suggest that baseline NA has a crucial impact on Cyberball-related brain activation. The results underscore the importance of considering levels of NA in social exclusion protocols for participants high in this trait.

Socio-affective processing biases in severe alcohol use disorders: Experimental and therapeutic perspectives

Previous literature has consistently reported socio-affective information processing impairments in patients with severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). Some recent studies have also suggested that these patients might exhibit biases toward stimuli indicating social threat, such as angry or disgusted faces. Such biases have been largely documented in other psychopathological disorders like anxiety, where they play a critical role in the emergence and maintenance of the disorder. A comprehensive understanding of these biases in SAUD would thus deepen the understanding of interpersonal difficulties and relapse-related factors. However, to date, no study has directly explored these biases in SAUD. In order to initiate efforts to address this issue, we first review preliminary evidence supporting the hypothesis of biased processing of social threat in SAUD. Then, we identify possible pathways through which such biases might negatively impact the course of the disorder. Finally, we provide precise recommendations and available materials to develop research in this promising field, and underline the related theoretical and clinical perspectives.

Social Exclusion Shifts Personal Network Scope

Social exclusion has the potential to alter subsequent social interactions with the members of personal networks, especially given their online availability in contemporary life. Nonetheless, there is minimal research examining how social challenges such as exclusion alter ensuing interactions with personal ties. Here, we tested whether being excluded during a social interaction changed which relationships are most salient in an ostensibly unrelated, online news sharing task. Across three operationalizations of tie strength, exclusion (vs. inclusion) increased sharing to close friends, but (unexpectedly) decreased sharing to close family members. The findings provide preliminary evidence that negative encounters may shift attention toward certain types of network ties and away from others. Future work is needed to examine how social experiences influence personal network scope – i.e., who comes to mind – in the background of daily life.

Brain gray and white matter abnormalities in preterm-born adolescents: A meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies

Introduction

Studies using voxel-based morphometry report variable and inconsistent abnormalities of gray matter volume (GMV) and white matter volume (WMV) in brains of preterm-born adolescents (PBA). In such circumstances a meta-analysis can help identify the most prominent and consistent abnormalities.

Method

We identified 9 eligible studies by systematic search of the literature up to October 2017. We used Seed-based d Mapping to analyze GMV and WMV alterations between PBA and healthy controls.

Results

In the GMV meta-analysis, PBA compared to healthy controls showed: increased GMV in left cuneus cortex, left superior frontal gyrus, and right anterior cingulate cortex; decreased GMV in bilateral inferior temporal gyrus (ITG), left superior frontal gyrus, and right caudate nucleus. In the WMV meta-analysis, PBA showed: increased WMV in right fusiform gyrus and precuneus; decreased WMV in bilateral ITG, and right inferior frontal gyrus. In meta-regression analysis, the percentage of male PBA negatively correlated with decreased GMV of bilateral ITG.

Interpretation

PBA show widespread GMV and WMV alterations in the default mode network, visual recognition network, and salience network. These changes may be causally relevant to socialization difficulties and cognitive impairments. The meta-regression results perhaps reveal the structural underpinning of the cognition-related sex differences in PBA.

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation during social exclusion mediates the relation between intolerance of uncertainty and trait aggression

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is an important individual difference factor that may contribute to trait-like aggression. Deficient engagement of the ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC) during social situations may also be a mechanism that links these two constructs. The aim of the current study was to test a proposed mediation model whereby IU is associated with trait aggression through neural activation of the vlPFC during a social exclusion task. Fifty-three adults with a range of impulsive-aggressive traits completed validated assessments of IU and trait aggression, and the 'Cyberball' social exclusion task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results supported the mediation model such that greater levels of IU were associated with greater trait aggression through hypoactivation of the vlPFC during social exclusion. This study is the first to provide evidence suggesting that individuals higher in IU have difficulties engaging regulatory neural processes, which in-turn may increase the propensity for aggression.

Immediate and delayed neuroendocrine responses to social exclusion in males and females

Social exclusion is a complex phenomenon, with wide-ranging immediate and delayed effects on well-being, hormone levels, brain activation and motivational behavior. Building upon previous work, the current fMRI study investigated affective, endocrine and neural responses to social exclusion in a more naturalistic Cyberball task in 40 males and 40 females. As expected, social exclusion elicited well-documented affective and neural responses, i.e., increased anger and distress, as well as increased exclusion-related activation of the anterior insula, the posterior-medial frontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cortisol and testosterone decreased over the course of the experiment, whereas progesterone showed no changes. Hormone levels were not correlated with subjective affect, but they were related to exclusion-induced neural responses. Exclusion-related activation in frontal areas was associated with decreases in cortisol and increases in testosterone until recovery. Given that results were largely independent of sex, the current findings have important implications regarding between-sex vs. within-sex variations and the conceptualization of state vs. trait neuroendocrine functions in social neuroscience.

Pass it on? The neural responses to rejection in the context of a family study on maltreatment

Rejection by parents is an important aspect of child maltreatment. Altered neural responses to social rejection have been observed in maltreated individuals. The current study is the first to examine the impact of experienced and perpetrated abuse and neglect on neural responses to social exclusion by strangers versus family using a multigenerational family design, including 144 participants. The role of neural reactivity to social exclusion in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment was also examined. Exclusion by strangers was especially associated with increased activation in the left insula, while exclusion by a family member was mainly associated with increased activation in the ACC. Neural reactivity to social exclusion by strangers in the insula, ACC and dmPFC, was associated with experienced maltreatment but not with perpetrated maltreatment. In abusive parents, altered neural reactivity during exclusion was found in other brain areas, indicating different neural correlates of experienced and perpetrated maltreatment. Hence, no mechanisms could be identified that are involved in the transmission of maltreatment. Hypersensitivity to social rejection by strangers in neglected individuals underscores the importance to distinguish between effects of abuse and neglect and suggests that the impact of experiencing rejection and maltreatment by your own parents extends beyond the family context.

The Relationship between Regional Gray Matter Volume of Social Exclusion Regions and Personal Self-Esteem Is Moderated by Collective Self-Esteem

According to sociometer theory, self-esteem is an internal monitor of positive social bonds to others. Social exclusion can break or threaten social bonds, which might be reflected by the brain structure of social exclusion regions. Thus, self-esteem might be influenced by structurally individual differences in these regions. It has been suggested that self-esteem can be divided into personal (PSE) and collective (CSE) self-esteem and CSE can bring individuals many benefits, such as acceptance, belonging, and social support, which could further maintain or increase their PSE. Based on this, we hypothesized that CSE might moderate the relationship between structurally individual differences in social exclusion regions and PSE. Therefore, in the present study, the moderating effect of CSE on the relationships between PSE and individual differences in regional gray matter volume (rGMV) of 10 social exclusion regions from previous meta-analysis of social exclusion were investigated using voxel-based morphometry. The results showed that CSE played a moderating role in the relationship between PSE and rGMV of the left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Specifically, PSE was positively associated with rGMV of left PCC in lower CSE, while there was no significant relationship between PSE and rGMV of left PCC in higher CSE. Therefore, we believe that compared with a higher CSE, because of lack of acceptance, belonging, and social support from valued groups, lower CSE individuals might be more prone to be influenced by social exclusion with decreased rGMV of the left PCC, which makes them more prone to develop lower PSE.

A Neural Model of Empathic States in Attachment-Based Psychotherapy

We build on a neuroanatomical model of how empathic states can motivate caregiving behavior, via empathy circuit-driven activation of regions in the hypothalamus and amygdala, which in turn stimulate a mesolimbic-ventral pallidum pathway, by integrating findings related to the perception of pain in self and others. On this basis, we propose a network to capture states of personal distress and (weak and strong forms of) empathic concern, which are particularly relevant for psychotherapists conducting attachment-based interventions. This model is then extended for the case of self-attachment therapy, in which conceptualized components of the self serve as both the source of and target for empathic resonance. In particular, we consider how states of empathic concern involving an other that is perceived as being closely related to the self might enhance the motivation for self-directed bonding (which in turn is proposed to lead the individual toward more compassionate states) in terms of medial prefrontal cortex-mediated activation of these caregiving pathways. We simulate our model computationally and discuss the interplay between the bonding and empathy protocols of the therapy.

Brain responses to social norms: Meta-analyses of fMRI studies

Social norms have a critical role in everyday decision-making, as frequent interaction with others regulates our behavior. Neuroimaging studies show that social-based and fairness-related decision-making activates an inconsistent set of areas, which sometimes includes the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and others lateral prefrontal cortices. Social-based decision-making is complex and variability in findings may be driven by socio-cognitive activities related to social norms. To distinguish among social-cognitive activities related to social norms, we identified 36 eligible articles in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature, which we separate into two categories (a) social norm representation and (b) norm violations. The majority of original articles (>60%) used tasks associated with fairness norms and decision-making, such as ultimatum game, dictator game, or prisoner's dilemma; the rest used tasks associated to violation of moral norms, such as scenarios and sentences of moral depravity ratings. Using quantitative meta-analyses, we report common and distinct brain areas that show concordance as a function of category. Specifically, concordance in ventromedial prefrontal regions is distinct to social norm representation processing, whereas concordance in right insula, dorsolateral prefrontal, and dorsal cingulate cortices is distinct to norm violation processing. We propose a neurocognitive model of social norms for healthy adults, which could help guide future research in social norm compliance and mechanisms of its enforcement.

Brain connectivity dynamics during social interaction reflect social network structure

Social ties are crucial for humans. Disruption of ties through social exclusion has a marked effect on our thoughts and feelings; however, such effects can be tempered by broader social network resources. Here, we use fMRI data acquired from 80 male adolescents to investigate how social exclusion modulates functional connectivity within and across brain networks involved in social pain and understanding the mental states of others (i.e., mentalizing). Furthermore, using objectively logged friendship network data, we examine how individual variability in brain reactivity to social exclusion relates to the density of participants' friendship networks, an important aspect of social network structure. We find increased connectivity within a set of regions previously identified as a mentalizing system during exclusion relative to inclusion. These results are consistent across the regions of interest as well as a whole-brain analysis. Next, examining how social network characteristics are associated with task-based connectivity dynamics, we find that participants who showed greater changes in connectivity within the mentalizing system when socially excluded by peers had less dense friendship networks. This work provides insight to understand how distributed brain systems respond to social and emotional challenges and how such brain dynamics might vary based on broader social network characteristics.

Pediatric Irritability: A Systems Neuroscience Approach

Irritability, defined as an increased propensity to exhibit increased anger relative to one's peers, is a common clinical problem in youth. Irritability can be conceptualized as aberrant responses to frustration (where frustration is the emotional response to blocked goal attainment) and/or aberrant 'approach' responses to threat. Irritable youth show hyper-reactivity to threat mediated by dysfunction in amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, striatum, and association cortex. Irritable youth also show abnormalities in reward learning, cognitive control, and responses to frustration. These abnormalities are mediated by circuitry that includes the inferior frontal gyrus (iFG), striatum, ACC, and parietal cortex. Effective treatments for irritability are lacking, but pathophysiological research could lead to more precisely targeted interventions.

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Responses to Repeated Social Evaluative Feedback in Young Women with and without a History of Depression

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is recruited when a person is socially rejected or negatively evaluated. However, it remains to be fully understood how this region responds to repeated exposure to personally-relevant social evaluation, in both healthy populations and those vulnerable to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), as well as how responding in these regions is associated with subsequent clinical functioning. To address this gap in the literature, we recruited 17 young women with past history of MDD (previously depressed) and 31 healthy controls and exposed them to a social evaluative session in a neuroimaging environment. In two bouts, participants received an equal amount of positive, negative, and neutral feedback from a confederate. All participants reported increases in feelings of social evaluation in response to the evaluative task. However, compared to healthy controls, previously depressed participants tended to show greater increases in depressed mood following the task. At the neural level, in response to negative (vs. positive) feedback, no main effect of group or evaluation periods was observed. However, a significant interaction between group and evaluation periods was found. Specifically, over the two bouts of evaluation, activity in the dACC decreased among healthy participants while it increased among previously depressed individuals. Interestingly and unexpectedly, in the previously depressed group specifically, this increased activity in dACC over time was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms at baseline and at 6-months following the evaluation session (controlling for baseline levels). Thus, the subset of previously depressed participants who showed increases in the recruitment of the dACC over time in response to the negative evaluation seemed to fair better emotionally. These findings suggest that examining how the dACC responds to repeated bouts of negative evaluation reveals a new dimension to the role of the dACC in processing exclusion and contributing to mental health outcomes in a population vulnerable to MDD. Further, investigation of the dynamics of the dACC response to negative social evaluation is warranted.

Trait rejection sensitivity is associated with vigilance and defensive response rather than detection of social rejection cues

Prior studies suggest that psychological difficulties arise from higher trait Rejection Sensitivity (RS)-heightened vigilance and differential detection of social rejection cues and defensive response to. On the other hand, from an evolutionary perspective, rapid and efficient detection of social rejection cues can be considered beneficial. We conducted a survey and an electrophysiological experiment to reconcile this seeming contradiction. We compared the effects of RS and Rejection Detection Capability (RDC) on perceived interpersonal experiences (Study 1) and on neurocognitive processes in response to cues of social rejection (disgusted faces; Study 2). We found that RS and RDC were not significantly related, although RS was positively related to perceived social rejection experiences and RDC was positively related to perceived social inclusion experiences. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) revealed that higher RS was related to cognitive avoidance (i.e., P1) and heightened motivated attention (i.e., late positive potential: LPP), but not to facial expression encoding (i.e., N170) toward disgusted faces. On the other hand, higher RDC was related to heightened N170 amplitude, but not to P1 and LPP amplitudes. These findings imply that sensitivity to rejection is apparently distinct from the ability to detect social rejection cues and instead reflects intense vigilance and defensive response to those cues. We discussed an alternative explanation of the relationship between RS and RDC from a signal detection perspective.

Polymorphism in the µ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) modulates neural processing of physical pain, social rejection and error processing

Variations of the µ-opioid receptor gene OPRM1 have been shown to modulate pain perception with some evidence pointing towards a modulation of not only physical but also "psychological pain". In line with suggestions of a common neural network involved in the processing of physical pain and negative and distressing stimuli, like social rejection as a psychologically harmful event, we examined the influence of the A118G polymorphism on the neural processing of physical and non-physical pain. Using fMRI, we investigated a sample of 23 females with the more frequent AA genotype, and eight females with the relatively rare but more pain-sensitive AG genotype during electrical stimulation to the dorsum of the non-dominant hand. Non-physical pain was investigated using Cyberball, a virtual ball-tossing game, to induce experiences of non-self-dependent social rejection. A Go/NoGo task with an increased risk of self-dependent erroneous performance was used as a control task to investigate the effects of negative feedback as a more cognitive form of distress. Relative to A118G homozygous A-allele carriers, G-allele carriers showed significantly increased activation of the supplementary motor area/superior frontal gyrus and the precentral gyrus during electrical stimulation. Increased activation of the secondary sensorimotor cortex (SII) was found during social exclusion and during negative feedback. We demonstrate that brain regions particularly related to the somatosensory component of pain processing are modulated by variations in OPRM1. Influences were evident for both physical and psychological pain processing supporting the assumption of shared neural pathways.