Abstract
People are typically quite sensitive about being accepted or excluded by others. Previous studies have suggested that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is a key brain region involved in the detection of social exclusion. However, this region has also been shown to be sensitive to non-social expectancy violations. We often expect other people to follow an unwritten rule in which they include us as they would expect to be included, such that social exclusion likely involves some degree of expectancy violation. The present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study sought to separate the effects of expectancy violation from those of social exclusion, such that we employed an “overinclusion” condition in which a player was unexpectedly overincluded in the game by the other players. With this modification, we found that the dACC and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) were activated by exclusion, relative to overinclusion. In addition, we identified a negative correlation between exclusion-evoked brain activity and self-rated social pain in the rVLPFC, but not in the dACC. These findings suggest that the rVLPFC is critical for regulating social pain, whereas the dACC plays an important role in the detection of exclusion. The neurobiological basis of social exclusion is different from that of mere expectancy violation.
Highlights
Human beings are sensitive to the negative aspects of interpersonal relationships, including such experiences as being excluded or ostracized (e.g., Williams et al, 2000; Zadro et al, 2004; Gonsalkorale and Williams, 2007; Williams, 2009)
Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation in response to social exclusion has been shown to correlate negatively with social pain (e.g., Eisenberger et al, 2003; Yanagisawa et al, 2011a,b). This region is known to be involved in the regulation of distress associated with physical pain as well as other negative emotional experiences (e.g., Hariri et al, 2000; Petrovic et al, 2002; Lieberman et al, 2004, 2007). These findings suggest that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays an important role in the regulation of social pain
There was no significant difference between fair play and overinclusion sessions (F < 1)
Summary
Human beings are sensitive to the negative aspects of interpersonal relationships, including such experiences as being excluded or ostracized (e.g., Williams et al, 2000; Zadro et al, 2004; Gonsalkorale and Williams, 2007; Williams, 2009). Monkeys subjected to an amygdalectomy show reduced social interaction, are excluded from their groups, and die (Kling et al, 1970). These findings suggest that mammals that have strong relationships with others in their social groups are more likely to survive than those who do not have such relationships. In order to effectively adapt to social environments that can change quite frequently, human beings have developed monitoring or detection systems that are highly sensitive to social exclusion (Leary and Baumeister, 2000; Pickett and Gardner, 2005)
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