Neural dynamics of rejection sensitivity

Pain of Threatened Self: Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem, Cortisol Responses to a Social Threat and Pain Perception

Background: Rejection, injustice, and exclusion from meaningful interpersonal relationships are often extremely painful and stress-generating experiences. This study aimed to define the role of explicit and implicit self-esteem in pain perception as a component of the physiological-psychological system that regulates the body's response to stress associated with the threat of social rejection. Methods: In total, 360 individuals participated in this study. The measurement of cortisol in saliva, the assessment of pain thresholds using thermal stimuli, the IAT to assess implicit self-esteem, and a questionnaire on global self-esteem and social pain were used. The study included three measurements: baseline and 15 and 45 min after the application of a laboratory socially threatening stimulus (the Trier Social Stress Test). Results: People experiencing chronic social pain (CSP) are more likely to have fragile self-esteem, higher pain thresholds, and tend to experience reduced pain tolerance in situations of acute social threat than people without CSP experience. In people with CSP and fragile self-esteem, after the introduction of a social threat, an increase in pain tolerance was observed along with a longer-lasting increase in cortisol levels. Conclusions: Fragile self-esteem, along with feelings of chronic exclusion, injustice, and rejection, may prolong stress reactions and produce a hypoalgesic effect.

The dual facilitatory and inhibitory effects of social pain on physical pain perception

Pain is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses both physical pain experienced physiologically and social pain experienced emotionally. The interactions between them are thought to lead to increased pain load. However, the effect of social pain on physical pain perception during interactions remains unclear. Four experiments were conducted merging physical and social pains to examine the behavioral pattern and neural mechanism of the effect of social pain on physical pain perception. Seemingly paradoxical effects of social pain were observed, which both facilitated and inhibited physical pain perception under different attention orientations. Brain imaging revealed that the posterior insula encoded the facilitatory effect, whereas the frontal pole engaged in the inhibitory effect. At a higher level, the thalamus further modulated both processes, playing a switch-like role under different concern statuses of social pain. These results provide direct evidence for the dual-pathway mechanism of the effect of social pain on physical pain.

Associations Between Social Network Characteristics and Brain Structure Among Older Adults

INTRODUCTION

Social connectedness is associated with slower cognitive decline among older adults. Recent research suggests that distinct aspects of social networks may have differential effects on cognitive resilience, but few studies analyze brain structure.

METHODS

This study includes 117 cognitively impaired and 59 unimpaired older adults. The effects of social network characteristics (bridging/bonding) on brain regions of interests were analyzed using linear regressions and voxel-wise multiple linear regressions of gray matter density.

RESULTS

Increased social bridging was associated with greater bilateral amygdala volume and insular thickness, and left frontal lobe thickness, putamen, and thalamic volumes. Increased social bonding was associated with greater bilateral medial orbitofrontal and caudal anterior cingulate thickness, as well as right frontal lobe thickness, putamen, and amygdala volumes.

DISCUSSION

The associations between social connectedness and brain structure vary depending on the types of social enrichment accessible through social networks, suggesting that psychosocial interventions could mitigate neurodegeneration.

HIGHLIGHTS

Distinct forms of social capital are uniquely linked to gray matter density (GMD). Bridging is associated with preserved GMD in limbic system structures. Bonding is associated with preserved GMD in frontal lobe regions. Bridging is associated with increased brain reserve in sensory processing regions. Bonding is associated with increased brain reserve in regions of stress modulation.

Hooked on a thought: Associations between rumination and neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls

Rumination is a significant risk factor for psychopathology in adolescent girls and is associated with heightened and prolonged physiological arousal following social rejection. However, no study has examined how rumination relates to neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls; thus, the current study aimed to address this gap. Adolescent girls (N = 116; ages 16.95-19.09) self-reported on their rumination tendency and completed a social evaluation fMRI task where they received fictitious feedback (acceptance, rejection) from peers they liked or disliked. Rejection-related neural activity and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) connectivity were regressed on rumination, controlling for rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms. Rumination was associated with distinctive neural responses following rejection from liked peers including increased neural activity in the precuneus, inferior parietal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and supplementary motor area (SMA) and reduced sgACC connectivity with multiple regions including medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Greater precuneus and SMA activity mediated the effect of rumination on slower response time to report emotional state after receiving rejection from liked peers. These findings provide clues for distinctive cognitive processes (e.g., mentalizing, conflict processing, memory encoding) following the receipt of rejection in girls with high levels of rumination.

Words hurt: common and distinct neural substrates underlying nociceptive and semantic pain

Introduction

Recent studies have shown that processing semantic pain, such as words associated with physical pain, modulates pain perception and enhances activity in regions of the pain matrix. A direct comparison between activations due to noxious stimulation and processing of words conveying physical pain may clarify whether and to what extent the neural substrates of nociceptive pain are shared by semantic pain. Pain is triggered also by experiences of social exclusion, rejection or loss of significant others (the so-called social pain), therefore words expressing social pain may modulate pain perception similarly to what happens with words associated with physical pain. This event-related fMRI study aims to compare the brain activity related to perceiving nociceptive pain and that emerging from processing semantic pain, i.e., words related to either physical or social pain, in order to identify common and distinct neural substrates.

Methods

Thirty-four healthy women underwent two fMRI sessions each. In the Semantic session, participants were presented with positive words, negative pain-unrelated words, physical pain-related words, and social pain-related words. In the Nociceptive session, participants received cutaneous mechanical stimulations that could be either painful or not. During both sessions, participants were asked to rate the unpleasantness of each stimulus. Linguistic stimuli were also rated in terms of valence, arousal, pain relatedness, and pain intensity, immediately after the Semantic session.

Results

In the Nociceptive session, the 'nociceptive stimuli' vs. 'non-nociceptive stimuli' contrast revealed extensive activations in SI, SII, insula, cingulate cortex, thalamus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In the Semantic session, words associated with social pain, compared to negative pain-unrelated words, showed increased activity in most of the same areas, whereas words associated with physical pain, compared to negative pain-unrelated words, only activated the left supramarginal gyrus and partly the postcentral gyrus.

Discussion

Our results confirm that semantic pain partly shares the neural substrates of nociceptive pain. Specifically, social pain-related words activate a wide network of regions, mostly overlapping with those pertaining to the affective-motivational aspects of nociception, whereas physical pain-related words overlap with a small cluster including regions related to the sensory-discriminative aspects of nociception. However, most regions of overlap are differentially activated in different conditions.

Mind the gender gap: The social neuroscience of belonging

Gender gaps persist in the 21st century, in many aspects of society and in many types of organisation. There are earnings gaps in almost all domains, reports of glass ceilings and the “missing middle” in business, finance, law and politics, and dramatic under-representation of women in many branches of science, even in the most “gender equal” countries. This is despite decades of effort to address them, including targeted legislation and many Diversity and Inclusion initiatives. Early essentialist, competence-based explanations for the existence of gender gaps have been largely discredited at the research level, although their persistence in the public consciousness and at the level of education and training can still negatively bias both individual self-belief and organisational processes. Contemporary essentialist explanations are now emerging, with claims that such gaps are the manifestations of the presence or absence of endogenous, brain-based characteristics underpinning career progression or career preferences. The focus remains on the individual as the source of gender imbalances. Less attention has been paid to the contextual aspects of organisations where gender gaps are evident, to inclusion (or the lack of it), or the availability of unbiased reward and progression pathways. Advances in 21st century social cognitive neuroscience are revealing the importance of external organisational processes as powerful brain-changing forces, with their potentially negative impact on self-belief and a sense of belonging. Key research is demonstrating the cortical and behavioural consequences of negative social experiences, with the activation of core inhibitory pathways associated with low self-esteem, lack of engagement, and eventual withdrawal. This paper will argue that reference to such research will provide better explanations for the persistence of gender gaps, and offer evidence-based insights into addressing gender gap issues. Importantly, this is not a rejection of an endogenous, brain-based explanation for gender gaps but the elaboration of a better-informed 21st century model, flagging up the need to take factors such as cultural stereotyping and organisational bias into account in any drive toward true gender equity, or genuinely levelled playing fields.

Affective and cognitive impact of social overinclusion: a meta-analytic review of cyberball studies

Belongingness is a central biopsychosocial system. Challenges to belongingness (i.e. exclusion/ostracism) engender robust negative effects on affect and cognitions. Whether overinclusion - getting more than one's fair share of social attention - favourably impacts affect and cognitions remains an open question. This pre-registered meta-analysis includes twenty-two studies (N = 2757) examining overinclusion in the context of the Cyberball task. We found that the estimated overall effect size of overinclusion on positive affect was small but robust, and the effect on fundamental needs cognitions (belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control) was moderate in size and positive in direction. Notably, the effect sizes of overinclusion were smaller than the corresponding effects of exclusion. Finally, the effects of overinclusion on positive affect were greater for high, as compared to low, socially anxious individuals. Exploring the sequelae of the full range of inclusion experiences - from exclusion to overinclusion - may enrich our understanding of the functioning of the belongingness system as well as its interaction with another central biosocial system - the social status system.

The relationship between self-esteem and self-concept clarity is modulated by spontaneous activities of the dACC

Although it has been found that self-esteem and self-concept clarity are positively correlated, self-determination theory shows that the positive relationship might be lowered for individuals whose basic psychological needs are chronically thwarted. The exact neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between self-esteem and self-concept clarity are still not fully understood. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) plays an important role in monitoring basic psychological needs, considering that it is more active when some basic psychological needs are actually or potentially thwarted. To better understand the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between self-esteem and self-concept clarity, we investigated the differences in the relationship between self-esteem and self-concept clarity among healthy adults with different levels of spontaneous activities of the dACC using rs-fMRI combined with amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). As expected, the results showed that the positive relationship between self-esteem and self-concept clarity was modulated by the ALFF value of the right dACC, which indicated that the positive relationship was significant when the ALLF value of the right dACC was lower, but the positive relationship was not significant when the ALFF value of the right dACC was higher. The modulating roles of right dACC might also reflect that the individuals with higher ALFF value of dACC might experience chronically thwarted relatedness of basic psychological needs, which means the more disturbed by thwarting relatedness information in individuals, the lower positive relationship emerged.

Hostility bias or sadness bias in excluded individuals: does anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of right VLPFC vs. left DLPFC have a mitigating effect?

Exclusion has multiple adverse effects on individual's well-being. It induces anger and hostile cognitions leading to aggressive behavior. The purpose of this study was to test whether exclusion would affect recognition of anger on ambivalent faces of the excluders. We hypothesized that exclusion would elicit more anger encoding (hostility bias) than inclusion, but this effect would be mitigated by anodal tDCS of right VLPFC or left DLPFC-regions engaged in negative affect regulation. Participants (N = 96) were recognizing emotions (anger, sadness, happiness) on ambiguous faces of individuals who-as they were told-liked them or not. Results showed that exclusion induced more sadness bias. tDCS to VLPFC decreased anger and increased sadness recognition on excluders' faces compared with includers' faces, expressing a mixture of these two emotions. Additionally, stimulation to VLPFC and DLPFC decreased latencies for faces expressing sadness (sad-angry and happy-sad) but increased for happy-angry faces. Stimulation to VLPFC also increased reaction time to excluders faces while stimulation of DLPFC decreased reaction latency to includers faces. Results were discussed with the reference to the form of exclusion, motivational mechanism affected by disliking but also to lateralization (valence vs. arousal theory) and cortical regions engaged in encoding sadness after a threat to belonging.

Resting (Tonic) Blood Pressure Is Associated With Sensitivity to Imagined and Acute Experiences of Social Pain: Evidence From Three Studies

Social pain is a common experience that has potent implications for health. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to social pain. Recent evidence suggests that sensitivity to social pain varies according to a biological factor that modulates sensitivity to physical pain: resting (tonic) blood pressure. The current studies extended this evidence by testing whether blood pressure relates to sensitivity to imagined (Study 1: N = 762, 51% female adults) and acute (Study 2, preregistered: N = 204, 57% female adults) experiences of social pain and whether associations extend to general emotional responding (Studies 1-3; Study 3: N = 162, 59% female adults). In line with prior evidence, results showed that higher resting blood pressure was associated with lower sensitivity to social pain. Moreover, associations regarding blood pressure and sensitivity to social pain did not appear to be explained by individual differences in general emotional responding. Findings appear to be compatible with the interpretation that social and physical pain share similar cardiovascular correlates and may be modulated by convergent interoceptive pathways.

Integrative Brain Dynamics in Childhood Bullying Victimization: Cognitive and Emotional Convergence Associated With Stress Psychopathology

Bullying victimization is a form of psychological stress that is associated with poor outcomes in the areas of mental health and learning. Although the emotional maladjustment and memory impairment following interpersonal stress are well documented, the mechanisms of complex cerebral dysfunctions have neither been outlined nor studied in depth in the context of childhood bullying victimization. As a contribution to the cross-disciplinary field of developmental psychology and neuroscience, we review the neuropathophysiology of early life stress, as well as general psychological stress to synthesize the data and clarify the versatile dynamics within neuronal networks linked to bullying victimization. The stress-induced neuropsychological cascade and associated cerebral networks with a focus on cognitive and emotional convergence are described. The main findings are that stress-evoked neuroendocrine reactivity relates to neuromodulation and limbic dysregulation that hinder emotion processing and executive functioning such as semantic cognition, cognitive flexibility, and learning. Developmental aspects and interacting neural mechanisms linked to distressed cognitive and emotional processing are pinpointed and potential theory-of-mind nuances in targets of bullying are presented. The results show that childhood stress psychopathology is associated with a complex interplay where the major role belongs to, but is not limited to, the amygdala, fusiform gyrus, insula, striatum, and prefrontal cortex. This interplay contributes to the sensitivity toward facial expressions, poor cognitive reasoning, and distress that affect behavioral modulation and emotion regulation. We integrate the data on major brain dynamics in stress neuroactivity that can be associated with childhood psychopathology to help inform future studies that are focused on the treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders and learning problems in bullied children and adolescents.

Symptom dimensions to address heterogeneity in tinnitus

Tinnitus, the auditory phantom percept, is a well-known heterogenous disorder with multiple subtypes. Researchers and clinicians have tried to classify these subtypes according to clinical profiles, aetiologies, and response to treatment with little success. The occurrence of overlapping tinnitus subtypes suggests that the disorder exists along a continuum of severity, with no clear distinct boundaries. In this perspective, we propose a neuro-mechanical framework, viewing tinnitus as a dimensional disorder which is a complex interplay of its behavioural, biological and neurophysiological phenotypes. Moreover, we explore the potential of these dimensions as interacting networks without a common existing cause, giving rise to tinnitus. Considering tinnitus as partially overlapping, dynamically changing, interacting networks, each representing a different aspect of the unified tinnitus percept, suggests that the interaction of these networks determines the phenomenology of the tinnitus, ultimately leading to a dimensional spectrum, rather than a categorical subtyping. A combination of a robust theoretical framework and strong empirical evidence can advance our understanding of the functional mechanisms underlying tinnitus and ultimately, improve treatment strategies.

The Effect of Social Exclusion on Trust Among Youth Orphaned by HIV/AIDS: Evidence From an Event-Related Potentials Study

Grounded in a follow-up study among children who lost one or both parents to HIV in central China in the early 2000s, we conducted an event-related potentials (ERPs) experiment to explore the effect of social exclusion on trust and the corresponding neurophysiological mechanism among youth orphaned by HIV/AIDS ("AIDS orphans"). A sample of 31 AIDS orphans (26.16 ± 3.34 years old; 15 female) and 32 age and development status matched controls (25.02 ± 3.45 years old; 14 female) participated in the study. They were all assigned to play Cyberball, a virtual ball-tossing game that reliably induced social exclusion (15 orphans, 16 controls) and inclusion (16 orphans, 16 controls). Then, they played the Trust Game by taking the role of trustor with their electroencephalograms (EEGs) being recorded during the game. In the Trust Game, each participant was required to decide whether to trust their partners in over 150 trials (decision-making stage). The partner's reciprocation strategies were pre-programmed by the experimenter (with an overall reciprocating rate of 50%). All participants were provided with post-decision feedback about the outcome of their decisions (gain or loss of game points) in each trial (outcome evaluation stage). We analyzed their behavioral responses at the decision-making stage and ERP components at the outcome evaluation stage. Behavioral results showed that the proportion of orphans choosing trust was significantly higher than the controls, and the trust ratio of the orphan exclusion (OE) group was significantly higher than that of the orphan inclusion (OI) group, control exclusion (CE) group, and control inclusion (CI) group. Furthermore, the response time of the OE group was significantly shorter than that of other groups. ERP results indicated that the amplitude of the feedback-related negativity (FRN) in the OI group was significantly more negative than that in the CI group with loss feedback, while there was no significant difference between the OE and OI groups. Similarly, the P300 amplitudes following outcome feedback were larger in the CI group than that in the OI group with gain feedback and had no significant difference between OE and OI.

Adolescents' Personality Development - A Question of Psychosocial Stress

Following the relational-developmental systems approach, this three-wave study examines whether acute stress (T2) mediates the relationship between the development of personality traits from the beginning of 8th grade (T1, M age = 15.63, SD = 0.59; 22 girls) to the end of 9th grade (T3). Using the Montréal Imaging Stress Task, which is a task that provokes acute social stress by negative social feedback, this study combined the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), heart rate, and longitudinal survey data of 41 adolescents. Mediation analysis revealed that stress-induced left insula activation partially mediates the longitudinal stability of conscientiousness. These results highlight the impact of negative social feedback during stress on students' personality development.

ISIEA: An image database of social inclusion and exclusion in young Asian adults

Human beings have a fundamental need to belong. Evaluating and dealing with social exclusion and social inclusion events, which represent negative and positive social interactions, respectively, are closely linked to our physical and mental health. In addition to traditional paradigms that simulate scenarios of social interaction, images are utilized as effective visual stimuli for research on socio-emotional processing and regulation. Since the current mainstream emotional image database lacks social stimuli based on a specific social context, we introduced an open-access image database of social inclusion/exclusion in young Asian adults (ISIEA). This database contains a set of 164 images depicting social interaction scenarios under three categories of social contexts (social exclusion, social neutral, and social inclusion). All images were normatively rated on valence, arousal, inclusion score, and vicarious feeling by 150 participants in Study 1. We additionally examined the relationships between image ratings and the potential factors influencing ratings. The importance of facial expression and social context in the image rating of ISIEA was examined in Study 2. We believe that this database allows researchers to select appropriate materials for socially related studies and to flexibly conduct experimental control.

Gender discrimination facilitates fMRI responses and connectivity to thermal pain

Gender discrimination is a serious social issue that has been shown to increase negative consequences, especially in females when accompanied by acute or chronic pain. Experiencing social pain through discrimination can increase an individual's evaluation of evoked physical pain. However, few studies have explored the mechanism underlying how gender discrimination modulates brain responses when individuals experience physical pain evoked by noxious stimuli. In this study, we addressed this issue using a gender discrimination fMRI paradigm with thermal pain stimulation. We found that discrimination indeed affected participants' own behavioral self-evaluation of noxious stimuli. Discrimination-encoded brain activations were identified in the temporopolar cortex, while brain activations to thermal stimuli after viewing pictures of discrimination were found in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Brain activations in the temporopolar cortex and the dACC were correlated. Furthermore, pain perception-specific functional connectivity of the dACC-SII in the cue stage and the dACC-frontal in the pain stage were identified, suggesting a facilitative effect of gender discrimination on females' experience of physical pain. Our results indicate that the dACC may play a central role in mediating the affective aspect of physical pain after experiencing discrimination. These findings provide novel insights into the underlying mechanism of how gender discrimination facilitates females' experience of physical pain.

Reminders of COVID-19 social distancing can intensify physical pain

Social distance regulations have been widely implemented to control the global COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals have thus been experiencing social pain through social distance regulations. Prior research has shown that social and physical pains share a common neural alarm system. Hence, COVID-19 social distancing should enhance sensitivity to physical pain. Two laboratory studies were conducted to test the spillover effect of COVID-19 social distancing on physical pain. The findings supported our hypothesis by showing that participants who were reminded of COVID-19 social distancing reported a higher level of pain perception in response to immersion in hot water (Experiment 1, N = 102) and expressed a lower pain threshold measured by a pressure algometer than did those of controls (Experiment 2, N = 140). This may be the first experimental evidence demonstrating that people primed with COVID-19 social distancing have increased sensitivity to physical pain. Our findings suggest that people might be more likely to experience physical pain under the impact of COVID-19 social distancing. The association between a heightened sense of social disconnection in a global pandemic and increased sensitivity to physical pain should receive more attention.

Belonging: A Review of Conceptual Issues, an Integrative Framework, and Directions for Future Research

Objective

A sense of belonging-the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences-is a fundamental human need that predicts numerous mental, physical, social, economic, and behavioural outcomes. However, varying perspectives on how belonging should be conceptualised, assessed, and cultivated has hampered much-needed progress on this timely and important topic. To address these critical issues, we conducted a narrative review that summarizes existing perspectives on belonging, describes a new integrative framework for understanding and studying belonging, and identifies several key avenues for future research and practice.

Method

We searched relevant databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, PsycInfo, and ClinicalTrials.gov, for articles describing belonging, instruments for assessing belonging, and interventions for increasing belonging.

Results

By identifying the core components of belonging, we introduce a new integrative framework for understanding, assessing, and cultivating belonging that focuses on four interrelated components: competencies, opportunities, motivations, and perceptions.

Conclusion

This integrative framework enhances our understanding of the basic nature and features of belonging, provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary research on belonging and belongingness, and highlights how a robust sense of belonging may be cultivated to improve human health and resilience for individuals and communities worldwide.

[Pain perception and nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior]

This review focuses on studies of pain threshold and tolerance in individuals with nonsuicidal self-injurious (NSSI) behavior. The data on methods of pain sensitivity studies are presented, with issues in animal modeling of NSSI discussed separately. The results of neuroimaging studies on pain sensitivity in individuals with NSSI are described, along with contribution of genetic factors, psychological variables, and disturbances in opioid and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal systems. A critical methodological analysis of the studies on pain sensitivity in individuals with NSSI was performed.

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

BACKGROUND

Growing evidence has indicated that right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) is critical in down-regulating emotional responses to social exclusion, and that depression is accompanied by social emotional dysregulation associated with reduced lateral prefrontal engagement. This study used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine whether stimulating RVLPFC could improve emotional down-regulation of social exclusion in individuals with high depressive mood (DM).

METHODS

A total of 96 high and 94 low DM individuals received active or sham tDCS while viewing social exclusion or individual negative pictures under no-reappraisal (passive viewing) and reappraisal conditions. Participants rate their negative emotional experience following the presentation of each image. Pupil diameter and visual fixation duration were also recorded during the task.

RESULTS

It was found that tDCS-activated RVLPFC induced a stronger regulation effect on social exclusion than individual negative emotions. The effect of tDCS on regulation of social exclusion was more pronounced in low v. high DM individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate the specific role of RVLPFC on social emotion regulation, which has implications for refining target areas for the treatment of social emotion dysregulation in depression. However the findings do not suggest that high DM individuals benefit from a single-tDCS session on the emotion regulation of social exclusion. Thus we suggest to use multiple tDCS sessions or transcranial magnetic stimulation to further explore the therapeutic proposal in the future.

Paradoxical relationship between distress and functional network topology in phantom sound perception

Distress is a domain-general symptom that accompanies several disorders, including tinnitus. Based on previous studies, we know that distress is encoded by changes in functional connectivity between cortical and subcortical regions. However, how distress relates to large-scale brain networks is not yet clear. In the current study, we investigate the relationship between distress and the efficiency of a network by examining its topological properties using resting state fMRI collected from 90 chronic tinnitus patients. The present results indicate that distress negatively correlates with path length and positively correlates with clustering coefficient, small-worldness, and efficiency of information transfer. Specifically, path analysis showed that the relationship between distress and efficiency is significantly mediated by the resilience of the feeder connections and the centrality of the rich-club connections. In other words, the higher the network efficiency, the lower the resilience of the feeder connections and the centrality of the rich-club connections, which in turn reflects in higher distress in tinnitus patients. This indicates a reorganization of the network towards a paradoxically more efficient topology in patients with high distress, potentially explaining their increased rumination on the tinnitus percept itself.

Cerebral responses to self-initiated action during social interactions

Social interaction involves self-initiated actions that engage subjective awareness of one's own volition. Individuals with social communication needs or social anxiety find it particularly difficult to initiate social interactions. However, extant studies have not specifically addressed how perceived exclusion may influence self-initiated actions during social interaction. As a first step to address this question, we scanned 24 healthy adults participating in a Cyberball game with two fictive players. By contrasting events of observing, receiving, and initiating ball toss during a scenario of fair game (FG) and of exclusion (EX), we examined the neural correlates of self-initiated action during social interactions. Behaviorally, participants were faster in catching but slower in tossing the ball in EX compared with FG, suggesting a burden during self-initiated actions during social exclusion. Tossing versus receiving (or observing) engaged higher activity during EX than FG in the precuneus and angular gyrus, regions that have been widely implicated in theory of mind processing and social emotions. Across subjects these cortical activities correlated positively with the difference between EX and FG in the percentage of trials where participants tossed the ball back to the same player (r = 0.69, p < 0.001). Together, the results suggested that, in healthy adults, social exclusion encumbered and engaged higher posterior cortical activations during self-initiated actions. The findings may facilitate future research of neural markers of social behavioral disorders.

How does peer adversity "Get inside the Brain?" Adolescent girls' differential susceptibility to neural dysregulation of emotion following victimization

Exposure to peer victimization is a traumatic stressor, with adverse consequences for mental and physical health. This prospective, multi-method, multi-informant study investigated how victimization "gets into the brain," as reflected in neural dysregulation of emotion during adolescence. Moreover, we examined whether certain youth are particularly vulnerable to compromised neural function (i.e., a pattern of positive amygdala-right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex [rVLPFC] connectivity linked to poor emotion regulation [ER] and emotional distress) following victimization. In all, 43 adolescent girls completed an implicit ER task during a functional brain scan, and reported on rejection sensitivity. In 6th-9th grades, teachers and adolescents reported annually on victimization. Results revealed that a history of elevated victimization predicted less effective neural regulation of emotion (more positive amygdala-rVLPFC connectivity) in girls with high but not low rejection sensitivity. Consistent with a differential susceptibility model, high rejection sensitivity was associated with particularly effective neural regulation of emotion (more negative amygdala-rVLPFC connectivity) in girls with low-victimization histories. A parallel pattern emerged for a behavioral index of ER. This research provides insight into one pathway through which peer adversity undermines emotional development in ways that forecast compromised future health, and identifies youth who are at particularly high risk following peer adversity.

Rejection Sensitivity Mediates the Relationship Between Social-Interpersonal Stressors and Depressive Symptoms in Military Context

BACKGROUND

Depression is pervasive in the military context and is likely to elicit lasting negative effects on health. Based on interpersonal models, social-interpersonal stressors are significantly associated with the development and maintenance of depression. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which these stressors increase the risk of depression in terms of social relationships. Rejection sensitivity, which refers to people who are sensitive to social rejection and tend to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to it, may play an underlying role in this process, as it is formed through social-interpersonal stressors and then aggravates further symptoms of depression.

OBJECTIVES

The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects on the relationship between social-interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms in the military context.

METHODS

This study recruited 600 soldiers aged from 17 to 36 (M = 21.80; SD = 2.99; 100% males) with a cluster sampling method who completed Social-Interpersonal Stressors subscale, Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ), and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Mediation analyses examined the underlying mechanism between social-interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

The results support the hypothesis and indicate that rejection sensitivity mediates the association between social-interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms (B indirect = 0.02, p < 0.001, 95% CI= 0.005 to 0.044).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that interventions designed to desensitize individuals' high levels of rejection sensitivity may help to decrease their risk of depressive symptoms in the military environment. Rejection sensitivity is an important mechanism underpinning the development of depressive symptoms. Other theoretical and applied implications for prevention of depressive symptoms in the military context are discussed.

Higher Social Rejection Sensitivity in Opioid-Dependent Patients Is Related to Smaller Insula Gray Matter Volume: A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study

Opioid-dependent patients are highly sensitized to negative social feedback, and increased social rejection sensitivity was linked to adverse treatment outcome, but its neurobiological underpinnings have not been understood yet. The present study investigated gray matter (GM) volume differences between 19 opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) patients and 20 healthy controls using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry. Associations of GM volumes with subjective feelings of exclusion and inclusion during a social ostracism (Cyberball) paradigm, with rejection sensitivity, social interaction anxiety and social phobia were explored. OMT patients displayed smaller GM volume in the bilateral insula and inferior frontal gyri. Psychometric and task data showed that patients reported significantly higher rejection sensitivity, social anxiety and social phobia scores and felt more excluded and less included during the social ostracism paradigm. Smaller GM volume in the insula was associated with higher subjective exclusion, lower subjective inclusion and higher rejection sensitivity, social anxiety and social phobia scores. Findings indicate that structural deficits in emotion- and anxiety-processing brain regions in OMT patients are associated with increased social rejection sensitivity. As social rejection is a potential trigger for relapse, patients might benefit from therapeutic strategies that promote social integration.

Emotional face prediction in rejection sensitive individuals: Evidence from event-related potentials

Human beings live in an uncertain world, but they continuously generate top-down predictions about emotional face information of other people around them. Although the prediction processing has repeatedly been investigated in the literature of prediction, little is known about the impact of rejection sensitive (RS) on individuals' emotional face prediction. To this end, high and low RS participants were asked to perform an identification task of emotional faces in which target faces were shown in either an angry or happy expression while their brain responses were recorded using an event-related potential (ERP) technique. The behavioral results suggested an effect of emotional face prediction. For the P100 component, low RS participants showed longer P100 peak latencies in the left than right hemisphere when they viewed predictable emotional faces. In addition, low RS participants showed larger N170 mean amplitudes for angry compared to happy faces when they perceived unpredictable faces, but not when these faces were predictable. This presumably reflected a sensibility to angry faces in the unpredictable trails. Interestingly, high RS participants did not demonstrate such a N170 difference, suggesting that high RS participants showed a reduced sensitivity to unpredictable angry faces. Furthermore, angry faces triggered increased LPP mean amplitudes compared to happy faces, which was consistent with the results of other ERP studies examining the processing of emotional faces. Finally, we observed significant negative correlations between behavioral and ERP prediction effect, indicating one consistency between the behavioral and electrophysiological data.

When it hurts even more: The neural dynamics of pain and interpersonal emotions

OBJECTIVE

Chronic pain is highly prevalent among patients with mood, anxiety, personality, and somatic symptom disorders; and patients with chronic pain often suffer from persistent interpersonal distress. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and its possible role in the etiology of chronic pain are not yet understood. Based on our Developmental Theory of Centralized/Somatoform Pain, and prior research suggesting the existence of a shared neural system subserving interpersonal emotions and pain, we aimed to identify the neural basis for modulation of pain by feelings of interpersonal rejection and the role of the early interpersonal environment in development of this shared neural system.

METHODS

During fMRI scanning, 22 healthy participants received moderately painful thermal stimuli in 3 interpersonal contexts: Acceptance, Rejection, and Reacceptance (modified Cyberball paradigm). Early interpersonal environment was assessed using the Parental Bonding Instrument.

RESULTS

Interpersonal context modulated activity in pain neural systems during rejection and during accepting interactions with previously rejecting others. Moreover, the subjective perception of rejection, even when rejection was not occurring, correlated positively with reported pain severity and neural activity in the insula. The magnitude of neural modulation in pain circuits by feelings of rejection was associated with the quality of early interpersonal experience with caregivers.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that interpersonal emotions play an important role in the development and functioning of the pain system, supporting our Developmental Theory of predisposition to chronic centralized pain. These findings have direct implications for clinical practice, including the importance of treating interpersonal distress to alleviate pain.

Stimulating the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) modulates frustration-induced aggression: A tDCS experiment

BACKGROUND

The prefrontal cortex is crucial for top-down regulation of aggression, but the neural underpinnings of aggression are still poorly understood. Past research showed the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) modulates aggression following exposure to risk factors for aggression (e.g., social exclusion, violent media). Although frustration is a key risk factor for aggression, no study to date has examined the modulatory role of tDCS on frustration-induced aggression.

OBJECTIVES

By exploring the VLPFC involvement in frustration-aggression link, we tested the hypothesis that the anodal tDCS over right and left VLPFC modulates frustration-induced aggression. We also explored whether tDCS interacts with gender to influence frustration-induced aggression.

METHODS

90 healthy participants (45 men) were randomly assigned to receive anodal or sham tDCS over the right or left VLPFC before being frustrated by an accomplice. To increase reliability, several tasks were used to measure aggression.

RESULTS

We found that anodal tDCS over the left VLPFC, compared to sham stimulation, increased aggression. Unexpectedly, no main effect was found following tDCS of right VLPFC. However, we also found a significant interaction between gender and tDCS, showing that males were more aggressive than females following sham stimulation, but females became as aggressive as males following active tDCS.

CONCLUSION

Overall, these results shed light on the neural basis of frustration-induced aggression, providing further evidence for the involvement of VLPFC in modulating aggressive responses, and on gender differences in aggression. Future research should further investigate the role of stimulating the VLPFC on frustration-induced aggression.

The effects of age on cerebral responses to self-initiated actions during social interactions: An exploratory study

Self-initiated action is critical to social interaction and individuals with social anxiety find it particularly difficult to initiate social interactions. We showed earlier that social exclusion encumbered self-initiated actions in the Cyberball task in young adults. Here, we examined whether the behavioral performance and regional responses during self-initiated actions vary with age in 53 participants (21-74 years; 27 men). Behaviorally, participants were slower in tossing the ball during exclusion (EX) than during fair game (FG) sessions in both men and women. In women but not in men the reaction time (RT) burden (RT_EX - RT_FG; RT prolonged during social exclusion) of ball toss was positively correlated with age despite no observed sex difference in Social Interaction Anxiety Scale scores. The pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, left occipital cortex (OC) and left insula/orbitofrontal cortex responded to ball toss in EX vs. FG in negative correlation with age in women but not in men. Further, the activation of left OC fully mediated the relationship between age and RT burden in women. Thus, older women are more encumbered in self-initiated action during social exclusion, although this behavioral burden is not reflected in subjective reports of social anxiety. Age-related diminution in OC activities may reflect the neural processes underlying the difficulty in initiating social interactions in women. Together, the findings identified age-sensitive behavioral and neural processes of self-initiated action in the Cyberball task and suggest the importance of considering age and sex differences in studies of social interaction.

Processing of Painful Pictures in Individuals With High and Low Rejection Sensitivity: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

An increasing number of studies have investigated the relation between the processing of painful stimuli and rejection. Little was known, however, about the impact of the rejection sensitivity (RS) on the processing of painful pictures. This study addressed this issue using high temporal resolution event-related potential techniques. Thirty high RS (20 women and 10 men who scored in the top 20th percentile of the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire scores) and 30 low RS (20 women and 10 men who scored in the bottom 20th percentile) volunteers participated in the experiment. All volunteers performed a discrimination task of painful pictures in which they were asked to judge whether target pictures were painful or not. Behaviorally, participants exhibited shorter reaction times for painful than nonpainful pictures. For the P100 component, low RS participants showed stronger brain activities for painful than nonpainful pictures, suggesting vigilance toward painful pictures. High RS participants, however, exhibited no P100 amplitude differences between painful and nonpainful pictures, indicating an analgesia phenomenon. Furthermore, we found that there were larger amplitudes in the late late positive complex component for painful compared with nonpainful pictures, regardless of participants' RS. This suggested a person's further assessment for painful pictures. In short, our findings demonstrated that the level of RS influenced the pain processing at a very early stage of processing.

Social anxiety, posterior insula activation, and autonomic response during self-initiated action in a Cyberball game

BACKGROUND

An earlier study characterized the neural correlates of self-initiated actions in a Cyberball game in healthy individuals. It remains unclear how social anxiety may influence these neural processes.

METHODS

We examined regional activations to self-initiated actions in 25 adults with low and 25 with high social anxiety (LA and HA, respectively). Skin conductance was recorded concurrently with fMRI. We followed published routines in the analyses of imaging and skin conductance data.

RESULTS

We hypothesized that HA as compared to LA individuals would demonstrate increased cortical limbic activations during self-initiated actions (tossing or T > receiving or R trials, to control for motor activities) in social exclusion (EX) vs. fair game (FG) scenario. At a corrected threshold, HA as compared with LA group showed increases in bilateral posterior insula activation during T vs. R trials in EX as compared to FG. Further, HA as compared to LA showed higher skin conductance response to tossing trials during EX as compared to FG.

LIMITATIONS

With a limited sample size, we did not examine potential sex effects. Further, we cannot rule out the effects of depression on the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, the results suggest that individuals with more severe social anxiety engaged the somatosensory insula to a greater extent and exhibited higher physiological arousal when initiating ball toss during social exclusion in the Cyberball game. Posterior insula response to self-initiated action may represent a biomarker of social anxiety. It remains to be investigated whether interventions to decrease physiological arousal may alleviate social anxiety.

Facial Emotion Recognition and Social-Cognitive Correlates of Narcissistic Features

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is associated with both seeming indifference and hypersensitivity to social feedback. This study evaluated whether rejection sensitivity and empathic difficulties in NPD are accounted for by altered facial emotion recognition (FER). Two-hundred non-clinical individuals self-reported NPD features, rejection sensitivity, and empathy and performed an FER task assessing the ability to determine the presence or absence of an emotion when viewing neutral and negative facial stimuli presented at varying emotional intensities (25%, 50%, 75%). Those with higher NPD features were faster at accurately recognizing neutral and low, 25%-intensity emotional stimuli. This response pattern mediated the association between NPD features and increased anger about rejection. Thus, individuals with high NPD traits are hypervigilant toward subtle negative emotions and neutral expressions; this may explain their tendency to experience intense angry feelings when facing the possibility that the others would not meet their need for acceptance.

Variation in the μ-Opioid Receptor Gene (OPRM1) Does Not Moderate Social-Rejection Sensitivity in Humans

Given previous findings from animal studies and small-scale studies in humans, variation in the μ-opioid receptor gene ( OPRM1) has been proposed as a strong biological candidate for moderating sensitivity to social rejection. Using a substantially larger sample ( N = 490) than previous studies, a prospective genotyping strategy, and preregistered analysis plans, we tested the hypotheses that OPRM1 variation measured by the functional A118G polymorphism (rs1799971) moderates (a) dispositional sensitivity to rejection and feelings of distress following social exclusion and (b) decision making involving social cognition. In three experimental tasks commonly used to assess altruism, reciprocity, and trust in humans, we found no evidence in favor of the hypotheses; nine main tests were preregistered, and all of them yielded small and statistically insignificant estimates. In secondary analyses, we used Bayesian inference and estimation to quantify support for our findings. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that the link between OPRM1 A118G variation and social-rejection sensitivity is weaker than previously thought.

Stimulating Self-Regulation: A Review of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Studies of Goal-Directed Behavior

Self-regulation enables individuals to guide their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a purposeful manner. Self-regulation is thus crucial for goal-directed behavior and contributes to many consequential outcomes in life including physical health, psychological well-being, ethical decision making, and strong interpersonal relationships. Neuroscientific research has revealed that the prefrontal cortex plays a central role in self-regulation, specifically by exerting top-down control over subcortical regions involved in reward (e.g., striatum) and emotion (e.g., amygdala). To orient readers, we first offer a methodological overview of tDCS and then review experiments using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (especially transcranial direct current stimulation) to target prefrontal brain regions implicated in self-regulation. We focus on brain stimulation studies of self-regulatory behavior across three broad domains of response: persistence, delay behavior, and impulse control. We suggest that stimulating the prefrontal cortex promotes successful self-regulation by altering the balance in activity between the prefrontal cortex and subcortical regions involved in emotion and reward processing.

Neural substrates for moral judgments of psychological versus physical harm

While we may think about harm as primarily being about physical injury, harm can also take the form of negative psychological impact. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the extent to which moral judgments of physical and psychological harms are processed similarly, focusing on brain regions implicated in mental state reasoning or theory of mind, a key cognitive process for moral judgment. First, univariate analyses reveal item-specific features that lead to greater recruitment of theory of mind regions for psychological harm versus physical harm. Second, multivariate pattern analyses reveal sensitivity to the psychological/physical distinction in two regions implicated in theory of mind: the right temporoparietal junction and the precuneus. Third, we find no reliable differences between neurotypical adults and adults with autism spectrum disorder with regard to neural activity related to theory of mind during moral evaluations of psychological and physical harm. Altogether, these results reveal neural sensitivity to the distinction between psychological harm and physical harm.

Conceptual Models of Borderline Personality Disorder, Part 2: A Process Approach and Its Implications

In part 2, the authors argue for a greater focus on a process approach to conceptualizing borderline personality disorder (BPD). The studies reviewed highlight contextual aspects of the pathology, specifically the affective and relational conditions under which BPD features become evident. The authors identify at what level in a complex social cognitive process the pathology may emerge. The implications of these findings for future model conceptualization are discussed, including the centrality of understanding BPD as an emergent phenomenon that cannot be reduced to single explanatory dimensions. The implications of these models for assessment, research, and treatment of BPD are discussed.

Modulation of brain response to peer rejection by rejection sensitivity: An exploratory study

A number of studies have explored how rejection sensitivity (RS) affects the neural and physiological responses to stimuli with implicit rejection clues. Peer rejection during social interaction conveys explicit rejection feedback. The current event-related potentials (ERP) study using Chatroom task aimed to test to what extent RS modulated individuals' psychological and neural response to explicit rejection feedback. The subjective ratings mainly demonstrated that RS modulated ostracism distress and negative mood following rejection feedback. The ERP results showed that compared with low RS individuals, both the parietal P3 and left frontal LPP responses towards rejection feedback were enhanced in high RS individuals, indicating that high RS individuals exhibit attentional bias, intense anger experience and lower emotion regulation towards rejection suggested by their neural responses. The current study provides a new insight into neural correlates of RS in the high ecological experimental context.

Effect of distress on transient network dynamics and topological equilibrium in phantom sound perception

Distress is a domain-general behavioral symptom whose neural correlates have been under investigation for a long time now. Although some studies suggest that distress is encoded by changes in alpha activity and functional connectivity between specific brain regions, no study that we know has delved into the whole brain temporal dynamics of the distress component. In the current study, we compare the changes in the mean and variance of functional connectivity and small-worldness parameter over 3 min of resting state EEG to analyze the fluctuation in transient stable states, and network structure. On comparing these measures between healthy controls and patients experiencing low and high levels of distress due to a continuous ringing in the ear (tinnitus), we observe an increase in fluctuation between transient stable states characterized by an increase in both variance of functional connectivity and the small-worldness parameter. This results in a possible increase in degrees of freedom leading to a paradoxical equilibrium of the network structure in highly distressed patients. This may also be interpreted as a maladaptive compensation to look for information in order to reduce the hyper-salience in highly distressed individuals. In addition, this is correlated with the amount of distress only in the high distress tinnitus group, suggesting a catastrophic breakdown of the brain's resilience. Distress not only accompanies tinnitus, but other disorders such as somatic disorders, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. Since the current study focuses on a disorder-general distress symptom, the methods and results of the current study have a wide application in different neuropathologies.

Critical role of the right VLPFC in emotional regulation of social exclusion: a tDCS study

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays an important role in down-regulating the emotional response to social exclusion. However, a causal relationship between rVLPFC function and explicit emotional regulation is not clear in the context of social exclusion. This study employed anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to activate rVLPFC while participants used emotional regulation to reappraise pictures of social exclusion. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned to an active tDCS group or a sham group. Both groups viewed social exclusion images under two conditions: in the no-reappraisal condition, participants were instructed to passively view social exclusion images; in the reappraisal condition, they reappraised the images to down-regulate negative emotional responses. Compared to sham stimulation, anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC resulted in less negative emotion ratings, and produced significantly smaller pupil diameter in the reappraisal, compared to no-reappraisal block. The tDCS also led to longer fixation durations to rejectees and shorter fixation durations to rejecters. Taken together, these findings suggest a causal role for rVLPFC in down-regulation of negative emotions produced by social exclusion. This study has implications for clinical interventions targeting emotional regulation deficits.

Neural Temporal Dynamics of Social Exclusion Elicited by Averted Gaze: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Eye gaze plays a fundamental role in social communication. The averted eye gaze during social interaction, as the most common form of silent treatment, conveys a signal of social exclusion. In the present study, we examined the time course of brain response to social exclusion by using a modified version of Eye-gaze paradigm. The event-related potentials (ERPs) data and the subjective rating data showed that the frontocentral P200 was positively correlated with negative mood of excluded events, whereas, the centroparietal late positive potential (LPP) was positively correlated with the perceived ostracism intensity. Both the P200 and LPP were more positive-going for excluded events than for included events. These findings suggest that brain responses sensitive to social exclusion can be divided into the early affective processing stage, linking to the early pre-cognitive warning system; and the late higher-order processes stage, demanding attentional resources for elaborate stimuli evaluation and categorization generally not under specific situation.

Neural Correlates of Social Inclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder

Humans engage in social interactions and have a fundamental need and motivation to establish and maintain social connections. Neuroimaging studies particularly focused on the neural substrates of social exclusion in healthy subjects (HC), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and major depression (MD). However, there is evidence regarding neural alterations also during social inclusion in BPD that we intended to elucidate in our study. Considering that patients with BPD often have comorbid MD, we investigated patients with BPD, and comorbid MD, patients with MD without BPD, and a sample of HC. By investigating these two clinical samples within one study design, we attempted to disentangle potential confounds arising by psychiatric disorder or medication and to relate neural alterations under social inclusion specifically to BPD. We investigated 48 females (15 BPD and MD, 16 MD, and 17 HC) aged between 18 and 40 years by fMRI (3T), using the established cyberball paradigm with social exclusion, inclusion, and passive watching conditions. Significant group-by-condition interaction effects (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected on cluster level) were observed within the dorsolateral (dlPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the precuneus. Comparisons of estimated neural activations revealed that significant interaction effects were related to a relative increase in neural activations during social inclusion in BPD. In detail, we observed a significant increase in differential (social inclusion vs. passive watching) neural activation within the dmPFC and the PCC in BPD compared to both, MD and HC. However, significant interaction effects within the dlPFC and the TPJ could not specifically be linked to BPD considering that they did not differ significantly between the two clinical groups in post-hoc comparisons. Our study supports previous results on effects of social and inclusion in BPD, and provides further evidence regarding disorder specific neural alterations in BPD for brain regions associated with self-referential and mentalizing processes during social inclusion.

The impact of social exclusion on anticipatory attentional processing

The importance of understanding how we anticipate and prepare for social rejection is underscored by the mental and physical toll of continual social vigilance. In this study, we investigate the impact of social rejection on anticipatory attentional processes using the well-known Cyberball task, a paradigm in which participants engage in a game of catch with virtual avatars who after an initial period of fair-play (inclusion condition) then exclude the participant from the game (exclusion condition). The degree of anticipatory attention allocated by subjects towards the avatars was assessed by measuring P3b responses towards the avatars' preparatory actions (i.e. the phase preceding their exclusionary actions) using high density EEG. The results of the study show that relative to the inclusion, participants exhibit elevated levels of anticipatory attentional allocation towards the avatars during the exclusion block. This shift was however significantly moderated by participants' self-reported cognitive regulation tendencies. Participants with higher levels of self-reported cognitive reappraisal tendencies showed larger anticipatory P3b increases from the inclusion to exclusion block relative to participants with reduced levels of reappraisal tendencies. These results highlight the impact of social exclusion on anticipatory neural processing and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal on these effects.

BAS-drive trait modulates dorsomedial striatum activity during reward response-outcome associations

According to the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, behavioral studies have found that individuals with stronger reward sensitivity easily detect cues of reward and establish faster associations between instrumental responses and reward. Neuroimaging studies have shown that processing anticipatory cues of reward is accompanied by stronger ventral striatum activity in individuals with stronger reward sensitivity. Even though establishing response-outcome contingencies has been consistently associated with dorsal striatum, individual differences in this process are poorly understood. Here, we aimed to study the relation between reward sensitivity and brain activity while processing response-reward contingencies. Forty-five participants completed the BIS/BAS questionnaire and performed a gambling task paradigm in which they received monetary rewards or punishments. Overall, our task replicated previous results that have related processing high reward outcomes with activation of striatum and medial frontal areas, whereas processing high punishment outcomes was associated with stronger activity in insula and middle cingulate. As expected, the individual differences in the activity of dorsomedial striatum correlated positively with BAS-Drive. Our results agree with previous studies that have related the dorsomedial striatum with instrumental performance, and suggest that the individual differences in this area may form part of the neural substrate responsible for modulating instrumental conditioning by reward sensitivity.

Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI

Does silently talking to yourself in the third-person constitute a relatively effortless form of self control? We hypothesized that it does under the premise that third-person self-talk leads people to think about the self similar to how they think about others, which provides them with the psychological distance needed to facilitate self control. We tested this prediction by asking participants to reflect on feelings elicited by viewing aversive images (Study 1) and recalling negative autobiographical memories (Study 2) using either “I” or their name while measuring neural activity via ERPs (Study 1) and fMRI (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced an ERP marker of self-referential emotional reactivity (i.e., late positive potential) within the first second of viewing aversive images without enhancing an ERP marker of cognitive control (i.e., stimulus preceding negativity). Conceptually replicating these results, Study 2 demonstrated that third-person self-talk was linked with reduced levels of activation in an a priori defined fMRI marker of self-referential processing (i.e., medial prefrontal cortex) when participants reflected on negative memories without eliciting increased levels of activity in a priori defined fMRI markers of cognitive control. Together, these results suggest that third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of self-control.

Perceiving rejection by others: Relationship between rejection sensitivity and the spontaneous neuronal activity of the brain

Rejection sensitivity (RS) can be defined as the disposition of a person to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. Individuals with high RS are likely to suffer from mental disorders. The association between individual differences in RS and spontaneous neuronal activity at resting state has not yet been investigated. In this study, resting state data were used to investigate the relationship between RS and spontaneous neuronal activity in a large sample of healthy men (137) and women (172). The participants completed the rejection sensitivity questionnaire and underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and rejection sensitivity scores adjusted for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) was positively associated with RS. Furthermore, functional connectivity with the middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with RS when sgACC was used as the seed region. These findings suggest that the spontaneous neuronal activity of sgACC and its functional connectivity with the lateral prefrontal cortex which are involved in experiencing social exclusion and regulating negative emotions are associated with individual differences in RS.