Abstract

A neuroimaging study examined the neural correlates of social exclusion and tested the hypothesis that the brain bases of social pain are similar to those of physical pain. Participants were scanned while playing a virtual ball-tossing game in which they were ultimately excluded. Paralleling results from physical pain studies, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was more active during exclusion than during inclusion and correlated positively with self-reported distress. Right ventral prefrontal cortex (RVPFC) was active during exclusion and correlated negatively with self-reported distress. ACC changes mediated the RVPFC-distress correlation, suggesting that RVPFC regulates the distress of social exclusion by disrupting ACC activity.

Keywords

DistressAnterior cingulate cortexPsychologySocial exclusionNeuroimagingNeural correlates of consciousnessSocial rejectionPrefrontal cortexCingulate cortexInclusion and exclusion criteriaClinical psychologyDevelopmental psychologyNeuroscienceSocial relationSocial psychologyMedicineCognitionCentral nervous system

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
2003
Type
article
Volume
302
Issue
5643
Pages
290-292
Citations
3668
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

3668
OpenAlex

Cite This

Naomi I. Eisenberger, Matthew D. Lieberman, Kipling D. Williams (2003). Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion. Science , 302 (5643) , 290-292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1089134

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/science.1089134