Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion

Naomi I. Eisenberger, Matthew D. Lieberman, Kipling D. Williams

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2785 Citations (Scopus)

    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.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)290-292
    Number of pages3
    JournalScience
    Volume302
    Issue number5643
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2003

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