Social pain and social gain in the adolescent brain: A common neural circuitry underlying both positive and negative social evaluation
Open accessAbstract
Social interaction inherently involves the subjective evaluation of cues salient to social inclusion and exclusion. Testifying to the importance of such social cues, parts of the neural system dedicated to the detection of physical pain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI), have been shown to be equally sensitive to the detection of social pain experienced after social exclusion. However, recent work suggests that this dACC-AI matrix may index any socially pertinent information. We directly tested the hypothesis that the dACC-AI would respond to cues of both inclusion and exclusion, using a novel social feedback fMRI paradigm in a population-derived sample of adolescents. We show that the dACC and left AI are commonly activated by feedback cues of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings suggest that theoretical accounts of the dACC-AI network as a neural alarm system restricted within the social domain to the processing of signals of exclusion require significant revision.
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In a social judgment study in late adolescents/young adults, the dACC and left AI responded to both positive and negative social feedback.
“a social judgment study in late adolescents/young adults found that the dACC and left AI responded to both positive and negative social feedback (Dalgleish et al., 2017).”
From Feeling left out or just surprised? Neural correlates of social exclusion and overinclusion in adolescence (2020) · cites this paper as Dalgleish et al., 2017
Existing studies that compare social exclusion with over-inclusion and/or acceptance do not paint a consistent picture of dACC and AI involvement.
“Existing studies that compare social exclusion with over-inclusion and/or acceptance do not paint a consistent picture of dACC and AI involvement.”
From Feeling left out or just surprised? Neural correlates of social exclusion and overinclusion in adolescence (2020) · cites this paper as Dalgleish et al., 2017
A prior study implicated both the dACC and AI in social acceptance in addition to rejection, although these regions responded similarly to both conditions rather than in opposing directions.
“A prior study implicated both the dACC and AI in social acceptance in addition to rejection (Dalgleish et al., 2017), although these regions responded similarly to both conditions, rather than in opposing directions.”
From Feeling left out or just surprised? Neural correlates of social exclusion and overinclusion in adolescence (2020) · cites this paper as Dalgleish et al., 2017
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Dalgleish, T., Walsh, N. D., Mobbs, D., Schweizer, S., van Harmelen, A.-L., Dunn, B., Dunn, V., Goodyer, I., & Stretton, J.
- Affiliations
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (GB)
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Dalgleish, Tim
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2017-02-07
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 42010-42010
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5294419
- OpenAlex
- W2587528507
- Cited by
- 82
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 12.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (cc-by)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (074296, RG 074296)
- Royal Society (DH150176)
- Medical Research Council (MC_US_A060_0019)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Keywords
- social pain, social exclusion, social inclusion, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, social evaluation, adolescent brain, social feedback, neural circuits
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Pathways, Pain, Psychological Distance, Social Environment, Stress, Psychological, Task Performance and Analysis, Young Adult
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