People feel psychological
pain when they are excluded, and this
pain is often
attenuated when
emotional support is received. It is therefore likely that a specific
neural mechanism underlies the detection of social exclusion. Similarly, specific
neural mechanisms may underlie the beneficial effects of
emotional support. Although
neuroimaging researchers have recently examined the
neural basis of social
pain, there is presently no agreement as to which part of the
anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in the
perception and modulation of social
pain. We hypothesized that activity in those
brain regions that are associated with social
pain would be
correlated with decrements in social
pain induced by
emotional support. To examine the effects of
emotional support on social
pain caused by exclusion, we conducted an
fMRI study in which participants played a virtual ball-tossing game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session from which participants were excluded, participants received
emotionally supportive text messages. We found that
emotional support
led to increased activity in the left lateral/medial
prefrontal cortices and some
temporal regions. Those individuals who experienced greater
attenuation of social
pain exhibited lower
ventral ACC and higher left
lateral prefrontal cortex activation. These results suggest that the
ventral ACC underlies social
pain, and that
emotional support enhances
prefrontal cortex activity, which in turn may lead to a weakened affective response.
