Contextual exclusion processing: an fMRI study of rejection in a performance-related context.
Social stress has a major detrimental impact on subjective well-being. Previous research mainly focused on two methods to induce and measure social stress: social exclusion and performance evaluation. For social exclusion researchers frequently focused on the Cyberball task, which in contrast to many psychosocial stress paradigms does not include a performance component. The aim of the current study was to establish an optimized psychosocial stress paradigm by combining both, social exclusion as well as performance evaluation within a single fMRI paradigm. We implemented a modification of the Cyberball task including a performance game (with exclusion and inclusion periods) in addition to the already established exclusion and inclusion periods. This indeed resulted in increased subjective stress in the performance game. Hence, the modified Cyberball version seems to be superior in mapping relevant neural social stress correlates more pronounced and reliably. Exclusion within the performance-related context contrasted to the unmodified exclusion was associated with higher activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula. Moreover, the modified exclusion reflected greater social processing in the precuneus, several temporo-parietal and medial prefrontal areas, as suggested by the additional task aspects of social evaluation and social perspective taking. The findings emphasize that public negative evaluation is effective in substantially enlarging and potentiating the distressing effect of exclusion on a subjective as well as on a neural level. This may have a great potential for further experimental research on social stress.
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany. lwagels@ukaachen.de.
Lisa
L
Wagels
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
Rene
R
Bergs
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
Benjamin
B
Clemens
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
Magdalena
M
Bauchmüller
Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
Ruben C
RC
Gur
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.|JARA - BRAIN Institute I: Structure Function Relationship, Jülich, Germany.
Frank
F
Schneider
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.|JARA - BRAIN Institute I: Structure Function Relationship, Jülich, Germany.
Ute
U
Habel
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074, Aachen, Germany.|Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Nils
N
Kohn
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012938:Social Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*
Cyberball; Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); Mentalizing network; Salience network; Social evaluative stress