Taishi Kawamoto

Is dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activation in response to social exclusion due to expectancy violation? An fMRI study

People are typically quite sensitive about being accepted or excluded by others. Previous studies have suggested that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is a key brain region involved in the detection of social exclusion. However, this region has also been shown to be sensitive to non-social expectancy violations. We often expect other people to follow an unwritten rule in which they include us as they would expect to be included, such that social exclusion likely involves some degree of expectancy violation. The present event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study sought to separate the effects of expectancy violation from those of social exclusion, such that we employed an “overinclusion” condition in which a player was unexpectedly overincluded in the game by the other players. With this modification, we found that the dACC and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) were activated by exclusion, relative to overinclusion. In addition, we identified a negative correlation between exclusion-evoked brain activity and self-rated social pain in the rVLPFC, but not in the dACC. These findings suggest that the rVLPFC is critical for regulating social pain, whereas the dACC plays an important role in the detection of exclusion. The neurobiological basis of social exclusion is different from that of mere expectancy violation.

Intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of social exclusion

People have a fundamental need to belong with others. Social exclusion impairs this need and has various effects on cognition, affect, and the behavior of excluded individuals. We have previously reported that activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) could be a neurocognitive index of social exclusion (Kawamoto et al., 2012). In this article, we provide an integrative framework for understanding occurrences during and after social exclusion, by reviewing neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and behavioral studies of dACC and rVLPFC, within the framework of intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of social exclusion. As a result, we have indicated directions for future studies to further clarify the phenomenon of social exclusion from the following perspectives: (1) constructional elements of social exclusion, (2) detection sensitivity and interpretation bias in social exclusion, (3) development of new methods to assess the reactivity to social exclusion, and (4) sources of social exclusion.

Cognitive, Affective, and Motivational Changes during Ostracism: An ERP, EMG, and EEG Study Using a Computerized Cyberball Task

Individuals are known to be highly sensitive to signs of ostracism, such as being ignored or excluded; however, the cognitive, affective, and motivational processes underlying ostracism have remained unclear. We investigated temporal changes in these psychological states resulting from being ostracized by a computer. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), the facial electromyogram (EMG), and electroencephalogram (EEG), we focused on the P3b amplitude, corrugator supercilii activity, and frontal EEG asymmetry, which reflect attention directed at stimuli, negative affect, and approach/withdrawal motivation, respectively. Results of the P3b and corrugator supercilii activity replicated findings of previous studies on being ostracized by humans. The mean amplitude of the P3b wave decreased, and facial EMG activity increased over time. In addition, frontal EEG asymmetry changed from relative left frontal activation, suggestive of approach motivation, to relative right frontal activation, indicative of withdrawal motivation. These findings suggest that ostracism by a computer-generated opponent is an aversive experience that in time changes the psychological status of ostracized people, similar to ostracism by human. Our findings also imply that frontal EEG asymmetry is a useful index for investigating ostracism. Results of this study suggest that ostracism has well developed neurobiological foundations.

Social exclusion induces early-stage perceptual and behavioral changes in response to social cues

Social exclusion is so aversive that it causes broad cognitive and behavioral changes to regulate the individual’s belonging status. The present study examined whether such changes also occur at early neural or automatic behavioral levels in response to social cues. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and facial electromyograms (EMGs) were recorded during a task in which participants viewed smiling, disgusted, and neutral faces after experiencing social exclusion or inclusion. Social exclusion was manipulated using a simple ball-tossing game (Cyberball), and need threat was assessed after the game. We found that zygomaticus major muscle activity, which reflects facial mimicry, was larger in response to smiling faces after exclusion than after inclusion. In addition, P1 amplitude, which reflects visual attention, was larger for disgusted faces than for neutral faces following social exclusion. N170 amplitude, which reflects structural encoding of the face, was correlated with heightened need threat. These findings demonstrate that social exclusion induces immediate and rapid changes in attention, perception, and automatic behavior. These findings reflect the rapid and primary regulation of belonging.

Trait rejection sensitivity is associated with vigilance and defensive response rather than detection of social rejection cues

Prior studies suggest that psychological difficulties arise from higher trait Rejection Sensitivity (RS)—heightened vigilance and differential detection of social rejection cues and defensive response to. On the other hand, from an evolutionary perspective, rapid and efficient detection of social rejection cues can be considered beneficial. We conducted a survey and an electrophysiological experiment to reconcile this seeming contradiction. We compared the effects of RS and Rejection Detection Capability (RDC) on perceived interpersonal experiences (Study 1) and on neurocognitive processes in response to cues of social rejection (disgusted faces; Study 2). We found that RS and RDC were not significantly related, although RS was positively related to perceived social rejection experiences and RDC was positively related to perceived social inclusion experiences. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) revealed that higher RS was related to cognitive avoidance (i.e., P1) and heightened motivated attention (i.e., late positive potential: LPP), but not to facial expression encoding (i.e., N170) toward disgusted faces. On the other hand, higher RDC was related to heightened N170 amplitude, but not to P1 and LPP amplitudes. These findings imply that sensitivity to rejection is apparently distinct from the ability to detect social rejection cues and instead reflects intense vigilance and defensive response to those cues. We discussed an alternative explanation of the relationship between RS and RDC from a signal detection perspective.

Parental presence with encouragement alters feedback processing in preschoolers: An ERP study

ABSTRACT External feedback plays an important role in adapting to the environment; however, feedback processing in preschoolers has not been fully understood. The present event-related brain potential (ERP) study sought to understand the influence of parental presence with encouragement on feedback processing by focusing on reward positivity (RewP: mean amplitude between 200–350 ms). Five-year-old children (N = 21) completed an animal search task both alone (the alone condition) and with a parent who offered words of encouragement (the with a parent condition). ERPs were recorded while they received negative and positive feedback. We found a larger RewP amplitude in response to positive feedback in the with a parent condition relative to in the alone condition. In addition, differences in RewP between positive and negative feedback were only observed in the with a parent condition. These findings suggest that everyday parental encouragement has the potential to promote differential positive and negative feedback processing possibly by enhancing the reward value of positive feedback.

Preliminary Validation of Japanese Version of the Parental Burnout Inventory and Its Relationship With Perfectionism

Parenting is a precious experience and also a very hard task, which could result in parental burnout for some parents. The present study sought to validate a Japanese version of the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI-J) by replicating and extending the pioneering work of Roskam et al. (2017). We conducted a web survey (N = 1200) to first validate the PBI-J and second to investigate the association between the PBI-J and perfectionism as a new interrelation. Similar to the prior study of Roskam et al. (2017), confirmatory factor analysis supported a model of three-factor structure of the PBI-J: emotional exhaustion, lack of personal accomplishment, and emotional distancing. In addition, we found low to moderate correlations of parental burnout with job burnout, parental stress, and depression. These findings provided initial evidence for validity of the PBI-J and suggested that parental burnout appeared to be different from job burnout. Our further evaluation of perfectionism confirmed such a difference between parental and job burnout by showing that parental perfectionism [i.e., combination of parental personal standards (PS) and parental concern over mistakes (CM)] has a unique contribution to parental burnout than does job perfectionism (i.e., combination of job PS and job CM). In addition, CM was positively correlated with burnout in both domains whereas the associations between PS and burnout were more complex. Finally, the proportion of parents experiencing burnout was estimated to lie somewhere between 4.2 and 17.3% in Japan. Overall, the present study confirmed preliminary validity of the PBI-J and found that parental perfectionism is one of the vulnerability factors in parental burnout.

What Happens in Your Mind and Brain When You Are Excluded from a Social Activity

In school and in everyday life, we sometimes experience rejection by classmates, or we might see someone being excluded from an activity. What do excluded individuals feel? How does the brain process information about being socially excluded? In the past few decades, psychologists and social neuroscientists have investigated the influence of social exclusion on our mind, brain, and behavior. Social exclusion is a complex and ambiguous phenomenon, and therefore, we process information about it dynamically and often cope with it flexibly. In this article, I have described the dynamic effects of social exclusion on our mind, brain, and behavior by developing a model of what happens in the brain and the actions people take upon experiencing social exclusion.