Abstract

The effect of social rejection on cardiac and brain responses was examined in a study in which participants had to decide on the basis of pictures of virtual peers whether these peers would like them or not. Physiological and behavioral responses to expected and unexpected acceptance and rejection were compared. It was found that participants expected that about 50% of the virtual judges gave them a positive judgment. Cardiac deceleration was strongest for unexpected social rejection. In contrast, the brain response was strongest to expected acceptance and was characterized by a positive deflection peaking around 325 ms following stimulus onset and the observed difference was maximal at fronto-central positions. The cardiac and electro-cortical responses were not related. It is hypothesized that these differential response patterns might be related to earlier described differential involvement of the dorsal and ventral portion of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Details

Title
The heart-break of social rejection versus the brain wave of social acceptance
Author
Frederik M van der Veen 1 ; Maurits W van der Molen 2 ; Sahibdin, Priya P 2 ; Franken, Ingmar H A 2 

 Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University, 3000DR Rotterdam, and Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University, 3000DR Rotterdam, and Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
 Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University, 3000DR Rotterdam, and Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
Pages
1346-1351
Publication year
2014
Publication date
Sep 2014
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
17495016
e-ISSN
17495024
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3171589259
Copyright
© The Author(s) (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.