Why Rejection Hurts: What Social Neuroscience Has Revealed About the Brain’s Response to Social Rejection

Abstract

This chapter reviews evidence from behavioral, pharmacological, and social neuroscience research that supports the notion that physical and social pain rely on shared neural substrates. It then reviews some of the unexpected and potentially surprising consequences that arise from such a physical-social-pain overlap. Specifi cally, it considers evidence showing that, even though experiences of physical and social pain seem very different from one another on the surface, individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain are also more sensitive to the other. It also reviews evidence demonstrating that factors that alter one kind of pain experience alter the other in a congruent manner. Finally, the chapter concludes by discussing what this shared neural circuitry means for our experience and understanding of social pain.

An EEG/ERP investigation of the development of empathy in early and middle childhood

“…Rather, this pattern of response is associated with more general survival mechanisms such as aversion and withdrawal when exposed to danger and threat, and triggers protecting and defensive behaviors (Decety, 2010a(Decety, ,b, 2011a. Furthermore, the neural overlap between the first-hand experience of pain and its perception supports neural reuse theories which posit as a fundamental principle of brain evolution that neural circuits continue to acquire new use after an initial or original function is established (Decety and Jackson, 2004;Anderson, 2010;Decety et al, 2012a,b;Eisenberger, 2011;Tucker et al, 2005).…”

Friends or Foes

“…It also involves the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and endocrine and hormonal systems (particularly oxytocin and vasopressin) that regulate bodily states, emotion, and social sensitivity. These systems underlying attachment appear to exploit the strong, established physical pain and reward systems, borrowing aversive signals associated with pain to indicate when relationships are threatened (Eisenberger, 2011). …”

Does attachment anxiety increase vulnerability to headache?

“…Attachment is essentially a relational rather than trait-like construct, measured in relation to a particular individual with whom the person is intimate. The social bonding system is believed to "borrow" the pain system to signal when important relationships are threatened [31,67]. For example, functional imaging studies show increased activity in the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during situations of social threat or reduced social support [67,68], but attenuated ACC activity generally requires the physical or emotional presence [68,69] or availability [70] of a significant other.…”

“…The social bonding system is believed to "borrow" the pain system to signal when important relationships are threatened [31,67]. For example, functional imaging studies show increased activity in the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during situations of social threat or reduced social support [67,68], but attenuated ACC activity generally requires the physical or emotional presence [68,69] or availability [70] of a significant other. Hence the provision of support from an experimenter who was previously unknown to the participant may have lacked ecological validity in assessing the effect of attachment anxiety on headache and pain [9,10,71].…”

“…Within a self-regulation framework [72][73][74], stress theory predicts that psychological stress only occurs in the context of a threat to important life goals, which for most people includes belonging and participation in daily life [75], areas which are problematic for insecure individuals. Future research in this area should utilise interpersonal stressors, such as those which simulate social exclusion in an everyday context [67] or which measure partner effects in a dyadic context [6].…”