Neural Changes Associated with Emotion Processing in Children Experiencing Peer Rejection: A Functional MRI Study

Abstract

This study was performed to investigate differences between children who did and did not experience peer rejection in psychological state through surveys and in emotion processing during an interpersonal stress challenge task to reflect naturalistic interpersonal face-to-face relationships. A total of 20 right-handed children, 10 to 12 yr of age, completed self-rating questionnaires inquiring about peer rejection in school, depression, and anxiety. They then underwent an interpersonal stress challenge task simulating conditions of emotional stress, in reaction to positive, negative and neutral facial expression stimuli, using interpersonal feedbacks, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) for an analysis of neural correlates during the task. Ten were the peer-rejection group, whereas the remainder were the control group. Based on the behavioral results, the peer-rejection group exhibited elevated levels of depression, state anxiety, trait anxiety and social anxiety as compared to the control group. The FMRI results revealed that the peer-rejection group exhibited greater and remarkably more extensive activation of brain regions encompassing the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to negative feedback stimuli of emotional faces. The different brain reactivities characterizing emotion processing during interpersonal relationships may be present between children who do and do not experience peer rejection.Graphical Abstract

How does peer adversity “Get inside the Brain?” Adolescent girls’ differential susceptibility to neural dysregulation of emotion following victimization

“…findings are consistent with prior research demonstrating that peer adversity predicts heightened activation in emotion processing regions of the brain in the context of negative feedback(Lee et al, 2014) and social exclusion (McIver et al, 2018; Rudolph, Miernicki, F I G U R E 3 The interactive contribution of victimization and rejection sensitivity predicting labeling accuracy for negative emotions et al, 2016; Will et al, 2016), but extend this work to suggest that victimization may compromise neural regulation of general emotional cues, as reflected in facial expressions, as well. Future work is needed, however, that involves repeated assessments of ER over time.…”

Bullying Victimization and Trauma

“…Several studies on bullied adolescents have documented important findings with respect to criterion C1—preoccupation with threat, or impaired capacity to perceive threat, including misreading of safety and danger cues, including hostile attributions ( 84 ), distressing paranoid thinking and subsequent misappraisal of threat ( 85 ), and biased interpretations of social situations and the intentions of others ( 86 ). fMRI studies have found that peer victimization is associated with increased neural response to being socially excluded ( 87 – 89 ), greater activation than controls in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex when viewing video clips of facial expressions that depicted negative interpersonal feedback ( 90 ), and thicker cortex in the fusiform gyrus compared to children who were not bullied by their peers [see review by Vaillancourt and Palamarchuk ( 50 )].…”

Bullying the Brain? Longitudinal Links Between Childhood Peer Victimization, Cortisol, and Adolescent Brain Structure

“…Stimulation of the vlPFC with transcranial direct stimulation during social exclusion dampens distress (Riva et al, 2015). Children who are habitually excluded by their peers show more lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) activity in the face of social stress (Will et al, 2016) and when resisting risky behaviors (Telzer et al, 2017), and show greater vlPFC activation when receiving negative social feedback than do children who are not peer-rejected (Lee et al, 2014).…”