Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University Medical Center.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2018 Jun 1;13(6):616-627. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsy035.
Rejection by parents is an important aspect of child maltreatment. Altered neural responses to social rejection have been observed in maltreated individuals. The current study is the first to examine the impact of experienced and perpetrated abuse and neglect on neural responses to social exclusion by strangers versus family using a multigenerational family design, including 144 participants. The role of neural reactivity to social exclusion in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment was also examined. Exclusion by strangers was especially associated with increased activation in the left insula, while exclusion by a family member was mainly associated with increased activation in the ACC. Neural reactivity to social exclusion by strangers in the insula, ACC and dmPFC, was associated with experienced maltreatment but not with perpetrated maltreatment. In abusive parents, altered neural reactivity during exclusion was found in other brain areas, indicating different neural correlates of experienced and perpetrated maltreatment. Hence, no mechanisms could be identified that are involved in the transmission of maltreatment. Hypersensitivity to social rejection by strangers in neglected individuals underscores the importance to distinguish between effects of abuse and neglect and suggests that the impact of experiencing rejection and maltreatment by your own parents extends beyond the family context.
父母的拒绝是虐待儿童的一个重要方面。在受虐待的个体中，观察到了对社会拒绝的神经反应的改变。本研究首次使用多代家庭设计，检查了经历和实施的虐待和忽视对来自陌生人与家人的社会排斥的神经反应的影响，包括 144 名参与者。还研究了神经反应对虐待的代际传递的作用。与陌生人的排斥尤其与左侧脑岛的激活增加有关，而与家庭成员的排斥主要与 ACC 的激活增加有关。对陌生人排斥的脑岛、ACC 和 dmPFC 的神经反应与经历的虐待有关，但与实施的虐待无关。在虐待父母中，在排除期间发现了其他大脑区域的神经反应改变，表明经历和实施的虐待有不同的神经相关性。因此，没有发现涉及虐待传递的机制。被忽视的个体对陌生人的社会排斥反应过度敏感，强调了区分虐待和忽视的影响的重要性，并表明被自己的父母拒绝和虐待的经历的影响超出了家庭环境。
