Song Juan, Lian Tao, Zhang Yunhong, Cao Mingjing, Jiao Zhibin
Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China.
National Key Laboratory of Human Factor & Ergonomics, China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2024 Aug 27;15:1368214. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1368214. eCollection 2024.
Social exclusion stands as a source of social discord and holds substantial research value. Prior investigations on social exclusion have overlooked the interactive relationship between the excluded individuals and the observers. Hence, this study comparatively explores the neural mechanisms underlying the psychological responses of two distinct roles within the same social exclusion context. A total of 35 pairs (19 pairs of females) participated in the experiment. Within each pair, one individual assumed the role of a socially excluded participant (target), while the other acted as a social exclusion observer. Targets engaged in an online ball-passing game where controlled ball allocations to the participants created an exclusion scenario. Meanwhile, observers spectated the targets playing the game. Throughout the ball-passing activity, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) recorded the blood oxygen data in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) of both participants. Our findings revealed varied levels of rejection sensitivity elicited by direct or observed social exclusion experiences. Additionally, distinct patterns of neural activation were observed: targets displayed conditional differences in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), while male observers exhibited conditional activation differences in the mPFC, and female observers showed conditional activation differences in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). This study juxtaposes the behavioral and neural activation variances between targets and observers within the same social context, offering a novel perspective on investigating the neural mechanisms of social exclusion.
社会排斥是社会不和谐的一个根源，具有重要的研究价值。先前对社会排斥的研究忽视了被排斥个体与观察者之间的互动关系。因此，本研究比较探讨了在同一社会排斥情境中两个不同角色的心理反应背后的神经机制。共有35对（19对女性）参与了实验。在每一对中，一个人扮演被社会排斥的参与者（目标），另一个人则作为社会排斥的观察者。目标参与者参与一个在线传球游戏，通过对参与者的球分配控制来创造一种排斥情境。与此同时，观察者观看目标参与者玩游戏。在整个传球活动中，功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）记录了两名参与者前额叶皮层（PFC）和颞顶联合区（TPJ）的血氧数据。我们的研究结果揭示了直接或观察到的社会排斥经历所引发的不同程度的拒绝敏感性。此外，还观察到了不同的神经激活模式：目标参与者在内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）表现出条件性差异，男性观察者在mPFC表现出条件性激活差异，而女性观察者在右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）表现出条件性激活差异。本研究将同一社会背景下目标参与者和观察者之间的行为和神经激活差异并列起来，为研究社会排斥的神经机制提供了一个新的视角。
