Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.

Relational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (...

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Main Authors: Markus Kiefer, Eun-Jin Sim, Sabrina Heil, Rebecca Brown, Bärbel Herrnberger, Manfred Spitzer, Georg Grön
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255681
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author Markus Kiefer
Eun-Jin Sim
Sabrina Heil
Rebecca Brown
Bärbel Herrnberger
Manfred Spitzer
Georg Grön
author_facet Markus Kiefer
Eun-Jin Sim
Sabrina Heil
Rebecca Brown
Bärbel Herrnberger
Manfred Spitzer
Georg Grön
author_sort Markus Kiefer
collection DOAJ
description Relational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (pCASL) to investigate the neural signatures of social exclusion and its relationship with individually different extent of previous bullying experience. Twenty-four teenagers reporting bullying experience at different extent were scanned during a virtual ball-tossing (Cyberball game). Our findings showed that social exclusion (relative to social inclusion) activated frontal brain areas: sub- and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (sg/pgACC), left inferior frontal cortex (IFG), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Positive relationship between exclusion-specific signal increase and individually different extents of prior bullying experience was for the first time observed in left IFG and sgACC. This suggests that more frequent prior experience has conditioned greater mentalizing and/or rumination, in order to cope with the situation. While this interpretation remains speculative, the present data show that the experience of being bullied partly sensitizes the neural substrate relevant for the processing of social exclusion.
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spelling doaj.art-93a44ed2b32a472eb8c39df3282f6d322022-12-21T23:10:52ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01168e025568110.1371/journal.pone.0255681Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.Markus KieferEun-Jin SimSabrina HeilRebecca BrownBärbel HerrnbergerManfred SpitzerGeorg GrönRelational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (pCASL) to investigate the neural signatures of social exclusion and its relationship with individually different extent of previous bullying experience. Twenty-four teenagers reporting bullying experience at different extent were scanned during a virtual ball-tossing (Cyberball game). Our findings showed that social exclusion (relative to social inclusion) activated frontal brain areas: sub- and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (sg/pgACC), left inferior frontal cortex (IFG), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Positive relationship between exclusion-specific signal increase and individually different extents of prior bullying experience was for the first time observed in left IFG and sgACC. This suggests that more frequent prior experience has conditioned greater mentalizing and/or rumination, in order to cope with the situation. While this interpretation remains speculative, the present data show that the experience of being bullied partly sensitizes the neural substrate relevant for the processing of social exclusion.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255681
spellingShingle Markus Kiefer
Eun-Jin Sim
Sabrina Heil
Rebecca Brown
Bärbel Herrnberger
Manfred Spitzer
Georg Grön
Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
PLoS ONE
title Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
title_full Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
title_fullStr Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
title_full_unstemmed Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
title_short Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.
title_sort neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255681
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