ArticlePloS one2015
fMRI Study of Social Anxiety during Social Ostracism with and without Emotional Support.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social exclusion reliably engages the default network: A meta-analysis of Cyberball.NeuroImage · 2021Pooled it
- Neural correlates of social exclusion across ages: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional MRI studies.NeuroImage · 2017Pooled it
- Neural and behavioral effects of parent training on emotion recognition in mothers rearing children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Brain imaging and behavior · 2023Trial
- When group grievances become personal: The neural correlates of group and personal rejection.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural circuit basis of pathological anxiety.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Task-dependent functional connectivity changes in response to varying levels of social support.BJPsych open · 2024Article
- Emotion regulation of social pain: double dissociation of lateral prefrontal cortices supporting reappraisal and distraction.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
- Development of attentional networks during childhood and adolescence: A functional MRI study.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2022Article
- The Effects of Virtual Reality Treatment on Prefrontal Cortex Activity in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: Participatory and Interactive Virtual Reality Treatment Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- The VLPFC versus the DLPFC in Downregulating Social Pain Using Reappraisal and Distraction Strategies.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2021Article
- Perceived burdensomeness and neural responses to ostracism in the Cyberball task.Journal of psychiatric research · 2020Article
- Heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion in boys with a history of low peer preference during primary school.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2020Article
- Heightened neural sensitivity to social exclusion in boys with a history of low peer preference during primary school.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2019Article
- Neural Correlates of Social Inclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Correlates of Social Exclusion in Social Anxiety Disorder: An fMRI study.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Article
- Social support influences effective neural connections during food cue processing and overeating: A bottom-up pathway.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social anxiety is characterized by an excessive fear of being embarrassed in social interactions or social performance situations. Emotional support can help to decrease or diminish social distress. Such support may play an important role at different points of social interaction. However, it is unclear how the beneficial effects of social support are represented in the brains of socially anxious individuals. To explore this, we used the same paradigm previously used to examine the effects of emotional support on social pain caused by exclusion. Undergraduates (n = 46) showing a wide range of social anxiety scores underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participating in a Cyberball game. Participants were initially included and later excluded from the game. In the latter half of the session in which participants were excluded, they were provided with supportive messages. In line with our previous work, we found that social exclusion led to increased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity, whereas emotional support led to increased left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity. Despite validation of the paradigm, social anxiety was not associated with increased ACC activity during social exclusion, or during perceived emotional support. Instead, fear of negative evaluation as assessed by the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE) scale showed positive associations with left DLPFC activation while receiving emotional support, compared to while being socially excluded. The more socially anxious an individual was, the greater was the left DLPFC activity increased during receipt of messages. This suggests that highly socially anxious people still have the ability to perceive social support, but that they are nevertheless susceptible to negative evaluation by others.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.