SynthesisNeuroImage2021
Social exclusion reliably engages the default network: A meta-analysis of Cyberball.
Synthesis in NeuroImage, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biological research on mental pain, social pain and other pains not primarily felt in the body: methodological systematic review.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2025Pooled it
- Experimental investigations of social exclusion among adolescents with psychiatric disorders: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Comparison of resting-state brain activity between insomnia and generalized anxiety disorder: A coordinate-based meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Tasks activating the default mode network map multiple functional systems.Brain structure & function · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of Yoga Versus Memory Enhancement Training on Hippocampal Connectivity in Older Women at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Trial
- Heightened Susceptibility to Social Exclusion in Poor Sleepers: A Resting-State fMRI Study.Brain topography · 2026Article
- Neural bias to social feedback moderates link between childhood abuse and subsequent harsh parenting.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Intrinsic network static and dynamic functional connectivity associated with induced affect.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Exposure to Bullying Engages Social Distress Circuits in the Adolescent and Adult Brain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Physiological and cognitive reactivity to social exclusion among emerging adults with versus without a suicide attempt history.Psychiatry research communications · 2025Article
- The effects of social exclusion on directed forgetting of social and non-social information.Psychological research · 2025Article
- When group grievances become personal: The neural correlates of group and personal rejection.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural Patterns of Social Pain in the Brain-Wide Representations Across Social Contexts.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Direct and averted gaze modulate the event-related brain responses to social exclusion signals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The heart of social pain: examining resting blood pressure and neural sensitivity to exclusion.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
- Caregiver or Playmate? Fathers' and mothers' brain responses to ball-play with children.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Comment on "Perception of social inclusion/exclusion and response inhibition in adolescents with past suicide attempt: a multidomain task-based fMRI study." by Gifuni et al.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Intensive Longitudinal Social Sensing in Patients With Psychosis Spectrum Disorders: An Exploratory Pilot Study.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2024Article
- Neural responses to social rejection reflect dissociable learning about relational value and reward.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Here Comes Revenge: Peer Victimization Relates to Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Exclusion.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social exclusion refers to the experience of being disregarded or rejected by others and has wide-ranging negative consequences for well-being and cognition. Cyberball, a game where a ball is virtually tossed between players, then leads to the exclusion of the research participant, is a common method used to examine the experience of social exclusion. The neural correlates of social exclusion remain a topic of debate, particularly with regards to the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the concept of social pain. Here we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to identify brain activity reliably engaged by social exclusion during Cyberball task performance (Studies = 53; total N = 1,817 participants). Results revealed consistent recruitment in ventral anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate cortex, inferior and superior frontal gyri, posterior insula, and occipital pole. No reliable activity was observed in dACC. Using a probabilistic atlas to define dACC, fewer than 15% of studies reported peak coordinates in dACC. Meta-analytic connectivity mapping suggests patterns of co-activation are consistent with the topography of the default network. Reverse inference for cognition associated with reliable Cyberball activity computed in Neurosynth revealed social exclusion to be associated with cognitive terms Social, Autobiographical, Mental States, and Theory of Mind. Taken together, these findings highlight the role of the default network in social exclusion and warns against interpretations of the dACC as a key region involved in the experience of social exclusion in humans.
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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.