Who Is Most Vulnerable to Social Rejection? The Toxic Combination of Low Self-Esteem and Lack of Negative Emotion Differentiation on Neural Responses to Rejection

People have a fundamental need to belong that, when satisfied, is associated with mental and physical well-being. The current investigation examined what happens when the need to belong is thwarted—and how individual differences in self-esteem and emotion differentiation modulate neural responses to social rejection. We hypothesized that low self-esteem would predict heightened activation in distress-related neural responses during a social rejection manipulation, but that this relationship would be moderated by negative emotion differentiation—defined as adeptness at using discrete negative emotion categories to capture one\u27s felt experience. Combining daily diary and neuroimaging methodologies, the current study showed that low self-esteem and low negative emotion differentiation represented a toxic combination that was associated with stronger activation during social rejection (versus social inclusion) in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula—two regions previously shown to index social distress. In contrast, individuals with greater negative emotion differentiation did not show stronger activation in these regions, regardless of their level of self-esteem; fitting with prior evidence that negative emotion differentiation confers equanimity in emotionally upsetting situations

Recognition of facial emotions among maltreated children with high rates of post–traumatic stress disorder

Objective. The purpose of this study is to examine processing of facial emotions in a sample of maltreated children showing high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maltreatment during childhood has been associated independently with both atypical processing of emotion and the development of PTSD. However, research has provided little evidence indicating how high rates of PTSD might relate to maltreated children’s processing of emotions. Method. Participants’ reaction time and labeling of emotions were measured using a morphed facial emotion identification task. Participants included a diverse sample of maltreated children with and without PTSD and controls ranging in age from 8 to 15 years. Maltreated children had been removed from their homes and placed in state custody following experiences of maltreatment. Diagnoses of PTSD and other disorders were determined through combination of parent, child, and teacher reports. Results. Maltreated children displayed faster reaction times than controls when labeling emotional facial expressions, and this result was most pronounced for fearful faces. Relative to children who were not maltreated, maltreated children both with and without PTSD showed enhanced response times when identifying fearful faces. There was no group difference in labeling of emotions when identifying different facial emotions. Conclusions. Maltreated children show heightened ability to identify fearful faces, evidenced by faster reaction times relative to controls. This association between maltreatment and atypical processing of emotion is independent of PTSD diagnosis

Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens Activation to Emotional Facial Expressions in Children and Adolescents at Risk for Major Depression

Objective. Offspring of parents with major depressive disorder (MDD) face three-fold higher risk for MDD than offspring without a family history. Although MDD is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, neural correlates of risk for MDD remain poorly understood. This study compares amygdala and nucleus accumbens activation in children and adolescents at high and low risk for MDD under varying attentional and emotional conditions. Methods. Thirty-nine juveniles, 17 offspring of parents with MDD (high-risk group) and 22 offspring of parents without histories of MDD, anxiety or psychotic disorders (low-risk group) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. During imaging, subjects viewed faces that varied in intensity of emotional expressions across blocks of trials; while attention was unconstrained (passive viewing), and constrained (rate nose width on face; rate subjective fear while viewing face). Results. When attention was unconstrained, high-risk, relative to low-risk, subjects showed greater amygdala and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation to fearful faces, and lower NAcc activation to happy faces (p values \u3c .05, small volume corrected for the amygdala and NAcc). No group differences emerged in amygdala or NAcc activation during constrained attention. Exploratory analysis showed that constraining attention was associated with greater medial prefrontal cortex activation in the high-risk than low-risk group. Conclusions. Amygdala and NAcc responses to affective stimuli may reflect vulnerability for MDD. Constraining attention may normalize emotion-related neural function, possibly via engagement of the medial prefrontal cortex; face-viewing with unconstrained attention may engage aberrant processes associated with risk for MDD

Daily Family Interactions among Young Adults from Latino, Asian, and European Backgrounds

A total of 220 young adults (Mage=25.5 years) from Latin American, East Asian, Filipino, and European backgrounds reported their family interactions, daily activities, and psychological well being for fourteen days. Although young adults reported a lower frequency of family interactions than what has been observed during adolescence, leisure time and conflict with parents and siblings continued to have significance for psychological well being. Time spent in work, school, and other relationships made it difficult for young adults to spend time being with or helping family members. Other findings suggested a potentially higher level of family importance and connectedness among young adults from Filipino backgrounds as compared to their peers

Daily Family Interactions among Young Adults from Latino, Asian, and European Backgrounds

A total of 220 young adults (Mage=25.5 years) from Latin American, East Asian, Filipino, and European backgrounds reported their family interactions, daily activities, and psychological well being for fourteen days. Although young adults reported a lower frequency of family interactions than what has been observed during adolescence, leisure time and conflict with parents and siblings continued to have significance for psychological well being. Time spent in work, school, and other relationships made it difficult for young adults to spend time being with or helping family members. Other findings suggested a potentially higher level of family importance and connectedness among young adults from Filipino backgrounds as compared to their peers

Neural responses to witnessing peer rejection after being socially excluded: fMRI as a window into adolescents' emotional processing.

During adolescence, concerns about peer rejection and acceptance become increasingly common. Adolescents regularly experience peer rejection firsthand and witness these behaviors among their peers. In the current study, neuroimaging techniques were employed to conduct a preliminary investigation of the affective and cognitive processes involved in witnessing peer acceptance and rejection - specifically when these witnessed events occur in the immediate aftermath of a firsthand experience with rejection. During an fMRI scan, 23 adolescents underwent a simulated experience of firsthand peer rejection. Then, immediately following this experience they watched as another adolescent was ostensibly first accepted and then rejected. Findings indicated that in the immediate aftermath of being rejected by peers, adolescents displayed neural activity consistent with distress when they saw another peer being accepted, and neural activity consistent with emotion regulation and mentalizing (e.g. perspective-taking) processes when they saw another peer being rejected. Furthermore, individuals displaying a heightened sensitivity to firsthand rejection were more likely to show neural activity consistent with distress when observing a peer being accepted. Findings are discussed in terms of how witnessing others being accepted or rejected relates to adolescents' interpretations of both firsthand and observed experiences with peers. In addition, the potential impact that witnessed events might have on the broader perpetuation of bullying at this age is also considered

Development of the Default Mode and Central Executive Networks across early adolescence: A longitudinal study

The mature brain is organized into distinct neural networks defined by regions demonstrating correlated activity during task performance as well as rest. While research has begun to examine differences in these networks between children and adults, little is known about developmental changes during early adolescence. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the Central Executive Network (CEN) at ages 10 and 13 in a longitudinal sample of 45 participants. In the DMN, participants showed increasing integration (i.e., stronger within-network correlations) between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the medial prefrontal cortex. During this time frame participants also showed increased segregation (i.e., weaker between-network correlations) between the PCC and the CEN. Similarly, from age 10 to 13, participants showed increased connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other CEN nodes, as well as increasing DMN segregation. IQ was significantly positively related to CEN integration at age 10, and between-network segregation at both ages. These findings highlight early adolescence as a period of significant maturation for the brain's functional architecture and demonstrate the utility of longitudinal designs to investigate neural network development