Social exclusion in middle childhood: Rejection events, slow-wave neural activity, and ostracism distress

Abstract

This study examined neural activity with event-related potentials (ERPs) in middle childhood during a computer-simulated ball-toss game, Cyberball. After experiencing fair play initially, children were ultimately excluded by the other players. We focused specifically on “not my turn” events within fair play and rejection events within social exclusion. Dense-array ERPs revealed that rejection events are perceived rapidly. Condition differences (“not my turn” vs. rejection) were evident in a posterior ERP peaking at 420 ms consistent, with a larger P3 effect for rejection events indicating that in middle childhood rejection events are differentiated in <500 ms. Condition differences were evident for slow-wave activity (500–900 ms) in the medial frontal cortical region and the posterior occipital–parietal region, with rejection events more negative frontally and more positive posteriorly. Distress from the rejection experience was associated with a more negative frontal slow wave and a larger late positive slow wave, but only for rejection events. Source modeling with Geosouce software suggested that slow-wave neural activity in cortical regions previously identified in functional imaging studies of ostracism, including subgenual cortex, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and insula, was greater for rejection events vs. “not my turn” events.

Keywords:

• Social exclusion
• Social rejection
• Middle childhood
• Event-related potentials (ERPs)
• Source modeling

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Bial Foundation and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award ( both MJC), NIDA grants RO1-DA-06025, DA-017863, and KO5, and a grant from the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation (all LCM). This publication was also made possible by CTSA Grant Number UL1 RR024139 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH. The authors thank David Reiss and Max Greger-Moser for their thoughtful comments on the manuscript.