Perceiving rejection by others: Relationship between rejection sensitivity and the spontaneous neuronal activity of the brain

ABSTRACT

Rejection sensitivity (RS) can be defined as the disposition of a person to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. Individuals with high RS are likely to suffer from mental disorders. The association between individual differences in RS and spontaneous neuronal activity at resting state has not yet been investigated. In this study, resting state data were used to investigate the relationship between RS and spontaneous neuronal activity in a large sample of healthy men (137) and women (172). The participants completed the rejection sensitivity questionnaire and underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and rejection sensitivity scores adjusted for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) was positively associated with RS. Furthermore, functional connectivity with the middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with RS when sgACC was used as the seed region. These findings suggest that the spontaneous neuronal activity of sgACC and its functional connectivity with the lateral prefrontal cortex which are involved in experiencing social exclusion and regulating negative emotions are associated with individual differences in RS.

KEYWORDS:

• Rejection sensitivity
• resting state
• subgenual anterior cingulate cortex
• social cognition
• lateral prefrontal cortex

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470981; 31571137; 31500885), National Outstanding Young People Plan, the Program for the Top Young Talents by Chongqing, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU1709568, SWU1509383, SWU1509451, SWU1609177), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (cstc2015jcyjA10106), Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (151023), General Financial Grant from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M572423, 2015M580767), Special Funds from the Chongqing Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Xm2015037, Xm2016044), Key research for Humanities and social sciences of Ministry of Education(14JJD880009);