A matter of perspective: Distinct brain mechanisms for evaluating positive and negative social feedback about oneself and another person

ABSTRACT

Social rejection is a common experience in the life of young adults. Electroencephalographic (EEG) such as N1, P1 and P3 amplitude has been linked to experiencing social rejection; it remains unclear, whether these components are also influenced by the perspective, e.g., feedback directed to oneself or another person. We used EEG to investigate brain mechanisms associated with social feedback, directed either to oneself or another person. Female students (N = 57) engaged in a Chatroom Interact Task (CIT) during EEG. In this task participants received feedback as to whether themselves or someone else was accepted or rejected as a video chat partner. Mood was measured with the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Participants showed more negative mood after rejection compared to acceptance. Spatiotemporal EEG cluster analysis revealed significant differences in P1, N1 and P3 ERP components associated with Acceptance vs. Rejection. The late positive potential (LPP) component was larger when processing self vs. other-related social feedback. Higher empathy, neuroticism, and lower age were associated with smaller LPP amplitude differences between Self and Other conditions. In this study we identified distinct brain dynamics associated with encoding social feedback and whether the feedback was targeted toward the self or to others.

KEYWORDS:

• EEG
• self
• other
• rejection
• social pain
• empathy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Open practices statement

None of the data or materials for the experiments reported here is available, and none of the experiments was preregistered. Programming code and data can be shared upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute [Investigator Establishment Award and the award was hold by CT.].