Kin rejection: social signals, neural response and perceived distress during social exclusion

Across species, kin bond together to promote survival. We sought to understand the dyadic effect of exclusion by kin (as opposed to non‐kin strangers) on brain activity of the mother and her child and their subjective distress. To this end, we probed mother–child relationships with a computerized ba...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Developmental science Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 1029 - 1041
Main Authors:	Sreekrishnan, Anirudh, Herrera, Tania A., Wu, Jia, Borelli, Jessica L., White, Lars O., Rutherford, Helena J.V., Mayes, Linda C., Crowley, Michael J.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-11-2014 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:	Brain - physiology Brain Mapping Brain Waves - physiology Child Child development Electroencephalography Emotions Female Humans Male Mother-Child Relations Mothers Neurology Perceptions Rejection (Psychology) Social Distance Video Games
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Summary:	Across species, kin bond together to promote survival. We sought to understand the dyadic effect of exclusion by kin (as opposed to non‐kin strangers) on brain activity of the mother and her child and their subjective distress. To this end, we probed mother–child relationships with a computerized ball‐toss game Cyberball. When excluded by one another, rather than by a stranger, both mothers and children exhibited a significantly pronounced frontal P2. Moreover, upon kin rejection versus stranger rejection, both mothers and children showed incremented left frontal positive slow waves for rejection events. Children reported more distress upon exclusion than their own mothers. Similar to past work, relatively augmented negative frontal slow wave activity predicted greater self‐reported ostracism distress. This effect, generalized to the P2, was limited to mother‐ or child‐rejection by kin, with comparable magnitude of effect across kin identity (mothers vs. children). For both mothers and children, the frontal P2 peak was significantly pronounced for kin rejection versus stranger rejection. Taken together, our results document the rapid categorization of social signals as kin relevant and the specificity of early and late neural markers for predicting felt ostracism. Kin rejection was examined by looking at neural responses in children and their mothers while playing the computer game Cyberball. Responses, specifically the frontal P2 and slow wave, were selectively greater for rejection by kin than by stranger.
Bibliography:	istex:3FF37C8564A1250FCD6966CC7BE94390D31DA2E5 Bial Foundation (MJC) NIDA - No. DA034125 ark:/67375/WNG-T862713M-T ArticleID:DESC12191 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1363-755X 1467-7687
DOI:	10.1111/desc.12191