Table 2 Neuroimaging studies of social pain.
Study, location | Participants | Mean age (SD; range) % Female | Exposure | Study design; covariates | Primary findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Peer victimisation | |||||
Eckstrand et al. [185] USA | 81 participants | 17.42 (2.16; 15–22) 59% | Victimisation questionnaire | Cross sectional Covariates: age, head movement | Sexual orientation victimisation was related to higher medial prefrontal cortex activation. |
Corr et al. [186] USA | 73 participants | 12.8 (2.2; 9–16) 42% | Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, medication, psychiatry diagnosis | Greater polyvictimization was associated with reduced functional connectivity between the default mode and salience network. |
Telzer et al. [57] USA | 38 females measured across 7 years | 15.43 (0.33; 14.9–16.3) | Social Experiences Questionnaire-Revised | Longitudinal | Greater severity of peer victimisation was linked to heightened activation in the amygdala, ventral striatum, fusiform gyrus, and temporoparietal junction in response to in-group compared to out-group peers. |
Telzer et al. [187] USA | 46 females measured across 7 years | 15.3 (0.34; 14.8–16.1) | Social Experiences Questionnaire-Revised | Longitudinal | Victimised girls showed greater reactivity in affective sensitivity, including the bilateral amygdala, ventral striatum, and orbitofrontal cortex as well as regions involved in social cognition, including the medial prefrontal, temporal parietal junction, and medical posterior parietal cortex. |
Quinlan et al. [55] Europe | 682 participants from IMAGEN cohort | Baseline: 14.4 (0.4) Follow-up 1: 16.5 (0.6) Follow-up 2: 19.0 (0.7) 54% | Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire | Longitudinal Covariates: Sex, study site, SES, pubertal status, and change in intracranial volume | Chronic peer victimisation was associated with steeper decreases in left putamen volume. |
Muetzel et al. [54] Netherlands | 2602 participants from Generation R | Teacher report: 6.6 (4.6–9.6) Parent report: 8.1 (7.5–9.9) MRI: 10.09 (0.57; 8.5–11.9) 51% | Bullying Involvement Assessment | Longitudinal Covariates: Age, Sex, Ethnicity, maternal education, Child’s non-verbal IQ and psychiatric illness. | Children classified as frequent targets of bullying showed thicker cortex in the fusiform gyrus. |
Loneliness | |||||
Kong et al. [60] China | 308 participants | 19.94 (1.27; 18–27) 54.2% | UCLA loneliness scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, total GMV | Lonely individuals had greater regional grey matter volume in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which might reflect immature functioning in terms of emotional regulation. |
Düzel et al. [59] Germany | 319 participants from Berlin Aging Study | 70.1 (3.7; 61–88) 50.9% | UCLA loneliness scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, education, social network size, depressive affect, openness, morbidity, total intracranial volume, time interval between MRI and assessment | Loneliness was associated with smaller GMV in the left amygdala/anterior hippocampus, left posterior parahippocampus, and left cerebellum. |
Liégeois et al. [188] USA | 419 participants from Human Connectome Project Replication in 328 adults | NR (22–35) | Loneliness survey from the NIH Toolbox on Emotion | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, race, motion, motion. | Static and dynamic FC explain loneliness equally well, while specifically dynamic FC encodes cognitive tasks like working memory. |
Mwilambwe-Tshilobo et al. [64] USA | 942 participants from Human Connectome Project | 28.0 (3.5; 22–37) 53.7% | Loneliness survey from the NIH Toolbox on Emotion | Cross sectional Covariates: age, gender, MMSE, positive affect, and personality measures | Loneliness associated with dense, lower modularity (increased integration) between default, frontoparietal, attention and perceptual networks. |
Tao et al. [61] USA | 1829 participants from Framingham Heart Study | 46.3 (8.6) 54% | One-item loneliness measure | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, education, and the time between assessments | Persistent loneliness was associated with smaller temporal lobe volume. Cumulative loneliness score was associated with smaller brain volumes in the hippocampus and with enlarged lateral ventricles. |
Brilliant et al. [70] Japan | 1336 participants | 20.8 (1.7; 18–27) 43.48% | Revised UCLA loneliness scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex | Loneliness was associated with higher functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and supplementary motor area, precentral gyrus, and superior parietal lobule. |
Kiesow et al. [189] United Kingdom | 10,129 participants from UK Biobank | 55 (7.5; 40–69) 52.4% | One-item loneliness measure | Cross sectional | Greater volumetric deviations of the amygdala between lonely and non-lonely males compared to females and more volumetric deviations in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and visual sensory network in between lonely and non-lonely females compared to males. |
Spreng et al. [63] United Kingdom | 38,701 participants from UK Biobank | 54.9 (7.5; 40–69) 56.38% | One-item loneliness measure | Cross sectional | Increased functional connectivity of the default mode network was observed in lonely individuals. |
Velpen et al. [62] Netherlands | 3,737 (cross-sectional), 3,720 (longitudinal) participants from Rotterdam Study | 59.6 (8; 45.5–92.7) 54.7% | One-item loneliness measure | Longitudinal: Median follow up time 4.1 years. Covariates: age, sex, and total intracranial volume | Participants with better perceived social support had larger total brain volumes. They also had a less steep decline in total brain volume over time than those with suboptimal social support. |
Affective loss | |||||
Chen et al. [77] | 56 participants | 69.5 (8.61) 26% | Inventory of Complicated Grief | Longitudinal Covariates: age, sex, education and voxelwise grey matter concentration | Increased amygdala functional connectivity. |
Perez et al. [88] Netherlands | 5501 participants from Rotterdam cohort | 61.55 (8.95) 53.8% | Inventory of Complicated Grief | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, education, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, history of stroke, depression and anxiety, current depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption. | Smaller brain volume. |
Blair et al. [76] USA | 66 participants | 66.1 (8.9; 51–87) 69% | Inventory of Complicated Grief | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, time since loss, depressive score and TGMV. | Higher functional connectivity between ventral caudate and the medial prefrontal, orbitofrontal, and subgenual cingulate cortices. |
Arizmendi et al. [78] USA | 28 participants | 71.9 (62–82) 81% | Inventory of Complicated Grief | Cross sectional | Complicated Grief showed an absence of increased rostral ACC (rACC) and fronto-cortical recruitment in emotional task. |
Freed et al. [82] USA | 20 participants | 37.8 (13.1; 22–62) | Emotional Stroop task | Cross sectional | High DLPFC-amygdala connectivity correlated with reduced attentional bias, while low rACC-amygdala connectivity predicted sadness intensity. |
Najib et al. [81] USA | 11 females | 25.9 (5.8) | Grief rating scale | Cross sectional | Grieving breakup was associated with altered activity in the cerebellum, anterior temporal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex. |
Luo et al. [80] China | 107 participants | 56.96 (6.06) 57.9% | Loss of only child | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, ICV | Left hippocampal volumes were significantly smaller in individuals who lost their only child. |
Kersting et al. [79] Germany | 24 females | 30.2 (5.1) | Perinatal Grief Scale | Cross sectional | Loss of an unborn child was closely related to the activation of the physical pain network encompassing the cingulate gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, the thalamus, and the brainstem. |
Acosta et al. [87] Germany | 196 participants | 24 (3.2; 19–38) 50% | List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire | Cross Sectional Covariates: anxiety and depression scores, attachment security and parental divorce in childhood and childhood maltreatment | Experience of at least one AL is associated with larger bilateral amygdala volumes, smaller right hippocampal volume. |
Acosta et al. [86] Germany | 192 participants | 24.1 (3.2; 18–40) 50% | List of threatening experience questionnaire | Cross sectional Covariates: age, TICV | No significant association between AL and brain grey matter volume in the cerebellum. |
Benetti et al. [85] United Kingdom | 32 participants | 25.2 (4.3) 53.1% | List of threatening experience questionnaire | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex | Greater number of affective losses was associated with increased cerebellum volume. |
Domestic conflict | |||||
Chester et al. [91] USA | 100 participants | 21.61 (3.73; 18–35) 51% | Abuse within intimate relationships scale | Cross sectional | Partner aggression linked to greater connectivity between ventral and dorsal medial frontal cortex. Men had more neural response to provocation while women showed more neural response during aggression itself. |
Tomoda et al. [190] USA | 52 participants | 21.7 (2.25; 18–25) 73% | Verbal Aggression Scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age, sex, level of parental verbal aggression, parental education, financial stress, full scale IQ, and total GMV | Witnessing domestic violence subjects had a 6.1% GMV reduction in right lingual gyrus. And reduced thickness in visual cortex and occipital pole. |
Graham et al. [89] USA | 24 infants | 0.69 (0.15; 0.5–1) 33.3% | Revised Conflicts Tactics Scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age | Higher levels of interparental conflict were associated with greater activation to very angry tone of voice in the rostral ACC and subcortical structures, including the hypothalamus. |
Flanagan et al. [191] USA | 20 participants | 39.45 (10.27; 22–58) 55% | Revised Conflict Tactics Scale | Cross sectional | Greater activation during the relationship conflict cue compared to the neutral cue in amygdala and prefrontal cortex |
Roos et al. [90] South Africa | 36 females | 25.36 (6.16; 16–38) | Abuse Assessment Scale | Cross sectional Covariates: age, alcohol use, TICV | Altered connectivity on a global and regional level in the IPV group of regions involved in cognitive-emotional control. |
Daugherty et al. [192] Spain | 55 females | 40.78 (12.43) | Composite Abuse Scale—Short Form | Cross sectional Covariates: alcohol and substance use, age, education. | Volume alterations in precuneus, superior occipital, superior temporal, opercular, transverse temporal, frontomarginal, temporal occipital were observed. |
