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Physical vs. Emotional PainWhile the emotional pain of rejection does not elicit physical symptoms such as a muscle ache or spasm, the brain apparently does respond to emotional pain in much the same way as it responds to physical pain. A team of UCLA psychologists used magnetic resonance imaging to monitor the brains of their study subjects. Thirteen UCLA undergraduates were asked to play a computer ball-tossing game. The students were told the other players were also students who were participating in the game from another site. In reality, the other players were computer generated. The researchers used different scenarios to exclude the subjects from playing at certain points -- meaning the ball wasn't tossed to them on the computer. The scenarios were used to produce feelings of social exclusion among the students. MRI scans noted activity in the brain's anterior cingulate, which has been implicated in generating the adverse reaction of physical pain. Some activity also was noted in the right ventral prefrontal cortex, an area associated with thinking about emotions and with self-control. The research team speculates that humans' need for inclusion is tied to most mammals' reliance on social bonds for survival. "Going back 50,000 years, social distance from a group could lead to death and it still does for most infant mammals," said Matthew Lieberman, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA. "We may have evolved a sensitivity to anything that would indicate that we're being excluded. This automatic alarm may be a signal for us to reestablish social bonds before harm befalls us," he continued. The research also showed the verbalizing rejection may shut down the part of the brain that signals distress. This finding may explain why talk therapy and writing are therapeutic for people who feel excluded or rejected.
November 15, 2003 | |||||
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