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A meta-analysis of the anterior cingulate contribution to social pain
Jean-Yves Rotge1, Cedric Lemogne2, Sophie Hinfray3
1INSERM UMR 894, Centre Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Paris, France, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Faculté de Médecine, Paris, France, AP-HP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Ouest, Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Adulte et du Sujet Agé, Paris, France, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France, CNRS UMR 7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Marseille, France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Service d'Immunologie Biologique, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, ICM, Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, F-75013 Paris, France, and AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, F-75013 Paris, France INSERM UMR 894, Centre Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Paris, France, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Faculté de Médecine, Paris, France, AP-HP, Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Ouest, Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Adulte et du Sujet Agé, Paris, France, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France, CNRS UMR 7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Marseille, France, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), CNRS UMR 7222, Paris, France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Service d'Immunologie Biologique, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle, ICM, Social and Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Laboratory, F-75013 Paris, France, and AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, F-75013 Paris, France jeanyves.rotge@mac.com.
Abstract:
Many functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have explored the neural correlates of social pain that results from social threat, exclusion, rejection, loss or negative evaluation. Although activations have consistently been reported within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), it remains unclear which ACC subdivision is particularly involved. To provide a quantitative estimation of the specific involvement of ACC subdivisions in social pain, we conducted a voxel-based meta-analysis. The literature search identified 46 articles that included 940 subjects, the majority of which used the cyberball task. Significant likelihoods of activation were found in both the ventral and dorsal ACC for both social pain elicitation and self-reported distress during social pain. Self-reported distress involved more specifically the subgenual and pregenual ACC than social pain-related contrasts. The cyberball task involved the anterior midcingulate cortex to a lesser extent than other experimental tasks. During social pain, children exhibited subgenual activations to a greater extent than adults. Finally, the ventro-dorsal gradient of ACC activations in cyberball studies was related to the length of exclusion phases. The present meta-analysis contributes to a better understanding of the role of ACC subdivisions in social pain, and it could be of particular importance for guiding future studies of social pain and its neural underpinnings.
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