A Pain by any other Name (Rejection, Exclusion, Ostracism) still Hurts the Same

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A Pain by any other Name (Rejection, Exclusion,
Ostracism) still Hurts the Same
The Role of Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex in
Social and Physical Pain

• Mathew D. Leiberman and Naomi I. Eisenberger
• By Shauna Halaharvi

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The low-down!

• Argumentation for specific neural processes
  devoted to social cognition and not shared by
  more general cognitive processes and others argue
  otherwise.
• Does social pain qualify under this analysis.?
• Perhapsif social pain was related to physical
  pain..oooo were getting somewhere now!
• Research suggests that dorsal region of the
  anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) might be
  involved with both forms of pain.

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dACChmm whats that?

• Function might be to be a neural alarm system,
  combining both detection of a problem and
  sounding of an alarm.
• Cognitive processes
• Processes nonsymbolic conflict where conflict is
  not explicitly represented but is tension level

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RACC

• Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex (rACC)
• Affective processes
• Symbolic conflict where conflict is explicitly
  represented with symbolic or propositional thought

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Link of Social and Physical

• Social pain described as physical.
• How do YOU describe physical pain?
• How do YOU describe Social Pain?
• Countries across world use physical descriptions
  for social pain

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The Evolutionary link

• Panksepp et al (1978)-1st to say the link is more
  than metaphorical
• In mammals, social needs are important to
  communicate to mothers the biological needs and
  they simply cant care for themselves
• Social attachment system- monitors actual or
  psychological distance form others and when
  distant.contact can be established

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Cont

• Mammals are 1st to have a cingulate gyrus could
  be for social attachment process
• Reason for dACC in social and physical is
• High density of opiate receptors in brain
• Literature shows dACC to active in social pain
• ACC and dACC separation distress to regain
  social content

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ACC and Physical Pain in Humans

• Pain Matrix- involved in sensory, distress,
  regulatory components of pain identify where
  and also the intensity
• Periaquaductal gray, rACC, right ventral
  prefrontal cortex regulation of pain by opioid
  release and cognitive process
• Sensory intensity and subjective distress are
  related ex music turning up!
• Change in reports of pain distress correlated
  with changes in dACC activity but not
  somatosensory

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ACC and Social Pain in Animals

• Rostral ACC, some just may not have it
• dACC- critical to experience social pain leading
  to distress vocalizations

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ACC and Social Pain in Humans

• dACC, right insula, right ventral prefrontal
  cortex brain exclusion
• dACC and right ventral prefrontal cortex social
  pain
• dACC greater activity during exclusion high
  social pain
• Right ventral prefrontal cortex high activity
  during exclusion low social pain
• Right ventral prefrontal cortex decresed
  experience of pain

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Function of ACC

• dACC activity is experienced in social and
  physical
• But why? What is the function?
• Clinical dACC produces attn. getting affective
  motivational states such as pain, anxiety, and
  distress
• Cognitive researchers monitor for conflict and
  to deter errors

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Cont

• Activated when a discrepancy exists between ones
  goals and ones prepotent responses
• dACC is activated and notifies lateral
  prefrontal cortex that top-down control process
  is needed
• Most say dACC is mainly for detecting conflict
  and altering lateral prefrontal cortex

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ACC the Neural Alarm System

• An alarm system
• Detects the environment
• Notifies people that alarm is off
• dACC
• Sensitive to goal conflicts
• Can create attn.-getting affective states
• Do phenomenological And conflict detection
  processes co-vary with one another

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Dorsal vs. Rostral ACC

• Cognitive tasks activate dACC and deactivate
  rACC, affective tasks tended to activate rACC and
  deactivate dACC
• Hypothesize that dACC and rACC both involved in
  conflict processing but are different in regard
  to the extent the conflict is represented
• When tension is incr. in dACC, triggers a signal
  to lateral prefrontal cortex, exerts top-down
• Symbolic thoughts are processes serially, many
  conflicts maybe non-symbolically processed only a
  single symbolic conflict can be processed at one
  time,

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Cont..

• Most non-symbolic forms of cognitive conflict
  activate dACC
• Neg. emotions are the result of a conflict
  between desired or expected outcomes and what
  actually occurs
• Anxiety is like fear but doesnt have an
  intentional object
• Sadness, anger, fear activate rACC but anxiety
  activate dACC-percception of discrete

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Cont..

• Pain can be symbolic of non-symbolic
• When iss is non-symbolic- communication is
  bottom-up activates dACC
• More symbolic forms of cognition, emotion and
  pain are processed in rACC and less in dACC
• Non-symbolic conflict simply produces tension and
  anxiety until resolved or becomes symbolic

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Conclusion

• Social attachment
• dACC both in physical and Social
• dACCn as neural alarm system