Social Exclusion Measured in fMRI

A fMRI study shows the effect of social support on the social exclusion experience. Social belonging is a fundamental need for the life of human beings. For this reason, the experience of social exclusion can be very painful. This can evoke very negative consequences in society, causing many discomforts, problems, social isolation that can become a trigger for psychiatric illnesses. When we live in a situation of social exclusion we feel very intense negative emotions that have an impact on social behaviour, such as isolation, depressive thoughts, sometimes so invasive that they can even lead to thoughts about suicide, as in the case of bullying. In the neuroscientific literature, it is known that the experience of social exclusion involves the areas of the brain usually correlated to the experiences of physical pain. So the feelings of pain that people feel when they are excluded are widely demonstrated at a neuroscientific level.