IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms6380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Separate neural representations for physical pain and social rejection

Author

Listed:
  • Choong-Wan Woo

    (University of Colorado
    Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

  • Leonie Koban

    (University of Colorado
    Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

  • Ethan Kross

    (University of Michigan)

  • Martin A. Lindquist

    (Johns Hopkins University)

  • Marie T. Banich

    (University of Colorado
    Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

  • Luka Ruzic

    (University of Colorado
    Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

  • Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna

    (Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

  • Tor D. Wager

    (University of Colorado
    Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado)

Abstract

Current theories suggest that physical pain and social rejection share common neural mechanisms, largely by virtue of overlapping functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity. Here we challenge this notion by identifying distinct multivariate fMRI patterns unique to pain and rejection. Sixty participants experience painful heat and warmth and view photos of ex-partners and friends on separate trials. FMRI pattern classifiers discriminate pain and rejection from their respective control conditions in out-of-sample individuals with 92% and 80% accuracy. The rejection classifier performs at chance on pain, and vice versa. Pain- and rejection-related representations are uncorrelated within regions thought to encode pain affect (for example, dorsal anterior cingulate) and show distinct functional connectivity with other regions in a separate resting-state data set (N=91). These findings demonstrate that separate representations underlie pain and rejection despite common fMRI activity at the gross anatomical level. Rather than co-opting pain circuitry, rejection involves distinct affective representations in humans.

Suggested Citation

  • Choong-Wan Woo & Leonie Koban & Ethan Kross & Martin A. Lindquist & Marie T. Banich & Luka Ruzic & Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna & Tor D. Wager, 2014. "Separate neural representations for physical pain and social rejection," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6380
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6380
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6380
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms6380?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhenfu Wen & Edward F. Pace-Schott & Sara W. Lazar & Jörgen Rosén & Fredrik Åhs & Elizabeth A. Phelps & Joseph E. LeDoux & Mohammed R. Milad, 2024. "Distributed neural representations of conditioned threat in the human brain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Ayelet M. Rosenberg & Manish Saggar & Anna S. Monzel & Jack Devine & Peter Rogu & Aaron Limoges & Alex Junker & Carmen Sandi & Eugene V. Mosharov & Dani Dumitriu & Christoph Anacker & Martin Picard, 2023. "Brain mitochondrial diversity and network organization predict anxiety-like behavior in male mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Feng Zhou & Weihua Zhao & Ziyu Qi & Yayuan Geng & Shuxia Yao & Keith M. Kendrick & Tor D. Wager & Benjamin Becker, 2021. "A distributed fMRI-based signature for the subjective experience of fear," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6380. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.