The heart of social pain: examining resting blood pressure and neural sensitivity to exclusion.

ABSTRACT: Previous work suggests blood pressure (BP) relates to social algesia, where those with higher BP are more tolerant of social pain. The neural correlates of this association, however, are unknown. Based on findings suggesting neural regions involved in physical pain are activated during social pain, the current study explores whether BP relates to subjective and neural responses to social pain, apart from emotional responding. BP was measured, after which participants completed emotional processing and social exclusion functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms. Results replicated previous findings, with higher systolic BP related to lower trait sensitivity to social pain. However, there were no associations between BP and reported sensitivity to social pain during social exclus

SUBMITTER: Dembling SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12000721 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature