2012年12月5日 讯 /生物谷BIOON/ --一系列的证据揭示了，负责物理伤痛的特定大脑区域或许也负责着个体社交痛苦的产生。但是改变特定区域的大脑活性是否可以改变人们经历社交的痛苦呢？近日，来自米兰比可卡大学的研究者揭示了，右腹外侧的额叶前皮质活性区域（rVLPFC）和社交痛苦之间是否存在偶然性的关联，右腹外侧的额叶前皮质可以调节物理性疼痛以及负面的情绪表达，相关研究成果刊登于国际杂志Psychological Science上。
研究者招募了79名大学在校生来参与这个智力可视化训练研究中，研究者使用了一种恒定电流调节器来刺激参与者的rVLPFC，所有的参与者都被告知他们至少接受刺激15分钟，但是实际上只有一半参与者接受了电流刺激。
在刺激训练结束前的5分钟，参与者进行了一项名为Cyberball的球类抖动游戏，三人一组进行游戏，每一个参与者都轮流将球投掷向对方，实际上电脑程序完全控制了这个游戏，随后参与者报告了他们在游戏期间的投掷百分比、他们的机体疼痛情况以及受伤情况。
研究者发现，正如预测的那样，游戏中受到排斥的那些参与者表现出了明显的不满，而且这些参与者表示其获得的伤害更多，值得注意的是，这些晚期效应在那些接受rVLPFC刺激的参与这种是降低的。
研究揭示了，接受了实际电流的社会性排除的参与者，其经历了较少的不愉快事件的发生以及较少的损伤，而那些认为自己接受了电流的参与者的反应却没有前者明显。很少有研究揭示社交/社会排斥的疼痛如何来缓解，这项研究首次揭示了刺激右腹外侧的额叶前皮质活性区域可以降低社交排斥所带来的疼痛感。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1177/0956797612450894
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Buffer the Pain Away: Stimulating the Right Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Reduces Pain Following Social Exclusion.
Riva P, Romero Lauro LJ, Dewall CN, Bushman BJ.
Paolo Riva of the University of Milano-Bicocca and colleagues wanted to examine whether there might be a causal relationship between activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) -- known to be involved in the regulation of physical pain and negative expressions of emotion -- and experiences of social pain. Their findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The researchers recruited 79 university students to take part in a "mental visualization exercise." They used a constant-current regulator to stimulate the rVLPFC -- all of the participants were told that they would receive stimulation for 15 minutes but only half of the participants actually received the current. Five minutes before the end of 15-minute stimulation session, the students played a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball. The students were told that they were playing with two other players and that the three of them would take turns throwing the ball to each other. In actuality, a computer program controlled the game. Some of the participants were excluded, receiving the ball only twice and then never again, while other participants received the ball about a third of the time.
