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What are the effects of social rejection on the brain?

If the external circumstance can not change, how can the impact on the brain be reduced?

What is the average sensitivity to social rejection and are some not effect by it?

Any points in the right direction are helpful.

Thank You.

So far I have found only 1 study (Eisenberger et al., 2003) summarized as follows (but unable to make any conclusions):

A ball is passed to a group of students except for one student, who does not know what the experiment is. When the ball is not passed to the "excluded" student, the brain of that excluded lights up in the same place as in physical pain.

Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290-292.

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Could you add a reference to the study? – Jeromy Anglim♦ Feb 28 at 23:01
@JeffZemla: thank you for adding the reference, much appreciated. – Greg McNulty Mar 1 at 4:48
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You could try doing a forward search for articles that cite Eisenberger et al., 2003. Looks like there's over 1400! – Dan M. Mar 2 at 17:49
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NeuroSynth (a meta analysis of fMRI results from several studies) tags several parts of the brain in association with the word "pain". I wonder which parts are activated in social rejection and what part they play in physical pain. – Xurtio Mar 5 at 1:33

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