Exposure to bullying engages social distress circuits in the adolescent and adult brain

Abstract

Despite advances in understanding the psychological and social consequences of peer victimization, the immediate effects of bullying on the central nervous system remain elusive. Here we mapped the neural responses to simulated bullying in adolescents and adults and tested whether these responses are associated with real-life victimization experiences. Fifty-one adolescents aged 11-14 years, and 47 adults underwent a functional MRI (fMRI) while watching first-person videos of bullying (victimization) in the school environment, as well as neutral and positive social interactions in a similar setting. Exposure to bullying versus positive social interaction engaged the socio-emotional and threat response systems, as well as regions related to social cognition, sensory and interoceptive processing, and motor control. These responses were consistent across adolescents and adults and dependent on the current and past victimization experiences of the participants. This large-scale activation of neural systems subserving socioemotional, somatosensory, and interoceptive processing highlights how peer victimization evokes a severe stress and alarm state in the central nervous system.