Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:21:20.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neural correlates of ostracism in transgender persons living according to their gender identity: a potential risk marker for psychopathology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2018

Sven C. Mueller ,
Katrien Wierckx ,
Sara Boccadoro  and
Guy T'Sjoen
Sven C. Mueller*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Katrien Wierckx
Affiliation:
Department of Endocrinology, Center for Sexology and Gender, Ghent University Hospital, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Sara Boccadoro
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Guy T'Sjoen
Affiliation:
Department of Endocrinology, Center for Sexology and Gender, Ghent University Hospital, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
*
Author for correspondence: Sven C. Mueller, E-mail: sven.mueller@ugent.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Stigmatization in society carries a high risk for development of psychopathology. Transgender persons are at particularly high risk for such stigmatization and social rejection by others. However, the neural correlates of ostracism in this group have not been captured.

Method

Twenty transgender men (TM, female-to-male) and 19 transgender women (TW, male-to-female) already living in their gender identity and 20 cisgender men (CM) and 20 cisgender women (CW) completed a cyberball task assessing both exclusion and re-inclusion during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Results

During psychosocial stress between-group differences were found in the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Patterns were consistent with sex assigned at birth, i.e. CW showed greater activation in dorsal ACC and IFG relative to CM and TW. During re-inclusion, transgender persons showed greater ventral ACC activity relative to CW, possibly indicating persistent feelings of exclusion. Functional connectivity analyses supported these findings but showed a particularly altered functional connectivity between ACC and lateral prefrontal cortex in TM, which may suggest reduced emotional regulation to the ostracism experience in this group. Depressive symptoms or hormonal levels were not associated with these findings.

Conclusion

The results bear implications for the role of social exclusion in development of mental health problems in socially marginalized groups.

Keywords

fMRIgender dysphoriaostracismsocial rejectiontransgender
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 48 , Issue 14 , October 2018 , pp. 2313 - 2320
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, AT, Steer, RA and Garbin, MG (1988) Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review 8, 77–100.Google Scholar
Benenson, JF, Markovits, H, Hultgren, B, Nguyen, T, Bullock, G and Wrangham, R (2013) Social exclusion: more important to human females than males. PLoS ONE 8, e55851.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, NI, Lieberman, MD and Williams, KD (2003) Does rejection hurt? An FMRI study of social exclusion. Science 302, 290–292.Google Scholar
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014) EU LGBT Survey (European Union Lesbian, gay, Bisexual and Transgender Survey) Luxembourg: Publications office of the European Union.Google Scholar
Friston, KJ (2004) Functional and effective connectivity in neuroimaging: a synthesis. Human Brain Mapping 2, 56–78.Google Scholar
Heylens, G, Elaut, E, Kreukels, BPC, Paap, MCS, Cerwenka, S, Richter-Appelt, H et al. (2014) Psychiatric characteristics in transsexual individuals: multicentre study in four European countries. British Journal of Psychiatry 204, 151–156.Google Scholar
Kogler, L, Muller, VI, Chang, A, Eickhoff, SB, Fox, PT, Gur, RC et al. (2015) Psychosocial versus physiological stress - meta-analyses on deactivations and activations of the neural correlates of stress reactions. NeuroImage 119, 235–251.Google Scholar
Maldjian, J, Laurienti, P, Burdette, J and RA, K (2003) An automated method for neuroanatomic and cytoarchitectonic atlas-based interrogation of fMRI data sets. NeuroImage 19, 1233–1239.Google Scholar
Masten, CL, Eisenberger, NI, Borofsky, LA, Pfeifer, JH, McNealy, K, Mazziotta, JC et al. (2009) Neural correlates of social exclusion during adolescence: understanding the distress of peer rejection. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 4, 143–157.Google Scholar
Maurage, P, Joassin, F, Philippot, P, Heeren, A, Vermeulen, N, Mahau, P et al. (2012) Disrupted regulation of social exclusion in alcohol-dependence: an fMRI study. Neuropsychopharmacology 37, 2067–2075.Google Scholar
Meyer, IH (2003) Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay and bisexual populations: conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin 129, 674–697.Google Scholar
Meyer-Lindenberg, A and Tost, H (2012) Neural mechanisms of social risk for psychiatric disorders. Nature Neuroscience 15, 663–668.Google Scholar
Moor, BG, Guroglu, B, Op de Macks, ZA, Rombouts, SA, Van der Molen, MW and Crone, EA (2012) Social exclusion and punishment of excluders: neural correlates and developmental trajectories. NeuroImage 59, 708–717.Google Scholar
Mueller, SC, De Cuypere, G and T'Sjoen, G (2017 a) Transgender research in the 21st century: a selective critical review from a neurocognitive perspective. American Journal of Psychiatry 174(12), 1155–1162.Google Scholar
Mueller, SC, De Rubeis, J, Lange, D, Pawelzik, MR and Sutterlin, S (2016) Sensitivity to social exclusion in major depressive disorder predicts therapeutic outcome after inpatient treatment. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 85, 50–52.Google Scholar
Mueller, SC, Landre, L, Wierckx, K and T'Sjoen, G (2017 b) A structural MRI study in transgender persons on cross-Sex hormone therapy. Neuroendocrinology 105, 123–130.Google Scholar
Rotge, JY, Lemogne, C, Hinfray, S, Huguet, P, Grynszpan, O, Tartour, E et al. (2015) A meta-analysis of the anterior cingulate contribution to social pain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 10, 19–27.Google Scholar
Saito, M, Kondo, N, Kondo, K, Ojima, T and Hirai, H (2012) Gender differences on the impacts of social exclusion on mortality among older Japanese: aGES cohort study. Social Science and Medicine 75, 940–945.Google Scholar
Sebastian, CL, Tan, GC, Roiser, JP, Viding, E, Dumontheil, I and Blakemore, SJ (2011) Developmental influences on the neural bases of responses to social rejection: implications of social neuroscience for education. NeuroImage 57, 686–694.Google Scholar
Simon, L, Zsolt, U, Fogd, D and Czobor, P (2011) Dysfunctional core beliefs, perceived parenting behavior and psychopathology in gender identity disorder: a comparison of male-to-female, female-to-male transsexual and nontranssexual control subjects. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 42, 38–45.Google Scholar
Spielberger, CD, Gorsuch, RL and Lushene, RE (1970) Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Williams, KD, Cheung, CKT and Choi, W (2000) Cyberostracism: effects of being ignored over the internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79, 748–762.Google Scholar
Williams, KD and Jarvis, B (2006) Cyberball: a program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance. Behavior Research Methods 38, 174–180.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Mueller et al. supplementary material

Mueller et al. supplementary material 1

Download Mueller et al. supplementary material(File)
File 68.8 KB