Peer preference among classmates is a highly influential factor in children’s social development and not being preferred by peers has long-term consequences for children’s developmental outcomes. However, little is known about how a history of low peer preference during primary school is associated with neural responses to a new social exclusion experience in childhood. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined self-reported social distress and neural responses to social exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm in primary school boys (M_age = 10.40 years) with a history of low (n = 27) versus high peer preference (n = 28). Boys were selected from a longitudinal classroom-based study in which children’s peer social preferences were assessed in three consecutive years prior to this study. Neuroimaging results showed that low peer preferred boys exhibited increased activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex during early social exclusion relative to later social exclusion experiences as compared to high peer preferred boys. Increased neural activity was not accompanied by higher self-reported levels of social distress during social exclusion in low versus high peer preferred children. Findings of this study may provide insight into the neural processes associated with real-life peer experiences in children attending primary school.

同学之间的同伴偏好是影响儿童社会发展的重要因素，同伴不喜欢同伴会对儿童的发展成果产生长期影响。然而，关于小学期间同伴偏低的历史与儿童期对新的社会排斥经历的神经反应如何相关的了解甚少。在这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们使用 历史悠久（n  = 27）与低（n = 27）的小男孩（M_年龄= 10.40岁），使用Cyber​​ball范式检查了自我报告的社交困扰和对社交排斥的神经反应。高对等偏好（ñ = 28）。从一项基于纵向课堂的研究中选择男孩，该研究在此研究之前连续三年对儿童的同伴社交偏好进行了评估。神经影像学结果显示，与高朋辈首选男孩相比，低朋辈首选男孩在早期社交排斥期间表现出侧前额叶皮层增强的激活，而相对于后期社交排斥经历而言。低与高同龄人优先儿童的社会排斥期间，神经活动的增加并没有伴随更高的自我报告的社会困扰水平。这项研究的结果可能会提供与上小学儿童的现实生活中的同伴经历相关的神经过程的见解。