Adverse peer experiences, such as social exclusion, are known risks for socioemotional problems among shy youth. Yet, little is known about how shy children and adolescents process social exclusion in the brain and whether these responses are amplified in adolescence. Using the Cyberball task, we examined mediofrontal theta (4-7 Hz) event-related EEG spectral power during conditions of fair play and social exclusion in 122 participants (58 children, ages 10-12 years, and 64 adolescents, ages 14-17 years). Age effects of the task showed that adolescents displayed heightened theta power to both outright rejection and baseline “not my turn” events, whereas children showed higher theta power to rejection compared with “not my turn” events. Further results on individual differences showed that children with relatively higher levels of shyness displayed enhanced theta power to both rejection and “not my turn” events—a pattern that also was observed in adolescents. These findings suggest that a pattern of heightened neural sensitivity to both outright social exclusion and threats of exclusion, which is the norm by adolescence, also is observed in children with higher levels of shyness. The similar neural response pattern might be driven by salient social motivations that similarly modify the social cognition and behaviors of these groups and might reflect neural antecedents of rejection sensitivity.

不利的同伴经历，例如社会排斥，是害羞青年出现社会情绪问题的已知风险。然而，人们对害羞的儿童和青少年如何处理大脑中的社会排斥以及这些反应是否在青春期被放大知之甚少。使用 Cyber​​ball 任务，我们检查了 122 名参与者（58 名 10-12 岁的儿童和 64 名 14-17 岁的青少年）在公平竞赛和社会排斥条件下的中额 theta (4-7 Hz) 事件相关 EEG 频谱功率年）。任务的年龄效应表明，青少年对完全拒绝和基线“轮不到我”事件的θ功率表现出更高的θ功率，而与“轮不到我”事件相比，儿童对拒绝表现出更高的θ功率。关于个体差异的进一步结果表明，害羞程度相对较高的儿童对拒绝和“轮不到我”事件表现出更强的 theta 能力——这种模式也在青少年中观察到。这些研究结果表明，对完全的社会排斥和排斥威胁的高度神经敏感性模式，这是青春期的常态，也在具有较高程度害羞的儿童中观察到。类似的神经反应模式可能是由显着的社会动机驱动的，这些动机类似地改变了这些群体的社会认知和行为，并可能反映了拒绝敏感性的神经前因。这些研究结果表明，对完全的社会排斥和排斥威胁的高度神经敏感性模式，这是青春期的常态，也在具有较高程度害羞的儿童中观察到。类似的神经反应模式可能是由显着的社会动机驱动的，这些动机类似地改变了这些群体的社会认知和行为，并可能反映了拒绝敏感性的神经前因。这些研究结果表明，对完全的社会排斥和排斥威胁的高度神经敏感性模式，这是青春期的常态，也在具有较高程度害羞的儿童中观察到。类似的神经反应模式可能是由显着的社会动机驱动的，这些动机类似地改变了这些群体的社会认知和行为，并可能反映了拒绝敏感性的神经前因。