The author would like to thank his many thesis students and research assistants for their help in piloting and administering this protocol. Data presented in this manuscript is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Number (1147743) to Jason Themanson and a grant from Illinois Wesleyan University to Jason Themanson.

NOTE: The following protocol was developed in accordance with ethical standards approved by the Institutional Review Board at Illinois Wesleyan University.
1. Cyberball Stimulus Preparation
<ol>
	<li>Download the Cyberball paradigm12,18 and install it on the computer (the current protocol utilized images from Cyberball version 3.0). Alternatively, create computerized images to recreate the Cyberball paradigm to meet specific needs.</li>
	<li>Create individual images for each porti...

<ol>
	<li>Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Ciarocco, N. J., Twenge, J. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Social+exclusion+impairs+self-regulation.">Social exclusion impairs self-regulation.</a> J Pers Soc Psychol. 88, 589-604 (2005).</li><li>Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., Nuss, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Effects+of+social+exclusion+on+cognitive+processes:+Anticipated+aloneness+reduces+intelligent+thought.">Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought.</a> J Pers Soc Psychol. 83, 817-827 (2002).</li><li>Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., Williams, K. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Does+rejection+hurt:+An+fMRI+study+in+social+exclusion.">Does rejection hurt: An fMRI study in social exclusion.</a> Science. 302, 290-292 (2003).</li><li>Masten, C. L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Neural+correlates+of+social+exclusion+during+adolescence:+understanding+the+distress+of+peer+rejection.">Neural correlates of social exclusion during adolescence: understanding the distress of peer rejection.</a> Soc Cogn Affect Neur. 4, 143-157 (2009).</li><li>Williams, K. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Ostracism: The power of silence. , (2001).</li><li>Williams, K. 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T., Choi, W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cyberostracism:+Effects+of+being+ignored+over+the+internet.">Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the internet.</a> J Pers Soc Psychol. 79, 748-762 (2000).</li><li>Themanson, J. R., Khatcherian, S. M., Ball, A. B., Rosen, P. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=An+event-related+examination+of+neural+activity+during+social+interactions.">An event-related examination of neural activity during social interactions.</a> Soc Cogn Affect Neur. 8, 727-733 (2013).</li><li>Coles, M. G. H., Gratton, G., Fabinani, M., Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. 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W., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Guidelines+for+using+human+event-related-potentials+to+study+cognition:+Recording+standards+and+publication+criteria.">Guidelines for using human event-related-potentials to study cognition: Recording standards and publication criteria.</a> Psychophysiology. 37, 127-152 (2000).</li><li>Chatrian, G. E., Lettich, E., Nelson, P. L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Ten+percent+electrode+system+for+topographic+studies+of+spontaneous+and+evoked+EEG+activity.">Ten percent electrode system for topographic studies of spontaneous and evoked EEG activity.</a> Am J EEG Technol. 25, 83-92 (1985).</li><li>. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Offline Analysis of Acquired Data SCAN 4.3 &#8211;Vol. II, EDIT 4.3). [Software Manual]. , (2003).</li><li>Crowley, M. 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The author has nothing to disclose and declares no conflict of interest.

In this article, a protocol allowing for the measurement of ongoing event-related neural and behavioral data during social interactions was presented. This procedure creates opportunities to look at multiple different event types (inclusionary, exclusionary) within and across varied social interactions. Specifically, the procedure can quantify moment-to-moment event-related neural activity in response to any event that occurs during a computerized social interaction. This neural activity is independent of any particular ...

The scientific examination of social interactions has undergone a renaissance in recent years, with an explosion of new theoretical explanations, models, and paradigms aimed at understanding and exploring the effects of being the target or source of social exclusion and how those interactions lead to the many consequences of exclusion1-6. Though the literature had made tremendous strides in developing a better understanding of the consequences of social exclusion at behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and neural levels, a great deal remains unknown in relation to the dynamics involved in social exclusion. One notable gap in the literature relates to the measurement of various dynamic social exclusion processes during social interactions. For instance, multiple theoretical models3,5-8 suggest that the monitoring and assessment of instances of social exclusion is an initial step in a larger self-regulatory system aimed at coping with social exclusion and maintaining healthy and acceptable levels of belonging and social inclusion. These models, and much of the existing literature on exclusion, provide tremendous insights into the consequences of social exclusion and the harmful effects exclusion causes on neural, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional levels. However, the specific processes ongoing in targets of exclusion during social interactions, which lead to both the perception of exclusion and the subsequent emotional and cognitive reactions to exclusion, remain undefined. Researchers have adapted methodologies to obtain self-reported feeling states during social interactions9, but these data did not examine the ongoing neural processes that may motivate any self-reported effects.
Accordingly, examinations of exclusion during social interactions were initiated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to &#8220;see&#8221; what is happening while individuals are being excluded3,4,10,11. These studies revealed different patterns of neural activation during exclusion compared to inclusion. Though tremendously important in enhancing the understanding of ongoing neural processes present during exclusion and their relations with the self-reported consequences of being excluded, these studies are limited in how they can represent the dynamic nature of social interactions. Specifically, these fMRI methodologies aggregated neural activity across entire social interactions and were unable to examine exclusion on a moment-to-moment basis. This limitation prohibits a complete understanding of the dynamic nature of exclusion-related emotional and cognitive processing that is taking place during social interactions as researchers are unable to determine which moments or events during an exchange are meaningful in relation to the development of one&#8217;s perceptions of exclusion and the associated emotional response.
To address these limitations, recent research has implemented the measurement of one class of neural activity, known as event-related brain potentials (ERPs), during the execution of the Cyberball paradigm12 to examine the moment-to-moment patterns of neural activation present during social exclusion13. ERPs refer to neuroelectric activity measured on the scalp that is time-locked to discrete events and represents brain activity in response to or in preparation for a stimulus or response14. Further, ERPs possess a superior temporal resolution when compared to fMRI, which provides valuable insights into the dynamic responses to social exclusion. As such, neural indices obtained through the event-related examination of brain activity in response to instances of social inclusion and exclusion, which can be implemented and controlled through the Cyberball paradigm and are described in the present protocol, are necessary to evaluate the models and predictions present in current social exclusion theory.
The goal of the current methodology is to measure ongoing neural responses to social events (inclusionary events, exclusionary events) during computerized social interactions in a human participant. In this methodology, researchers have the ability to quantify neural activity in response to each event within the interaction. Further, the current protocol allows for the ongoing examination of each social event as each event is made up of multiple throw images. This allows researchers to look at changes in neural activity as the events unfold. This level of analysis is not available in other methodologies that examine ERPs during social interactions15,16 as these methodologies only capture neural activity in relation to one image for each event without allowing for the examination of the unfolding event as it occurs. Additionally, the human participant is led to believe that he or she is playing an online game with other people, but is actually playing within a pre-programmed game with a computer. Because the interaction is pre-programmed within the computer, with the flexibility to interact with the decisions made by the human participant, the nature of the social interactions can be pre-determined and programmed to vary depending on the nature of the research question13,17. For example, the behavior of the computer-generated players during the protocol can be tailored to create instances of social inclusion or social exclusion of any specified duration by altering the pre-programmed schedule of throws (e.g., which player throws the ball to which other player, when those throws occur, the number of throws, and the timing of throws). Accordingly, this allows researchers to measure neural activity in response to events that may or may not match the overall context of the interaction. For example, researchers can quantify a participant&#8217;s neural response to an exclusionary social event within an interaction that is largely inclusionary for that participant and potentially compare it to that participant&#8217;s neural response to an exclusionary event within a largely exclusionary interaction. These research opportunities are not readily available using fMRI technology given the temporal limitations of fMRI. With this programming flexibility, the current protocol allows researchers from various neuroscientific and psychological backgrounds to address research questions in new ways and obtain dynamic neural and behavioral activity during social interactions.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="720">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Name of Material/ Equipment</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Company</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Catalog Number</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Comments/Description</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:216px;">Cyberball (Williams et al., 2000) computerized social interaction program</td>
			<td>https://cyberball.wikispaces.com</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>An Alternate set of computerized images can be used or created by the researcher</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">Neuroscan SynAmps2 64-Channel Amplifier with SCAN 4.3.1 Acquisition and Analysis Software</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">9032-0010-01</td>
			<td>Alternate amplifiers and EEG acquisition equipment and sofware can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">STIM2 Complete Version 2.1 Stimulus Presentation Software</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">666M</td>
			<td>Alternate stimulus presenation software can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">SynAmps2 Quik-Cap Sintered Ag/AgCl 64 Ch./Medium</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">96050255</td>
			<td>Alternate EEG caps can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">Quik-Gel Conductive Gel</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">92000016</td>
			<td>Alternate EEG conductive electrode gel can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">NuPrep</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">92100025</td>
			<td>Alternate skin preparation exfoliants can be used</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="84">
			<td height="84" style="height:84px;width:216px;">Blunt needle and syringe kit</td>
			<td style="width:219px;">Compumedics Neuroscan Neuromedical Supplies - http://www.neuroscan.com/supplies.cfm</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">104207</td>
			<td>Needle and syringe kit is used to apply conductive gel to electrode embedded in the EEG cap</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

measuring neural and behavioral activity during ongoing computerized social interactions: an examination of event-related brain potentials

Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, an understanding of how perceptions of social exclusion develop over the course of a social interaction is important for advancing treatments aimed at lessening the harmful costs of being excluded. To date, most scientific examinations of social exclusion have looked at exclusion after a social interaction has been completed. While this has been very helpful in developing an understanding of what happens to a person following exclusion, it has not helped to clarify the moment-to-moment dynamics of the process of social exclusion. Accordingly, the current protocol was developed to obtain an improved understanding of social exclusion by examining the patterns of event-related brain activation that are present during social interactions. This protocol allows greater precision and sensitivity in detailing the social processes that lead people to feel as though they have been excluded from a social interaction. Importantly, the current protocol can be adapted to include research projects that vary the nature of exclusionary social interactions by altering how frequently participants are included, how long the periods of exclusion will last in each interaction, and when exclusion will take place during the social interactions. Further, the current protocol can be used to examine variables and constructs beyond those related to social exclusion. This capability to address a variety of applications across psychology by obtaining both neural and behavioral data during ongoing social interactions suggests the present protocol could be at the core of a developing area of scientific inquiry related to social interactions.

This protocol has been used in previously published research examining the influence of social exclusion on ongoing neural and behavioral activity13. Twenty-two college-aged participants (15 females, 7 males) completed three sessions of the Cyberball task under conditions described above. After providing informed consent, participants were told that they would be playing a computerized ball-tossing game with other undergraduate participants. However, the other participants were not real, they were represented ...

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Measuring Neural and Behavioral Activity During Ongoing Computerized Social Interactions: An Examination of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Research on social exclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. As the field expands, it is imperative to develop sophisticated methodologies allowing for the simultaneous measurement of neural and behavioral outcomes during social exclusion. This protocol utilizes event-related brain potentials to record ongoing neural activity during computerized social interactions.

Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, ...

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13.6K Views.  Illinois Wesleyan University. Research on social exclusion has grown tremendously in recent years. As the field expands, it is imperative to develop sophisticated methodologies allowing for the simultaneous measurement of neural and behavioral outcomes during social exclusion. This protocol utilizes event-related brain potentials to record ongoing neural activity during computerized social interactions. 