FIGURE 1 a) Schematic representation of the experimental phase for one exemplary participant. The Cyberball manipulation check included ratings on feeling accepted–rejected (1: accepted; 9: rejected), received ball throws from other players (0–100%) and a mood scale with lower values representing more negative mood. b) Schematic representation of the Cyberball game used to create the rejection and inclusion condition. Dotted arrows indicate all possible trajectories of the ball. c) Schematic representation of the ball-tossing game used to create the control condition. During this game, participants observed a ball moving vertically up/down the screen. Whenever the ball diverted from this trajectory and landed in a left/right square, participants had to indicate this via button press. Dotted arrows indicate all possible trajectories of the ball. d) Mean±se change in dyspnoea ratings including intensity, unpleasantness and threat for the rejection (Δrejection=rejection−control) compared to the inclusion condition (Δinclusion=inclusion−control). Positive values indicate higher and negative values lower dyspnoea intensity, unpleasantness and threat. e) Grand average waveform (µV) of the respiratory-related evoked potential (RREP) for the rejection, inclusion and control condition with corresponding P2 and P3 topographies. Data were processed offline using BESA Research 6.0 (BESA GmbH, Gräfelfing, Germany). Data were filtered (high-pass: 0.1 Hz; low-pass: 30 Hz; notch: 50 Hz), artefact corrected and average re-referenced. Epochs 200 ms before and 1000 ms after occlusion onset were extracted and averaged. Based on previous research [6], P2 and P3 were identified as positive subject-specific peaks in the latency around 160–230 ms after occlusion onset for the P2 and in the latency around 250–350 ms after occlusion onset for the P3. Mean amplitudes for P2 and P3 were then calculated by averaging the signal in a latency window around these subject-specific peaks (P2: ±20 ms; P3: ±30 ms) across the respective electrodes (P2-left hemisphere: 29/30/36; P2-right hemisphere: 104/105/111; P3-left hemisphere: 7/30/31; P3-right hemisphere: 80/105/106). Mean±se change in mean amplitude (µV) of f) P2 and g) P3 for the rejection (∆rejection=rejection−control) compared to the inclusion condition (∆inclusion=inclusion−control) across both brain hemispheres (f) and for left/right hemispheres separately (g). No significant differences were found for the earlier RREP components Nf, P1 and N1, which represent more sensory first-order neural processing of respiratory sensations [6] (all p>0.063). *: p<0.05; **: p<0.01; #: p=0.07.