The default network of the human brain is associated with perceived social isolation
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 15 December 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature Communications
- Vol. 11 (1), 1-11
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20039-w
Abstract
Humans survive and thrive through social exchange. Yet, social dependency also comes at a cost. Perceived social isolation, or loneliness, affects physical and mental health, cognitive performance, overall life expectancy, and increases vulnerability to Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias. Despite severe consequences on behavior and health, the neural basis of loneliness remains elusive. Using the UK Biobank population imaging-genetics cohort (n = ~40,000, aged 40–69 years when recruited, mean age = 54.9), we test for signatures of loneliness in grey matter morphology, intrinsic functional coupling, and fiber tract microstructure. The loneliness-linked neurobiological profiles converge on a collection of brain regions known as the ‘default network’. This higher associative network shows more consistent loneliness associations in grey matter volume than other cortical brain networks. Lonely individuals display stronger functional communication in the default network, and greater microstructural integrity of its fornix pathway. The findings fit with the possibility that the up-regulation of these neural circuits supports mentalizing, reminiscence and imagination to fill the social void.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (R01AG068563A)
This publication has 83 references indexed in Scilit:
- Imagine All the People: How the Brain Creates and Uses Personality Models to Predict BehaviorCerebral Cortex, 2013
- Brain Structure Links Loneliness to Social PerceptionCurrent Biology, 2012
- On the relationship between the “default mode network” and the “social brain”Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012
- Social isolationAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2011
- Functional-Anatomic Fractionation of the Brain's Default NetworkNeuron, 2010
- Loneliness among older EuropeansEuropean Journal of Ageing, 2009
- Perceived social isolation and cognitionTrends in Cognitive Sciences, 2009
- Nostalgia: Content, triggers, functions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006
- A Short Scale for Measuring Loneliness in Large SurveysResearch on Aging, 2004
- Gender Differences in LonelinessPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1985