Study reveals how isolation affects our health

In a new study held by McGill University, scientists projected the effects of loneliness in the brain highlighting how neural 'signature' may reflect our response to feelings of social isolation. The University researchers demonstrate the significance to understand how isolation affects our health through the study. They exposed a sort of signature in the brains of lonely people that make them distinct in various ways, based on variations in the volume of different brain regions as well as based on how those regions communicate with one another across brain networks.

A team of researchers examined the MRI data, genetics and psychological self-assessments of about 40,000 middle-aged and older adults who volunteered to have their information included in the UK Biobank: an open-access database available to health scientists around the world. They then compared the MRI data of participants who reported often feeling lonely with those who did not. The researchers found several differences in the brains of lonely people. These brain manifestations were centred on what is called the default network: a set of brain regions involved in inner thoughts such as reminiscing, future planning, imagining and thinking about others.

Researchers found the default networks of lonely people were more strongly wired together and surprisingly, their grey matter volume in regions of the default network was greater.

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