#socialisolation — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #socialisolation, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 10, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Social isolation harms the aging brain independently of loneliness
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
Reducing social isolation can directly protect older adults from cognitive decline, regardless of whether those individuals actually feel lonely. These findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, suggest that keeping people socially integrated is an independent and effective strategy for maintaining brain health.
As the global population ages, preventing pathological cognitive decline has become a major public health priority. Conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are leading causes of death in the United States, and researchers are constantly looking for risk factors that can be modified. Two highly discussed risk factors are social isolation and loneliness.
While often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, social isolation and loneliness are distinct concepts in scientific research. Social isolation is an objective measurement of how disconnected a person is from other human beings. It involves factors like living alone, lacking a partner, or not participating in community groups. Loneliness is a subjective emotional state. It is the painful feeling that occurs when there is a gap between a person’s desired level of social connection and their actual social reality.
Previous research has shown that both isolation and loneliness are tied to poorer health outcomes, including a higher risk of mortality. The relationship between these social factors and cognitive function is difficult to study because they influence each other over a person’s entire life. Factors like childhood wealth, educational attainment, and career trajectory all shape a person’s cognitive health and their likelihood of becoming isolated in old age.
Researchers Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham wanted to separate these overlapping variables. They aimed to determine if social isolation directly causes cognitive decline, or if it only harms the brain by making people feel lonely. They also wanted to know if targeted public health interventions could make a measurable difference.
To answer these questions, the research team analyzed data from a large study of older adults in the United States. The researchers looked at 137,653 observations from 30,421 individuals aged 50 to 94, using data collected between 2004 and 2018 by the Health and Retirement Study.
The researchers tracked cognitive function using a modified telephone interview that tests memory and mental processing. Participants were asked to recall lists of words and count backward by sevens. To measure social isolation, the researchers created an index based on relationship status, time spent with family or friends, religious participation, and volunteering.
Because social dynamics and brain health influence each other in a continuous loop, traditional statistical models struggle to accurately measure cause and effect. To overcome this, the researchers used a statistical technique known as causal inference modeling. This approach allows scientists to simulate alternative realities using real-world data.
First, the model predicted the natural trajectory of cognitive decline for the participants as they aged. Then, the researchers introduced a statistical intervention. They mathematically altered the data to simulate what would happen if all the highly isolated individuals in the study were suddenly shifted into a less isolated category.
Comparing the natural trajectory to the simulated intervention revealed a direct protective effect. The researchers found that reducing social isolation slowed the rate of cognitive decline across the aging trajectory. While the absolute change in cognitive test scores was modest, the protective trend was consistent across the population.
The team then conducted a moderation analysis to see if this protective effect varied among different demographic groups. They broke the data down by gender, race, ethnicity, and educational attainment.
The simulated intervention provided similar cognitive benefits across all these groups. Reducing social isolation helped men and women alike. It was equally protective for white, Black, and Latinx older adults, and it helped individuals regardless of their educational background. Because Black and Latinx individuals in the United States often face a higher baseline risk for cognitive impairment, reducing isolation in these groups could be particularly beneficial for addressing health disparities.
Next, the researchers performed a mediation analysis to isolate the specific role of loneliness. In this simulation, they reduced social isolation but held each person’s reported feelings of loneliness at their original levels. This allowed the team to calculate exactly how much of the cognitive benefit was driven by a reduction in loneliness.
The results showed that only six percent of the protective effect operated through loneliness. The vast majority of the cognitive benefit came directly from reducing social isolation itself. This indicates that physical integration into a community protects the brain through mechanisms other than simply making a person feel less lonely.
Finally, the researchers designed a dynamic intervention aimed at a specific, vulnerable subset of the population. Instead of reducing social isolation for everyone in the simulation, they targeted only the individuals who lived alone. Living alone is a fluctuating condition that public health programs can easily identify.
This targeted intervention produced outsized results. Even though people living alone made up only about twenty percent of the observations, intervening in just this group yielded half of the total cognitive benefits seen in the population-wide simulation. This highlights a highly efficient strategy for public health officials trying to allocate limited resources.
The study does have some limitations. The data comes from self-reported surveys, and the most severely isolated older adults might not participate in national research projects. The data also cannot reveal exactly how many years a person experienced isolation before joining the study, which leaves questions about the cumulative toll of isolation over a lifetime.
The binary measure used to track loneliness is another limitation. Participants were simply asked to answer yes or no regarding whether they felt lonely in the past week. A more nuanced scale might capture deeper emotional variations, though the simple question provided a consistent metric over the fourteen-year study period.
Future research is needed to uncover the exact mechanisms linking objective isolation to cognitive decline. People who are socially isolated often exhibit different health behaviors, such as poorer sleep or lower physical activity. Future studies could explore whether these daily habits act as the hidden bridge between a lack of social contact and declining brain health.
The study, “Disentangling social isolation, loneliness, and later-life cognitive function for older adults in the United States: Evidence from causal inference modeling,” was authored by Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #CognitiveHealth #AgingBrain #LonelinessVsIsolation #PublicHealth #BrainHealth #OlderAdults #BrainDeclinePrevention #CommunitySupport #HealthyAging
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DATE: August 10, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Social isolation harms the aging brain independently of loneliness
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
Reducing social isolation can directly protect older adults from cognitive decline, regardless of whether those individuals actually feel lonely. These findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, suggest that keeping people socially integrated is an independent and effective strategy for maintaining brain health.
As the global population ages, preventing pathological cognitive decline has become a major public health priority. Conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are leading causes of death in the United States, and researchers are constantly looking for risk factors that can be modified. Two highly discussed risk factors are social isolation and loneliness.
While often used interchangeably in everyday conversation, social isolation and loneliness are distinct concepts in scientific research. Social isolation is an objective measurement of how disconnected a person is from other human beings. It involves factors like living alone, lacking a partner, or not participating in community groups. Loneliness is a subjective emotional state. It is the painful feeling that occurs when there is a gap between a person’s desired level of social connection and their actual social reality.
Previous research has shown that both isolation and loneliness are tied to poorer health outcomes, including a higher risk of mortality. The relationship between these social factors and cognitive function is difficult to study because they influence each other over a person’s entire life. Factors like childhood wealth, educational attainment, and career trajectory all shape a person’s cognitive health and their likelihood of becoming isolated in old age.
Researchers Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham wanted to separate these overlapping variables. They aimed to determine if social isolation directly causes cognitive decline, or if it only harms the brain by making people feel lonely. They also wanted to know if targeted public health interventions could make a measurable difference.
To answer these questions, the research team analyzed data from a large study of older adults in the United States. The researchers looked at 137,653 observations from 30,421 individuals aged 50 to 94, using data collected between 2004 and 2018 by the Health and Retirement Study.
The researchers tracked cognitive function using a modified telephone interview that tests memory and mental processing. Participants were asked to recall lists of words and count backward by sevens. To measure social isolation, the researchers created an index based on relationship status, time spent with family or friends, religious participation, and volunteering.
Because social dynamics and brain health influence each other in a continuous loop, traditional statistical models struggle to accurately measure cause and effect. To overcome this, the researchers used a statistical technique known as causal inference modeling. This approach allows scientists to simulate alternative realities using real-world data.
First, the model predicted the natural trajectory of cognitive decline for the participants as they aged. Then, the researchers introduced a statistical intervention. They mathematically altered the data to simulate what would happen if all the highly isolated individuals in the study were suddenly shifted into a less isolated category.
Comparing the natural trajectory to the simulated intervention revealed a direct protective effect. The researchers found that reducing social isolation slowed the rate of cognitive decline across the aging trajectory. While the absolute change in cognitive test scores was modest, the protective trend was consistent across the population.
The team then conducted a moderation analysis to see if this protective effect varied among different demographic groups. They broke the data down by gender, race, ethnicity, and educational attainment.
The simulated intervention provided similar cognitive benefits across all these groups. Reducing social isolation helped men and women alike. It was equally protective for white, Black, and Latinx older adults, and it helped individuals regardless of their educational background. Because Black and Latinx individuals in the United States often face a higher baseline risk for cognitive impairment, reducing isolation in these groups could be particularly beneficial for addressing health disparities.
Next, the researchers performed a mediation analysis to isolate the specific role of loneliness. In this simulation, they reduced social isolation but held each person’s reported feelings of loneliness at their original levels. This allowed the team to calculate exactly how much of the cognitive benefit was driven by a reduction in loneliness.
The results showed that only six percent of the protective effect operated through loneliness. The vast majority of the cognitive benefit came directly from reducing social isolation itself. This indicates that physical integration into a community protects the brain through mechanisms other than simply making a person feel less lonely.
Finally, the researchers designed a dynamic intervention aimed at a specific, vulnerable subset of the population. Instead of reducing social isolation for everyone in the simulation, they targeted only the individuals who lived alone. Living alone is a fluctuating condition that public health programs can easily identify.
This targeted intervention produced outsized results. Even though people living alone made up only about twenty percent of the observations, intervening in just this group yielded half of the total cognitive benefits seen in the population-wide simulation. This highlights a highly efficient strategy for public health officials trying to allocate limited resources.
The study does have some limitations. The data comes from self-reported surveys, and the most severely isolated older adults might not participate in national research projects. The data also cannot reveal exactly how many years a person experienced isolation before joining the study, which leaves questions about the cumulative toll of isolation over a lifetime.
The binary measure used to track loneliness is another limitation. Participants were simply asked to answer yes or no regarding whether they felt lonely in the past week. A more nuanced scale might capture deeper emotional variations, though the simple question provided a consistent metric over the fourteen-year study period.
Future research is needed to uncover the exact mechanisms linking objective isolation to cognitive decline. People who are socially isolated often exhibit different health behaviors, such as poorer sleep or lower physical activity. Future studies could explore whether these daily habits act as the hidden bridge between a lack of social contact and declining brain health.
The study, “Disentangling social isolation, loneliness, and later-life cognitive function for older adults in the United States: Evidence from causal inference modeling,” was authored by Jo Mhairi Hale, Angelo Lorenti, and Solveig A. Cunningham.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/social-isolation-harms-the-aging-brain-independently-of-loneliness/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialIsolation #CognitiveHealth #AgingBrain #LonelinessVsIsolation #PublicHealth #BrainHealth #OlderAdults #BrainDeclinePrevention #CommunitySupport #HealthyAging
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DATE: August 4, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People who feel lonely show altered brain activity when processing internal physical signals
A recent study published in Biological Psychology suggests that loneliness is linked to how people perceive and process their internal bodily sensations. The findings indicate that individuals who report higher levels of loneliness tend to have less trust in their bodily signals and show reduced brain activity related to monitoring their heartbeats. This research offers a physiological perspective on why loneliness is often accompanied by heightened emotional distress.
Loneliness is commonly understood as a lack of social contact, but psychologists describe it as a state of heightened sensitivity to negative emotions and social threats. This perspective is known as the hypervigilance model of loneliness. According to this framework, lonely individuals tend to be on high alert for social rejection, which can lead to increased stress and difficulty managing emotional reactions.
“Loneliness is a significant global issue linked to various mental and physical health problems,” said study author Kentaro Ono, an assistant professor at the Center for Brain, Mind, and KANSEI Sciences Research at Hiroshima University. “In Japan, it is taken so seriously that the government has even appointed a Minister of Loneliness.”
Ono noted that his laboratory has a background in psychiatry, which led to an interest in how loneliness acts as a trigger for psychiatric disorders. “While there is a great deal of research on who is prone to loneliness and how to cope with it, the underlying mechanisms of how loneliness actually arises remain largely unknown,” Ono said.
The research team noticed that emotional isolation is frequently described in physical terms. “We noticed that people often describe loneliness through physical sensations, such as a tightening in the chest or a sinking feeling,” Ono said. “Our lab was already investigating ‘interoception’, which is the perception of our internal bodily states. Therefore, we were motivated to bridge this gap by exploring the relationship between loneliness and interoception, hoping to better understand how these emotional struggles physically manifest in the body.”
Emotion regulation depends heavily on this process of interoception. Psychologists divide interoception into different categories to better understand how it works. Interoceptive accuracy refers to how well a person can physically detect internal signals, such as a racing heart. Interoceptive sensibility describes a person’s subjective beliefs about their bodily sensations, including whether they view these physical responses as trustworthy or distressing.
Previous research hints that interoceptive sensibility plays a role in how well people manage negative feelings. Brain regions involved in cognitive control, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, are also known to help process bodily signals. This area of the brain helps integrate physical sensations with emotional meaning to regulate distress.
To measure this brain-body connection, scientists often look at the heartbeat-evoked potential. This is a specific pattern of electrical brain activity that occurs in response to each individual heartbeat. Researchers designed the current study to explore whether loneliness is associated with differences in interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive sensibility, and heartbeat-evoked brain activity.
The scientists recruited 45 healthy university students between the ages of 18 and 25. Six participants were later excluded due to issues with data quality, leaving a final sample of 39 participants. Participants first completed a series of questionnaires. These included the UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure subjective feelings of isolation, the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) to gauge interoceptive sensibility, and a standard inventory to assess depressive symptoms.
Next, the participants completed two behavioral tasks to measure their interoceptive accuracy. In a heartbeat counting task, they were asked to silently count their heartbeats over various time intervals ranging from 25 to 50 seconds without checking their pulse. In a heartbeat discrimination task, they listened to a series of tones and had to judge whether the sounds were in sync with their own physical heartbeats or delayed.
Finally, the researchers recorded the participants’ brain and heart activity. Participants sat in a quiet, dimly lit room for three minutes while the researchers collected continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings. EEG uses sensors on the scalp to measure electrical brain waves, and ECG measures the electrical activity of the heart. The researchers used these concurrent recordings to extract the heartbeat-evoked potential, allowing them to see how the brain responded to cardiac events.
The average loneliness score in the sample was 40.5 out of a possible 80 points, indicating a moderate level of loneliness among the students. The survey findings indicated that higher loneliness scores correlated with specific aspects of interoceptive sensibility. People who felt more lonely tended to report more worry about their bodily sensations. They also reported lower emotional awareness, less ability to use bodily sensations to regulate distress, and less trust in their bodies as a safe resource.
“We were quite surprised, and ultimately reassured, by the specific patterns in our survey data,” Ono told PsyPost. He noted that the MAIA questionnaire measures interoceptive sensibility across several different categories. “We found a strong correlation between the UCLA Loneliness Scale and one specific category of MAIA: the one reflecting how people think about or appraise their bodily states. Seeing the correlation clearly localized to this specific category, rather than being broadly scattered across all categories, gave us a lot of confidence in the reliability of our data.”
Loneliness was not associated with interoceptive accuracy. Participants with higher loneliness scores were just as capable of accurately counting their heartbeats and distinguishing synchronized tones as those with lower scores. Heart rate variability, a physiological measure of the changes in time intervals between consecutive heartbeats, also showed no statistical relationship with loneliness.
When looking at the EEG recordings, the researchers found an association between loneliness and the brain’s processing of cardiac signals. Higher loneliness scores were associated with a reduced electrical brain response to heartbeats over the left frontal areas of the scalp. Using specialized source localization software, the scientists traced this reduced electrical activity to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is a brain region typically involved in higher-order cognitive control and emotion regulation.
To ensure these brain activity patterns were linked to loneliness rather than other factors, the researchers ran additional statistical models. The association between loneliness and reduced brain responses to heartbeats remained present even after the researchers controlled for the participants’ age, sex, and severity of depressive symptoms. This provides evidence that the observed physiological differences relate specifically to the experience of loneliness rather than general depression.
“The most important takeaway is that the brain and the body are in constant communication, and changes in your bodily state impact your mental state,” Ono said. “Therefore, paying attention and taking care of your physical body is crucial for your emotional well-being.”
Ono added that these findings support the idea that social connection helps people regulate their physical responses. “In our study, we interpret that individuals with low levels of loneliness have brains that successfully detect bodily changes triggered by isolating situations, allowing them to effectively regulate and correct their bodily states,” Ono explained. “Conversely, individuals with high levels of loneliness tend to ignore or not worry about these altered physical states.”
“Because they fail to attend to and adjust their physical response to isolation, they may fall deeper into loneliness,” Ono noted. “Based on this, we suggest that practices which help you deliberately direct attention to your body, such as yoga or mindfulness meditation, could be effective methods for alleviating loneliness.”
The study relies on a cross-sectional design, meaning the researchers measured all variables at a single point in time. Because of this design, it is impossible to determine the direction of the relationship. Reduced brain processing of bodily signals might contribute to feelings of loneliness, or chronic social disconnection might lead to changes in how the brain handles internal sensations.
“One important caveat is that our current study had a relatively small sample size of about 40 participants,” Ono said. “Because of this, we must be careful not to overstate the strength of these effects just yet.”
This small sample of university students generally reported moderate loneliness, meaning the findings might not apply to older adults or individuals experiencing severe, chronic social isolation. The study also recorded brain activity during a resting state rather than during an active emotional task. This limits the ability to tie the brain activity patterns directly to active emotion regulation in real-time social situations.
The use of EEG to track the source of brain activity has spatial limitations compared to other imaging techniques. Although the data points to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, EEG sensors on the scalp provide only an approximation of where electrical signals originate in the brain. “To draw firmer, more generalized conclusions, we are already planning a much larger-scale study to further investigate this relationship between loneliness and interoception,” Ono added.
“Moving forward, we are very interested in whether we can predict an individual’s future vulnerability to loneliness,” Ono said. “For example, entering university is a major environmental shift where many students face isolating situations.”
“If we can use these findings to screen for individuals who are highly susceptible to loneliness during such transitions, we might be able to design and implement much more effective, preventative interventions.”
The study, “Loneliness is associated with altered interoceptive appraisal and attenuated prefrontal heartbeat-evoked potentials,” was authored by Kentaro Ono, Takafumi Sasaoka, and Shigeto Yamawaki.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Loneliness #Interoception #HeartbeatEvokedPotentials #BrainBodyConnection #DLPFC #EmotionalRegulation #SocialIsolation #Mindfulness #YogaForLoneliness #MentalHealthResearch
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DATE: August 4, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People who feel lonely show altered brain activity when processing internal physical signals
A recent study published in Biological Psychology suggests that loneliness is linked to how people perceive and process their internal bodily sensations. The findings indicate that individuals who report higher levels of loneliness tend to have less trust in their bodily signals and show reduced brain activity related to monitoring their heartbeats. This research offers a physiological perspective on why loneliness is often accompanied by heightened emotional distress.
Loneliness is commonly understood as a lack of social contact, but psychologists describe it as a state of heightened sensitivity to negative emotions and social threats. This perspective is known as the hypervigilance model of loneliness. According to this framework, lonely individuals tend to be on high alert for social rejection, which can lead to increased stress and difficulty managing emotional reactions.
“Loneliness is a significant global issue linked to various mental and physical health problems,” said study author Kentaro Ono, an assistant professor at the Center for Brain, Mind, and KANSEI Sciences Research at Hiroshima University. “In Japan, it is taken so seriously that the government has even appointed a Minister of Loneliness.”
Ono noted that his laboratory has a background in psychiatry, which led to an interest in how loneliness acts as a trigger for psychiatric disorders. “While there is a great deal of research on who is prone to loneliness and how to cope with it, the underlying mechanisms of how loneliness actually arises remain largely unknown,” Ono said.
The research team noticed that emotional isolation is frequently described in physical terms. “We noticed that people often describe loneliness through physical sensations, such as a tightening in the chest or a sinking feeling,” Ono said. “Our lab was already investigating ‘interoception’, which is the perception of our internal bodily states. Therefore, we were motivated to bridge this gap by exploring the relationship between loneliness and interoception, hoping to better understand how these emotional struggles physically manifest in the body.”
Emotion regulation depends heavily on this process of interoception. Psychologists divide interoception into different categories to better understand how it works. Interoceptive accuracy refers to how well a person can physically detect internal signals, such as a racing heart. Interoceptive sensibility describes a person’s subjective beliefs about their bodily sensations, including whether they view these physical responses as trustworthy or distressing.
Previous research hints that interoceptive sensibility plays a role in how well people manage negative feelings. Brain regions involved in cognitive control, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, are also known to help process bodily signals. This area of the brain helps integrate physical sensations with emotional meaning to regulate distress.
To measure this brain-body connection, scientists often look at the heartbeat-evoked potential. This is a specific pattern of electrical brain activity that occurs in response to each individual heartbeat. Researchers designed the current study to explore whether loneliness is associated with differences in interoceptive accuracy, interoceptive sensibility, and heartbeat-evoked brain activity.
The scientists recruited 45 healthy university students between the ages of 18 and 25. Six participants were later excluded due to issues with data quality, leaving a final sample of 39 participants. Participants first completed a series of questionnaires. These included the UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure subjective feelings of isolation, the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) to gauge interoceptive sensibility, and a standard inventory to assess depressive symptoms.
Next, the participants completed two behavioral tasks to measure their interoceptive accuracy. In a heartbeat counting task, they were asked to silently count their heartbeats over various time intervals ranging from 25 to 50 seconds without checking their pulse. In a heartbeat discrimination task, they listened to a series of tones and had to judge whether the sounds were in sync with their own physical heartbeats or delayed.
Finally, the researchers recorded the participants’ brain and heart activity. Participants sat in a quiet, dimly lit room for three minutes while the researchers collected continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings. EEG uses sensors on the scalp to measure electrical brain waves, and ECG measures the electrical activity of the heart. The researchers used these concurrent recordings to extract the heartbeat-evoked potential, allowing them to see how the brain responded to cardiac events.
The average loneliness score in the sample was 40.5 out of a possible 80 points, indicating a moderate level of loneliness among the students. The survey findings indicated that higher loneliness scores correlated with specific aspects of interoceptive sensibility. People who felt more lonely tended to report more worry about their bodily sensations. They also reported lower emotional awareness, less ability to use bodily sensations to regulate distress, and less trust in their bodies as a safe resource.
“We were quite surprised, and ultimately reassured, by the specific patterns in our survey data,” Ono told PsyPost. He noted that the MAIA questionnaire measures interoceptive sensibility across several different categories. “We found a strong correlation between the UCLA Loneliness Scale and one specific category of MAIA: the one reflecting how people think about or appraise their bodily states. Seeing the correlation clearly localized to this specific category, rather than being broadly scattered across all categories, gave us a lot of confidence in the reliability of our data.”
Loneliness was not associated with interoceptive accuracy. Participants with higher loneliness scores were just as capable of accurately counting their heartbeats and distinguishing synchronized tones as those with lower scores. Heart rate variability, a physiological measure of the changes in time intervals between consecutive heartbeats, also showed no statistical relationship with loneliness.
When looking at the EEG recordings, the researchers found an association between loneliness and the brain’s processing of cardiac signals. Higher loneliness scores were associated with a reduced electrical brain response to heartbeats over the left frontal areas of the scalp. Using specialized source localization software, the scientists traced this reduced electrical activity to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is a brain region typically involved in higher-order cognitive control and emotion regulation.
To ensure these brain activity patterns were linked to loneliness rather than other factors, the researchers ran additional statistical models. The association between loneliness and reduced brain responses to heartbeats remained present even after the researchers controlled for the participants’ age, sex, and severity of depressive symptoms. This provides evidence that the observed physiological differences relate specifically to the experience of loneliness rather than general depression.
“The most important takeaway is that the brain and the body are in constant communication, and changes in your bodily state impact your mental state,” Ono said. “Therefore, paying attention and taking care of your physical body is crucial for your emotional well-being.”
Ono added that these findings support the idea that social connection helps people regulate their physical responses. “In our study, we interpret that individuals with low levels of loneliness have brains that successfully detect bodily changes triggered by isolating situations, allowing them to effectively regulate and correct their bodily states,” Ono explained. “Conversely, individuals with high levels of loneliness tend to ignore or not worry about these altered physical states.”
“Because they fail to attend to and adjust their physical response to isolation, they may fall deeper into loneliness,” Ono noted. “Based on this, we suggest that practices which help you deliberately direct attention to your body, such as yoga or mindfulness meditation, could be effective methods for alleviating loneliness.”
The study relies on a cross-sectional design, meaning the researchers measured all variables at a single point in time. Because of this design, it is impossible to determine the direction of the relationship. Reduced brain processing of bodily signals might contribute to feelings of loneliness, or chronic social disconnection might lead to changes in how the brain handles internal sensations.
“One important caveat is that our current study had a relatively small sample size of about 40 participants,” Ono said. “Because of this, we must be careful not to overstate the strength of these effects just yet.”
This small sample of university students generally reported moderate loneliness, meaning the findings might not apply to older adults or individuals experiencing severe, chronic social isolation. The study also recorded brain activity during a resting state rather than during an active emotional task. This limits the ability to tie the brain activity patterns directly to active emotion regulation in real-time social situations.
The use of EEG to track the source of brain activity has spatial limitations compared to other imaging techniques. Although the data points to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, EEG sensors on the scalp provide only an approximation of where electrical signals originate in the brain. “To draw firmer, more generalized conclusions, we are already planning a much larger-scale study to further investigate this relationship between loneliness and interoception,” Ono added.
“Moving forward, we are very interested in whether we can predict an individual’s future vulnerability to loneliness,” Ono said. “For example, entering university is a major environmental shift where many students face isolating situations.”
“If we can use these findings to screen for individuals who are highly susceptible to loneliness during such transitions, we might be able to design and implement much more effective, preventative interventions.”
The study, “Loneliness is associated with altered interoceptive appraisal and attenuated prefrontal heartbeat-evoked potentials,” was authored by Kentaro Ono, Takafumi Sasaoka, and Shigeto Yamawaki.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Loneliness #Interoception #HeartbeatEvokedPotentials #BrainBodyConnection #DLPFC #EmotionalRegulation #SocialIsolation #Mindfulness #YogaForLoneliness #MentalHealthResearch
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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In the latest issue of Changing Populations, we report on a study by CG member Dr Jo Hale from the University of St Andrews, which has found that reducing social isolation protects the brain in later life.
Head to section 8 to find out more: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/WzAYgcw05ELXCdXJ?ref=Link
#ageing #cognition #socialisolation #loneliness #brainhealth #publichealth #gerontology #Alzheimers #demography #mentalhealth #laterlife #StAndrews #healthyageing #neuroscience #wellbeing
-
In the latest issue of Changing Populations, we report on a study by CG member Dr Jo Hale from the University of St Andrews, which has found that reducing social isolation protects the brain in later life.
Head to section 8 to find out more: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/WzAYgcw05ELXCdXJ?ref=Link
#ageing #cognition #socialisolation #loneliness #brainhealth #publichealth #gerontology #Alzheimers #demography #mentalhealth #laterlife #StAndrews #healthyageing #neuroscience #wellbeing
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La oxitocina tiene efectos distintos dependiendo de que neuronas la liberen (NPV posterior, NPV anterior, extensión amigdalina, etc) y en que patrón lo hagan (el patrón electrofisiológico de las neuronas es muy distinto!!)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-026-02352-y
#Oxytocin #Anxiety #Socialisolation #SocialAffiliation #Neurophysiology #Hypothalamus #Neuropeptides -
La oxitocina tiene efectos distintos dependiendo de que neuronas la liberen (NPV posterior, NPV anterior, extensión amigdalina, etc) y en que patrón lo hagan (el patrón electrofisiológico de las neuronas es muy distinto!!)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-026-02352-y
#Oxytocin #Anxiety #Socialisolation #SocialAffiliation #Neurophysiology #Hypothalamus #Neuropeptides -
A stark new report highlights the risks of #CannabisUseDisorder, noting it affects ~20% of those who try it. For daily users in their 20s & 30s, the addiction can cause severe social withdrawal, career stagnation & eroded #MentalHealth, flipping from relief to a worsening trap. The call is for targeted awareness & cessation support. #WeedAddiction #PublicHealth #SocialIsolation
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A stark new report highlights the risks of #CannabisUseDisorder, noting it affects ~20% of those who try it. For daily users in their 20s & 30s, the addiction can cause severe social withdrawal, career stagnation & eroded #MentalHealth, flipping from relief to a worsening trap. The call is for targeted awareness & cessation support. #WeedAddiction #PublicHealth #SocialIsolation
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Did you know isolation can impact cognitive functioning? Watch out for subtle signs like difficulty keeping track of appointments or learning new tasks. Let's stay connected and support each other!
Watch full episode at https://shorturl.at/B1lEh
#MentalHealthMatters #SocialIsolation #CognitiveFunctioning -
Did you know that isolation can negatively impact your brain health? Research shows that those who are socially isolated or experience loneliness may have a higher risk of developing dementia and declining cognitive performance.
Watch now at https://shorturl.at/B1lEh
#BrainHealth #MentalWellness #SocialIsolation -
Reducing #socialisolation protects the #brain in #laterlife, finds Connecting Generations member Dr Jo Mhairi Hale from the University of St Andrews in a new study
Read more... 👇
https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/reducing-social-isolation-protects-the-brain-in-later-life/
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Reducing #socialisolation protects the #brain in #laterlife, finds Connecting Generations member Dr Jo Mhairi Hale from the University of St Andrews in a new study
Read more... 👇
https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/reducing-social-isolation-protects-the-brain-in-later-life/
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alphabetchallenge #bookchallenge F is for The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip #lyrical #epicfantasynovels #mythicbeasts #lovestory #SocialIsolation #power #fantasy #magicalbeasts #saga #booksky #booktok #bookstagram #ttrpgpodcast #gamemastersbookclub https://www.k-squareproductions.com/gmbc
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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Why Are We So Lonely? A Modern Disconnection
Explore the growing epidemic of loneliness! We delve into the reasons behind our increasing isolation, examining the impact of technology and societal shifts on human connection. Discover how modern life disconnects us from what truly matters: community.
#loneliness #socialisolation #technology #community #mentalhealth #relationships #humanconnection #modernlife #emotionalwellbeing #wellnesslifestyle #wellnesswarrior #societalchange
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Is #PoliticalExtremism Caused by #Loneliness?
#Misogyny is often the connection between overlapping #farright ideologies
a holisitc approach to addressing violent extremism starts with confronting deep-seated societal issues.
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Is #PoliticalExtremism Caused by #Loneliness?
#Misogyny is often the connection between overlapping #farright ideologies
a holisitc approach to addressing violent extremism starts with confronting deep-seated societal issues.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7_qmkmP-JM
What #SocialIsolation Does to Your Brain : How to Undo The Damage
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7_qmkmP-JM
What #SocialIsolation Does to Your Brain : How to Undo The Damage
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https://soulforzen.com/how-social-isolation-fuels-anxiety-and-depression-insights-and-solutions/ #MentalHealth, #SocialIsolation, #AnxietyRelief, #DepressionSupport, #MindMatters, #EmotionalWellness, #MentalHealthAwareness, #LonelinessCrisis, #SelfCareMatters, #EndTheStigma, #WellnessJourney, #StayConnected
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Social Isolation and Seniors: Build Connection - #VSN
https://verdantsquare.com/social-isolation-and-seniors-build-connection/
#loneliness #seniors #SocialIsolation #MentalHealth #depression #kindness #revolutionarylove #holidays
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One of several stories many of you shared with us earlier
I can't believe how common these are, having no one show up for you
Do you have a story? 🫵
#forgotten #unloved #unwanted #stoodup #nobodycares #feelingalone #socialisolation #disappointed #friends #leftbehind
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One of several stories many of you shared with us earlier
I can't believe how common these are, having no one show up for you
Do you have a story? 🫵
#forgotten #unloved #unwanted #stoodup #nobodycares #feelingalone #socialisolation #disappointed #friends #leftbehind
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Lonely individuals tend to think and talk in an unusual way, study finds https://www.psypost.org/lonely-individuals-tend-to-think-and-talk-in-an-unusual-way-study-finds/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #loneliness #mentalhealth #socialisolation #uniqueperceptions #lonelyindividuals
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#socialisolation, #socialmedia or #partialsocialmedia
In recent months I have cut down on #socialmedia use, I have largely withdrawn from posting how great I am at my job on #linkedin, or indeed using it at all. I have also reduced #twitter to almost nothing, and #facebook is used even less. I have however continued to use #mastodon. The only issue with the latter is that I feel it is often an #echochamber for myself. Hence, I am not really sure if I am actully being social on media any more.
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#socialisolation, #socialmedia or #partialsocialmedia
In recent months I have cut down on #socialmedia use, I have largely withdrawn from posting how great I am at my job on #linkedin, or indeed using it at all. I have also reduced #twitter to almost nothing, and #facebook is used even less. I have however continued to use #mastodon. The only issue with the latter is that I feel it is often an #echochamber for myself. Hence, I am not really sure if I am actully being social on media any more.
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Haven’t left the house in a week; and only just getting out to do something now.
#Depression, #anxiety and #SocialIsolation is horrible.
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Haven’t left the house in a week; and only just getting out to do something now.
#Depression, #anxiety and #SocialIsolation is horrible.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02419-6 (R)-ketamine restores anterior insular cortex activity and cognitive deficits in social isolation-reared mice (Yokohama, et al, 2024) Arketamine is part of racemic ketamine along with esketamine. Spravato is esketamine only, one half of the racemic ketamine molecule. #arketamine #ketamine #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicresearch #socialisolation #neuroscience #mentalhealth #cognition
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The culture of 'dropping in' has withered away in Australian cities in particular. Even before the pandemic it had waned, but the pandemic has really reinforced habits of social isolation.
How can we revive this act of friendship AND be considerate of the person we are dropping in on?
One thing I think is important is to first ask people if they are free for a visit.
#SocialIsolation #Australiahttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-23/etiquette-of-dropping-in-to-friends-house/103852588
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The culture of 'dropping in' has withered away in Australian cities in particular. Even before the pandemic it had waned, but the pandemic has really reinforced habits of social isolation.
How can we revive this act of friendship AND be considerate of the person we are dropping in on?
One thing I think is important is to first ask people if they are free for a visit.
#SocialIsolation #Australiahttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-23/etiquette-of-dropping-in-to-friends-house/103852588
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Social isolation in adulthood is a lot more dangerous than you think
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/mindandbody/social-isolation-in-adulthood-is-a-lot-more-dangerous-than-you-think/ss-AA1g2ily?ei=14 -
Getting a screening here will be a group effort. Who’s with me? (3/3)
#Tampa #TampaBay #film #community #BowlingAlone #isolation #SocialIsolation #SocialCapital #society
https://www.joeydevilla.com/2024/03/29/lets-get-a-screening-of-join-or-die-in-tampa/
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'Third places' have a number of characteristics including "neutral ground, where social or financial status is not important, where conversation is a main activity. They're also accessible and homely."
Third places are valuable community, social spaces. Cafes, pubs and restaurants are not third places because there is a requirement to spend money in order to socialise.
#SocialIsolationhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-14/third-spaces-benefits-wellbeing-and-wallet/103577022