Loneliness can help grow parts of the brain tied to the imagination, research shows

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Lonely people were more likely to have increased activity in areas of the brain related to recalling memories, thinking about others and future planning, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The researchers hypothesized that the so-called standard network in the brain involved in memory and social cognition would likely undergo changes related to loneliness.

“What surprised us was that overwhelming was the biggest effect in the data,” said lead study author Nathan Spreng, an associate professor of neurology at McGill University in Montreal.

The bonds between these areas had grown stronger and the volume of gray matter there was greater than in those who were not lonely.

The results converged in the default network most affected by perceived isolation and loneliness.

A wealth of data

Well before the pandemic, loneliness was increasingly seen as a public health problem, enough that the UK appointed a loneliness minister in 2018.
Data has shown that lonely adults are about 1.64 times more likely to develop dementia compared to those who don’t self-report loneliness, according to a 2015 review of global studies.
Results such as those motivated the researchers to search brain images of 40,000 subjects, all from the UK Biobank, a large-scale database of biomedical information from some 500,000 Britons.
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Participants in that study, who ranged in age from 40 to 69, filled in ratings asking whether they felt lonely or not.

The researchers then compared MRI scans of self-identified lonely people with those who didn’t feel lonely on a regular basis.

The sheer size of the data sample is a rarity in this area of ​​science, Spreng said, and it was the result of the biobank drastically scaling up its available brain images last February.

“We immediately got to work on that when they came out and it was very exciting,” said Spreng.

Before that, most of his neuroscience work focused on cohorts with only hundreds of participants – a significant number in their own right. But now, with the data from tens of thousands of subjects to draw from, there was much more to learn.

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The researchers’ hypothesis that the default network in the brain was active during loneliness made sense because they are components involved in thinking about the self, said Dr. Kenneth Heilman, professor emeritus in the University of Florida neurology department. whose books include “Creativity and the Brain” and “The Believer’s Brain.” Heilman was not involved in the McGill study.

“There’s an old, old saying in neurology that we always use. And that’s ‘use it or lose it,’” said Heilman.

While parts of the brain prepared for creativity and self-thinking can grow during solitude, that could mean that other social parts of the brain would languish due to inactivity.

“The big question arises, are you starting to lose other parts of the brain that are important for interactions?” Heilman asked. “If you don’t use them, will it eventually lead to a more demented condition?”

Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease

An important way that this study could benefit medicine in a broader sense is by helping scientists better understand how social isolation – an even more important topic during an isolating pandemic – could alter the structure of the brain, putting people at risk. run on Alzheimer’s disease as they age.

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“There are many other factors to explore, such as the interplay between loneliness and the APOE-4 genotype,” said Spreng.

That gene has been linked to up to 25% of Alzheimer’s cases, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

And because seniors at risk for dementia are often more isolated when living alone or in shared living facilities, more research could reveal how loneliness might exacerbate a pre-existing genetic predisposition.

“This first study was very important in determining which parts of the brain are affected by loneliness,” he said. “We use that information and we follow a large sample of older adults. We see how their brains age over several years, and how their experience with loneliness can actually accelerate atrophy patterns.”

And the study is more meaningful after a pandemic year when social isolation is more common.

“Feeling socially connected is extremely important,” said Spreng. “For some people, especially young adults, it will likely be a lot easier to get out of Covid-related isolation. Older adults may need more help.”

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