Brain Structure Links Loneliness to Social Perception
Open accessAbstract
Loneliness is the distressing feeling associated with the perceived absence of satisfying social relationships. Loneliness is increasingly prevalent in modern societies and has detrimental effects on health and happiness. Although situational threats to social relationships can transiently induce the emotion of loneliness, susceptibility to loneliness is a stable trait that varies across individuals [6-8] and is to some extent heritable. However, little is known about the neural processes associated with loneliness (but see [12-14]). Here, we hypothesized that individual differences in loneliness might be reflected in the structure of the brain regions associated with social processes. To test this hypothesis, we used voxel-based morphometry and showed that lonely individuals have less gray matter in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS)--an area implicated in basic social perception. As this finding predicted, we further confirmed that loneliness was associated with difficulty in processing social cues. Although other sociopsychological factors such as social network size, anxiety, and empathy independently contributed to loneliness, only basic social perception skills mediated the association between the pSTS volume and loneliness. Taken together, our results suggest that basic social perceptual abilities play an important role in shaping an individual's loneliness.
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Severe and persistent feelings of loneliness impair executive functioning, heighten sensitivity to negative social stimuli, and erode interpersonal trust.
“severe and persistent feelings of loneliness have been shown to impair executive functioning, heighten sensitivity to negative social stimuli, and erode interpersonal trust [for a review, see 29].”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [29]
This finding is consistent with the important role that maladaptive social cognition is believed to play in the initiation and maintenance of loneliness.
“This finding is consistent with the important role that maladaptive social cognition is believed to play in the initiation and maintenance of loneliness [29].”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [29]
Transient feelings of loneliness may motivate individuals to reconnect with others, whereas prolonged loneliness increases withdrawal and cognitive vigilance to social threat.
“Whereas transient feelings of loneliness may motivate individuals to reconnect with other individuals, prolonged loneliness increases withdrawal and cognitive vigilance to social threat [29].”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [29]
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- Authors
- Kanai, R., Bahrami, B., Duchaine, B., Janik, A., Banissy, M. J., & Rees, G.
- Affiliations
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Dartmouth College (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-10
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 1975-1979
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3510434
- OpenAlex
- W2071351368
- Cited by
- 181
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 5
- FWCI
- 10.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ResearchOnline - JCU (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
- Research Space (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 091593/Z/10/Z)
- European Commission
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/H004688/1)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- loneliness, social perception, posterior superior temporal sulcus, gray matter volume, individual differences, social cue processing, social network size, anxiety, empathy
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Brain Mapping, Cues, Empathy, Female, Humans, Loneliness, Male, Social Behavior, Social Perception, Temporal Lobe, Young Adult
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