The default network of the human brain is associated with perceived social isolation
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Social isolation is associated with abnormal connectivity.
“Social isolation is also associated with abnormal connectivity (Spreng et al., 2020).”
From Internet-Based Conversational Engagement Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial (I-CONECT) Among Socially Isolated Adults 75+ Years Old With Normal Cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment: Topline Results (2024) · cites this paper as Spreng et al., 2020
The Results report altered functional connectivity in lonely individuals, including greater coupling within the default network. But the Introduction specifies that the study concerns perceived social isolation (trait loneliness), not the amount of time spent alone or frequency of social contact. The unqualified claim could also imply objective social isolation, which this study does not establish. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredI-CONECT used semistructured conversations with standardized daily themes and picture prompts, facilitating participants' organizing and articulating their thoughts to conversation partners.
“Third, we used semistructured conversations with standardized daily themes and picture prompts, facilitating participants’ organizing and articulating their thoughts to conversation partners (Radecki et al., 2019; Spreng et al., 2020).”
From Internet-Based Conversational Engagement Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial (I-CONECT) Among Socially Isolated Adults 75+ Years Old With Normal Cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment: Topline Results (2024) · cites this paper as Spreng et al., 2020
The Discussion describes internally directed thought and imagined social exchanges, while the Methods describe brain-imaging procedures. Our copy does not address I-CONECT, semistructured conversations, daily themes, picture prompts, or whether those prompts helped participants articulate their thoughts (searched those terms and paraphrases). (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Spreng, R. N., Dimas, E., Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, L., Dagher, A., Koellinger, P., Nave, G., Ong, A., Kernbach, J. M., Wiecki, T. V., Ge, T., Li, Y., Holmes, A. J., Yeo, B. T. T., Turner, G. R., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Bzdok, D.
- Affiliations
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Universitätsklinikum Aachen (DE)
- Broad Institute (US)
- Yale University (US)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- York University (CA)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Spreng, R. Nathan
- Bzdok, Danilo
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2020-12-15
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6393-6393
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7738683
- OpenAlex
- W3111446413
- Cited by
- 236
- References
- 83
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 63 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 16.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2021-05-21)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- National University of Singapore (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship@McGill (McGill) (submittedVersion)
- RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (R01AG068563A)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- loneliness, perceived social isolation, default mode network, gray matter volume, functional connectivity, fornix, white matter microstructure, neuroimaging genetics, social cognition, mentalization, UK Biobank
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Loneliness, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Models, Biological, Social Isolation, Fornix, Brain, Social Networking, Gray Matter
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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