[ad_1]
What happens in our brain after being alone for a while? A new study published in the scientific journal Neuroscience of nature suggests that, after being isolated, the desire for social interactions is neurologically very similar to the desire to eat after fasting. That is, after being alone for a long time, our brain is “starved” for social interactions. The team notes that this study shows how social interaction can be a basic human need.
Previous research has already identified a group of neurons in the brain of mice that generate a “drive” for social interaction after the isolation of these animals. Human studies have also shown that deprivation of social contacts can lead to emotional problems. But what is the basis of all this? It was what a team whose lead author Livia Tomova, now at the University of Cambridge, UK, wanted to understand better.
To do this, the group of scientists confined 40 healthy volunteers (mainly university students) to a windowless space in the installations from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for ten hours. At the time of this study, Livia Tomova was a researcher at MIT. The participants were not allowed to use a mobile phone, but the space had a computer so they could contact the researchers if they needed to.
After these ten hours of isolation, each participant’s brain was analyzed with a magnetic resonance imaging machine. At the same time, the volunteers were shown photos of their favorite social activities. All of this was challenging, because this analysis had to be done without any social contact and therefore each participant learned to use the machine without the help of scientists. The volunteers were also asked to fast for one day (the day after isolation). This time, during the MRI, they were shown pictures of their favorite foods.
During the study, the team specifically looked at the substantia nigra, a part of the brain where dopamine (involved in rewarding behaviors) is produced. This part of the brain was later found to respond similarly after isolation and after fasting. “When a person was isolated, this area of the brain showed greater activity in response to photographs of other people and not to images of food,” explains Livia Tomova. “When someone had fasted, the black substance also showed greater activity in response to photographs with food and not photographs with other people.”
It was also seen that the responses in the participants’ brains to the presentation of pictures with food and social interactions were more similar to each other than the responses to the pictures of flowers, which did not arouse any desire.
For all these reasons, the team suggests that the need to connect with each other is represented in our brains in a similar way to when we are hungry. “In our brain, hunger and loneliness seem very similar, suggesting that the need for a relationship may be a basic human need,” says Livia Tomova.
Mental health in the pandemic
Throughout the investigation, it was also found that the responses also depended on the levels of isolation in the lives of each of the participants. If a person was used to being isolated before the study, they had weaker desires for social interaction than a person with a longer social life. The team also looked at other areas of the brain, but ended up concluding that the substantia nigra is the one that represents a more general neural response to food cravings or social interactions. The remaining areas studied were more specific to each of these wishes.
And what could be the consequences of an insatiable desire for social interaction? Livia Tomova responds that it all depends on whether we can really satisfy our social interactions when we are expecting them. “A consequence of social desire can be a strong need to interact with others, but if we can satisfy that need, everything can return to normal.” If this social desire cannot be satisfied, we can develop compensatory mechanisms and seek other rewards to fill this void, says the scientist.
With the need to stay home longer due to the current pandemic, the effects of isolation on mental health have also been questioned. Livia Tomova points out that, precisely with this study, it is shown that our brain is very sensitive to loneliness, since we have seen effects with only ten hours of isolation. “In times of social distancing, we must pay special attention to the well-being and mental health of people,” he appeals. And he adds that if there are people who are with their families or who have access to technology, there are others who do not have that possibility. “People who live alone and do not have access to digital technologies should be experiencing an extreme version of social detachment, which could affect their mental health.”
