Loneliness and hunger illuminate brain activity in a similar way

When you miss a loved one Or, after being deprived of contact with humans and spending a lot of time, the symptoms may look like physical pain. It is a biting hole in the intestine or chest pain.

But, Social interaction Is it really a human core need, or is this feeling just a small part of our imagination?

New Survey, Researchers find empirical evidence of the former. Evidence suggests that humans crave social contact as much as they crave food. Hunger and loneliness, on the other hand, activate brain activity in a similar profound way.

“In our brain’s’motivation center’, hunger and loneliness are very similar,” co-author of the study. Libya Tomova To tell Reverse.. Tomova is a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.The findings of her team were published in the journal on Monday Nature Neuroscience..

“This suggests that the need to connect may be a basic human need.”

The results of these findings are especially noticeable in the socially distant world. You may feel more disconnected than ever in a blockade that exacerbates an already annoying pattern. Infested loneliness..

It is important for people to “pay attention to how much social contact they have” and “notice that loneliness and isolation affect their brains”.

Hungry alone — To determine how social isolation and fasting affect the brain, Tomova’s team has put together a group of 40 healthy, socially connected young adults between the ages of 18 and 40. It was. Each participant completed two separate 10-hour sessions. In the first session, people were completely isolated from face-to-face and online social interactions. There is no phone, social media, or direct contact.

In the second condition, each participant fasted. The group was able to drink water, but had no food or calorie drinks for 10 hours.

After each session, participants displayed images of social interactions, food, or flowers while scanning the brain using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. The group also self-reported experiences of loneliness, food cravings, and social cravings.

What they discovered — Not surprisingly, people’s thirst soared in response to their deprivation. After the fast, people were hungry for food.

After isolation, people felt lonely and coveted social interaction. This was true even if the quarantine lasted for a relatively short time and the participants knew exactly when it would end.

Tomova and her team suggest that for highly socially connected people, the day of social isolation deviates significantly from the speed of typical social interaction.

“Loneliness acts as a signal, like hunger.”

“Loneliness can bring comfort and rejuvenation if chosen intentionally, but externally mandated quarantine was subjectively disgusting,” the team wrote.

When researchers analyzed fMRI scans, the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area (SN / VTA) showed greater response to post-isolation social and post-fasting food images. I found that. This area of ​​the brain is associated with reward and novelty responses that are consistent with dopamine-related brain activity.

Previously, this phenomenon was only seen directly in animals.

Tomova says the study extends the concept of “social homeostasis” from animal models to humans.

“It provides Empirical support for the idea that loneliness acts as a signal Like hunger, she informs individuals that something is missing and that action needs to be taken to fix it, “she adds.

However, it is important to note that just because a person is alone does not mean that he or she will be lonely.

“Loneliness is a subjective condition and is characterized by the experience of not having the necessary social connections,” says Tomova.

Cure the “loneliness epidemic” — Next, the team is interested in investigating how and what kind of positive social interaction is sufficient to meet human social needs and eliminate neural craving responses. there is. This question is becoming more and more imminent in our collective present moment.

“The current blockade highlights the problems that have really been a problem in recent years. The number of people who feel lonely is increasing in modern societies around the world,” says Tomova.

Some people have blamed the rise of social media and digital technology. Others argue that social media activities can make people feel more connected.

Further research is needed to identify and treat so-called causes. “The epidemic of loneliness”. Scientists for lonely people suggest Provide support to others who may be struggling, thank the people around you, meditate, and try to treat them.

Psychologists remind us that loneliness is a normal, general emotion. Like all emotions, it’s temporary.

Overview: Do they crave social interaction when people are forced to be isolated from each other? To address this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural responses caused by food and social cues after participants ().n = 40) Experienced 10 hours of forced fasting or complete social isolation. After isolation, people felt lonely and coveted social interaction. The midbrain region showed selective activation of post-fasting food cues and post-isolation social cues. These reactions correlated with self-reported craving. In contrast, the striatal and cortical areas distinguished between a craving for food and a craving for social interaction. Throughout the deprivation session, deprivation was found to narrow and focus the brain’s motivational response to the deprived target. Our results support the intuitive idea that acute isolation causes social craving, just as fasting causes hunger.