By having people perform two experiments, American researchers have shown that lack of social interaction has similar effects on our brain as lack of food.
2020 has been one years where many of us have lived a more isolated life than before. But what does it do to our brains and our minds?
An American neuroscience study shows that isolation creates a social desire in our brains, in a similar way as when we get a craving for food when we have not eaten for a long time. An interesting and well-done study, says Lars Olson, senior professor of neurobiology at Karolinska Institutet.
– They have focused on what it looks like in the brain when you feel alone. And alone you can define in different ways, but they have done an experiment.
Yes, to investigate what happens in our brains when we are isolated, the researchers had 40 people between the ages of 18 and 40 do two tests: one where they were without food for 10 hours and one where they were isolated in a room for 10 hours.
After each test received The participants underwent a so-called functional magnetic camera examination while the researchers showed them pictures of good food and pictures of people who are together and feeling well. And in a small area of ββthe midbrain that handles the neurotransmitter dopamine, the researchers saw that when the participants had been isolated and saw a picture of happy people, this part of the brain reacted in the same way as when fasting and seeing a picture of food.
Our brains work thus being able to feel a kind of abstinence after social interaction. But unlike the isolated existence we live in during the pandemic, the test subjects were not even allowed to watch TV, read books or use telephones to entertain themselves with social media. But Lars Olson still believes that the study may be relevant even now.
– Many of those who are really isolated now due to the pandemic are not as isolated, but on the other hand, these experiments have only lasted for 10 hours and yet you can see these effects. And it is likely that the effects could be greater and clearer in people who are actually isolated for a longer period of time, and without knowing when it will end.
Reference: Tomova, L., Wang, KL, Thompson, T. et al. Acute social isolation evokes midbrain craving responses similar to hunger. Nat Neurosci 23, 1597β1605 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-00742-z.