My Take | A neuroscience of loneliness and isolation

As a result of the prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns, I have started paying more attention to feelings of loneliness and isolation. It turns out a great deal of fascinating research in neuroscience has been done on loneliness, and its effects on people’s behaviour and motivations. This, incidentally, dovetails with a theory of the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, according to whom imposed isolation and loneliness causes people to be more susceptible to ideological dogmas.

Could Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide make people more prone to fake news, conspiracy theories and extreme beliefs? It’s at least a possibility worth thinking about.

Probably all human feelings have a neurological substratum. Loneliness is no different. In a 2016 study, American researchers identified a cluster of neurons in a brain region in mice called the dorsal raphe nucleus that represents feelings of loneliness and generates a drive for social interaction. This may explain other studies that show humans deprived of social contact may experience emotional distress.

Based on their research, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology more recently have identified brain pathways that indicate humans crave social contacts the same way they crave food when hungry. In both kinds of craving, the part of the brain called the substantia nigra, a tiny structure located in the midbrain, was shown by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to be active.

Interestingly, both the substantia nigra and dorsal raphe nucleus share the same evolutionary origins in the brain. Their research is published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Meanwhile, new research by psychologists at Bar-Ilan University in Israel have found that people experience time differently when they are alone and with people. By making more than 1,700 research volunteers write down their solitary and social experience, the researchers found that being with others makes people focus more on the present. When they are alone, they tend to think more about the past and future. Also, they may experience more anxiety and anger with others, but are more prone to sadness when alone.