Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

The Lonely Brain: Evidence from studying patients with penetrating brain injury.

Social Neuroscience 2018 December 4
Loneliness is perceived as social isolation and exclusion. The neural substrate of loneliness has been investigated with functional neuroimaging; however, lesion-based studies and their associated outcomes are needed to infer causal involvement between brain regions and function. Here, we applied voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) analyses to investigate the causal role of brain lesions on self-report of loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) in a unique sample from the Vietnam Head Injury Study, including veterans with penetrating traumatic brain injuries (pTBI) (n = 132) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 35). Our results revealed that the right anterior insula (AI) and right prefrontal cortex (PFC) are key brain regions underpinning loneliness perception. Individuals with selective lesions to the right AI and right PFC were less likely to report loneliness compared to patients with selective lesions to the posterior cortex and HCs. Therefore, it appears that lesions to key regions involved in processing social pain act to lower the perception of loneliness. Reporting loneliness was associated with executive dysfunction, apathy, disinhibition, and lower life satisfaction. In conclusion, the reported findings broaden our understanding of how loneliness is processed in the social brain, and how behavioral and cognitive factors can influence this perception.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app