Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review

Lam, Jeffrey A; Murray, Emily R; Yu, Kasey E.; Ramsey, Marina; Nguyen, Tanya; Mishra, Jyoti; Martis, Brian; Michael, Thomas; Lee, Ellen

doi:10.1038/s41386-021-01058-7

Cited by 104 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 87 publications

(253 reference statements)

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“…Interestingly, a reduction in trust-associated activation of the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex (the neurocircuits of trust that connect to other limbic regions) was suggested to contribute to the non-trusting, anxious behaviour observed in lonely individuals [ 87 ]. Furthermore, a recent systematic review by Lam et al has highlighted structural and functional differences in the above mentioned regions in terms of loneliness [ 88 ], suggesting that these systems may play a role in both GAD and loneliness.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Isolation, Loneliness and Generalized Anxiety: Implications and Associations during the COVID-19 Quarantine

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a predominantly global quarantine response that has been associated with social isolation, loneliness, and anxiety. The foregoing experiences have been amply documented to have profound impacts on health, morbidity, and mortality. This narrative review uses the extant neurobiological and theoretical literature to explore the association between social isolation, loneliness, and anxiety in the context of quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging evidence suggests that distinct health issues (e.g., a sedentary lifestyle, a diminished overall sense of well-being) are associated with social isolation and loneliness. The health implications of social isolation and loneliness during quarantine have a heterogenous and comorbid nature and, as a result, form a link to anxiety. The limbic system plays a role in fear and anxiety response; the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, amygdala, HPA axis, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, insula, and locus coeruleus have an impact in a prolonged anxious state. In the conclusion, possible solutions are considered and remarks are made on future areas of exploration.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Isolation, Loneliness and Generalized Anxiety: Implications and Associations during the COVID-19 Quarantine

et al. 2021

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“…The authors in [ 16 ] study the neurobiology of loneliness and listed different sensor-based markers related to loneliness, such as various tomographies or Electroencephalography (EEG). The recent survey in [ 17 ] deals with loneliness of older adults during the COVID-19 era.…”

Section: Progress Beyond the State Of The Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Perceived Loneliness and Social-Isolation Levels for Older Adults: A Survey with Focus on Wearables-Based Solutions

Site

Lohan

Jolanki

et al. 2022

Sensors

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As an inevitable process, the number of older adults is increasing in many countries worldwide. Two of the main problems that society is being confronted with more and more, in this respect, are the inter-related aspects of feelings of loneliness and social isolation among older adults. In particular, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its associated restrictions have exacerbated the loneliness and social-isolation problems. This paper is first and foremost a comprehensive survey of loneliness monitoring and management solutions, from the multidisciplinary perspective of technology, gerontology, socio-psychology, and urban built environment. In addition, our paper also investigates machine learning-based technological solutions with wearable-sensor data, suitable to measure, monitor, manage, and/or diminish the levels of loneliness and social isolation, when one also considers the constraints and characteristics coming from social science, gerontology, and architecture/urban built environments points of view. Compared to the existing state of the art, our work is unique from the cross-disciplinary point of view, because our authors’ team combines the expertise from four distinct domains, i.e., gerontology, social psychology, architecture, and wireless technology in addressing the two inter-related problems of loneliness and social isolation in older adults. This work combines a cross-disciplinary survey of the literature in the four aforementioned domains with a proposed wearable-based technological solution, introduced first as a generic framework and, then, exemplified through a simple proof of concept with dummy data. As the main findings, we provide a comprehensive view on challenges and solutions in utilizing various technologies, particularly those carried by users, also known as wearables, to measure, manage, and/or diminish the social isolation and the perceived loneliness among older adults. In addition, we also summarize the identified solutions which can be used for measuring and monitoring various loneliness- and social isolation-related metrics, and we present and validate, through a simple proof-of-concept mechanism, an approach based on machine learning for predicting and estimating loneliness levels. Open research issues in this field are also discussed.

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“…In a recent review, authors stressed that large and diverse longitudinal cohorts are needed to elucidate the neurobiology of loneliness ( Lam et al, 2021 ). In this line, it might be relevant to explore loneliness as a long-term feeling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Association Between Loneliness, Episodic Memory and Hippocampal Volume Change in Young and Healthy Older Adults: A Longitudinal European Multicenter Study

Solé‐Padullés

Macià

Andersson

et al. 2022

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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BackgroundLoneliness is most prevalent during adolescence and late life and has been associated with mental health disorders as well as with cognitive decline during aging. Associations between longitudinal measures of loneliness and verbal episodic memory and brain structure should thus be investigated.MethodsWe sought to determine associations between loneliness and verbal episodic memory as well as loneliness and hippocampal volume trajectories across three longitudinal cohorts within the Lifebrain Consortium, including children, adolescents (N = 69, age range 10–15 at baseline examination) and older adults (N = 1468 over 60). We also explored putative loneliness correlates of cortical thinning across the entire cortical mantle.ResultsLoneliness was associated with worsening of verbal episodic memory in one cohort of older adults. Specifically, reporting medium to high levels of loneliness over time was related to significantly increased memory loss at follow-up examinations. The significance of the loneliness-memory change association was lost when eight participants were excluded after having developed dementia in any of the subsequent follow-up assessments. No significant structural brain correlates of loneliness were found, neither hippocampal volume change nor cortical thinning.ConclusionIn the present longitudinal European multicenter study, the association between loneliness and episodic memory was mainly driven by individuals exhibiting progressive cognitive decline, which reinforces previous findings associating loneliness with cognitive impairment and dementia.

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Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review

Cited by 104 publications

References 87 publications

Social Isolation, Loneliness and Generalized Anxiety: Implications and Associations during the COVID-19 Quarantine

Social Isolation, Loneliness and Generalized Anxiety: Implications and Associations during the COVID-19 Quarantine

Managing Perceived Loneliness and Social-Isolation Levels for Older Adults: A Survey with Focus on Wearables-Based Solutions

No Association Between Loneliness, Episodic Memory and Hippocampal Volume Change in Young and Healthy Older Adults: A Longitudinal European Multicenter Study

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