Neurobiology research: "loneliness" is the opposite of "wisdom", the smarter you are, the less you will feel lonely

Loneliness is a subjective experience.
Some people can't ask for it and enjoy it.
But for most people, loneliness is a negative feature, reflecting the subjective pain of individuals to their degree of social isolation.

Psychological research shows that loneliness is caused by the difference between the interpersonal interactions that individuals expect and the actual interpersonal interactions.

From a neurobiological point of view, loneliness is considered a social evolution, which puts individuals into a short-term self-protection mode without any mutual protection or help.

Loneliness is also an important socio-psychological determinant of health.

It is associated with considerable physical and mental health risks, acute stress response and immune system dysfunction, increased risk of suicide, accelerated cognitive decline, and dementia.

Therefore, understanding the neurobiological basis of loneliness can help improve the treatment of loneliness and reduce the impact of loneliness on physical and mental health.

Recently, in a new study published in "cerebral cortex", a research team from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) found that our brain’s response to loneliness is almost completely opposite to the response to wisdom, and those who think they are The smarter people will not feel lonely.

The inverse association between loneliness and wisdom found in previous clinical studies can be explained at least in part by neurobiology, not just the result of subjective bias.

Loneliness is a negative character trait, but wisdom is the opposite, it is a positive character trait.

Wisdom can be defined as the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, insight, and empathy with others, including pro-social behaviors such as empathy and empathy, emotional regulation, self-reflection, acceptance of uncertainty and decisiveness Balance, and social advice.

It is worth noting that wisdom is always associated with better health and subjective well-being.

Although previous studies have found a link between loneliness and wisdom, this research is the first time that this obvious link has been observed on a neurobiological level.

In this new study, the researchers recruited 147 healthy volunteers (59% were women) aged 18 to 84, and completed self-behavior reports through electroencephalography (EEG) to assess their loneliness Sense and wisdom.

Then, in the emotional bias assessment, participants were asked to play a game called "Face Off": a set of standardized culturally different faces were displayed on the screen, and each face had four sets of emotions: positive (happy) and negative (Sad), threatening (angry) or neutral.

At the same time, the researchers focused their attention on the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ).

This is a brain center that collects and processes internal and external information.

Researchers found that self-assessed lonely people are most likely to be distracted by angry expressions, and their TPJ activity is also reduced; however, self-assessed smart people respond more strongly to smiling faces, and their TPJ activity process also increases.
.

This shows that the neural response to feeling lonely or smart is opposite in many ways.

Researchers also found that the loneliness-anger response causes the parietal cortex on the left side of the brain (important for distributing attention) to be more active; the smart-happiness response causes the left insula (which processes social characteristics such as empathy) to be more active.

Study co-author, UCSD neuropsychiatrist Dilip Jeste said: "This study shows that the inverse association between loneliness and wisdom that we found in previous clinical studies can be explained at least in part by neurobiology, not just The result of subjective bias.

"Although the researchers stated that more research is needed, including longer-term analysis of participants, this research does provide valuable clues to the way the lonely brain processes information.

The researchers found that age does not seem to have any effect on this information processing mechanism.

But in their words, loneliness has now reached the level of an "epidemic".

Therefore, anything that can alleviate this feeling and its impact on physical and mental health can help many people.

The TPJ area of ​​the brain is also being studied as a method to treat auditory hallucinations and tinnitus.
Perhaps some nerve stimulation can also help alleviate the strong feeling of loneliness.

The corresponding author of the study and neuroscientist Jyoti Mishra of the UCSD Neural Engineering and Translation Laboratory said: "Biomarkers can be measured in the brain, which may help develop effective treatments.
"
You can make a person smarter or Aren’t you so lonely?’ Maybe we can help answer this question.

This answer will help alleviate loneliness.

" Link to the paper: https://doi.
org/10.
1093/cercor/bhab012 Related reading: When feeling lonely, the brain What will happen in the game? The results are surprising.
.
.
Loneliness is an important predictor of type 2 diabetes? Hot Article Selections of 2020 1.
The cup is ready! A full paper cup of hot coffee, full of plastic particles.
.
.
2.
Scientists from the United States, Britain and Australia “Natural Medicine” further prove that the new coronavirus is a natural evolution product, or has two origins.
.
.
3.
NEJM: Intermittent fasting is right The impact of health, aging and disease 4.
Heal insomnia within one year! The study found that: to improve sleep, you may only need a heavy blanket.
5.
New Harvard study: Only 12 minutes of vigorous exercise can bring huge metabolic benefits to health.
6.
The first human intervention experiment: in nature.
"Feeling and rolling" for 28 days is enough to improve immunity.
7.
Junk food is "real rubbish"! It takes away telomere length and makes people grow old faster! 8.
Cell puzzle: you can really die if you don't sleep! But the fatal changes do not occur in the brain, but in the intestines.
.
.
9.
The ultra-large-scale study of "Nature Communications": The level of iron in the blood is the key to health and aging! 10.
Unbelievable! Scientists reversed the "permanent" brain damage in animals overnight, and restored the old brain to a young state.
.
.