The lonely brain: evidence from studying patients with penetrating brain injury.
Soc Neurosci
; 14(6): 663-675, 2019 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30501456
ABSTRACT
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.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Veteranos
/
Encéfalo
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Traumatismos Cranianos Penetrantes
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Guerra do Vietnã
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Solidão
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
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Prognostic_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Aged
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Soc Neurosci
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
França