Transportation Physical Activity Earlier in Life and Areas of the Brain related to Dementia Later in Life.

INTRODUCTION: Efforts to preserve brain function may be most effective when administered before there are changes in the brain, which may occur decades before the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms. White matter hyperintensities (WMH), a cardiovascular disease biomarker, are areas of hyperintense signals scattered in the white matter of the brain evident on magnetic resonance images. WMH increase with age and are associated with a higher risk of dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was an association between different domains and intensities of physical activity earlier in life and lower risk of dementia later in life as indicated by less WMH. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with the Lifetime Total Physical Activity Questionnaire. The metabolic equivalent of task (MET) hours/week/year of moderate (3.0-5.9 METs) and vigorous-intensity (≥6 METs) occupation, transportation, household and leisure-time physical activity was obtained across school-age (6-11), adolescence (12-18), young (19-39) and middle adulthood (40-64). WMH were calculated as the percent of intracranial volume in cognitively unimpaired middle (age 40-64) and older adults (age 65+). Simultaneous multiple linear regression determined associations between moderate and vigorous-intensity occupation, transportation, household and leisure-time physical activity across school-age, adolescence, young and middle adulthood with WMH. RESULTS: Greater moderate-intensity transportation physical activity during young (b= -.09, p=.008) and middle adulthood (b= -.14, p=.013) was associated with lower WMH in middle and older adulthood, explaining 28% (p=.003) to 29% (p=.002) of the variance in WMH (n=54). CONCLUSIONS: Changes to the physical environment that encourage walking, running or biking, such as sidewalks and bike paths, may be strategies to mitigate the age-related increases in WMH, areas of the brain associated with higher risk of dementia.

Feeling physical pain while depressed: The effect of alexithymia.

BACKGROUND: In the literature, depression and alexithymia are associated with greater pain perception. It is unknown whether depression and alexithymia have additive effects on perceived pain. METHODS: The present study examined 152 participants (96 women, 56 men). Participants completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Brief Pain Inventory, and the NEO Personality Inventory. There were 49 participants in the active phase of depression with either definite (n = 15) or no alexithymia (n = 34). One hundred three participants showed no depression with either definite (n = 14) or no alexithymia (n = 89). RESULTS: Pain severity showed a small but significant relationship with alexithymia and depression. Pain was greater among without alexithymia individuals who were depressed and among with alexithymia individuals who were not depressed. Individuals with combined presence of depression and alexithymia did not report greater pain than participants with either condition alone. Alexithymia, depression, and pain were significantly correlated with greater neuroticism. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find a summative effect of depression and alexithymia on perceived pain. One interpretation of this result is that neuroticism (a shared personality factor in both depression and alexithymia) may be partially responsible for the effect on pain.

Integration Between Cerebral Hemispheres Contributes to Defense Mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms are mental functions which facilitate coping when real or imagined events challenge personal wishes, needs, and feelings. Whether defense mechanisms have a specific neural basis is unknown. The present research tested the hypothesis that interhemispheric integration plays a critical role in defense mechanism development, by studying a unique sample of patients born without the corpus callosum (agenesis of the corpus callosum; AgCC). Adults with AgCC (N = 27) and matched healthy volunteers (N = 30) were compared on defense mechanism use across increasing levels of developmental maturity (denial, least; projection, intermediate; identification, most). Narratives generated in response to Thematic Apperception Test images were scored according to the Defense Mechanism Manual. Greater use of denial and less identification was found in persons with AgCC, compared to healthy comparisons. This difference emerged after age 18 when full maturation of defenses among healthy individuals was expected. The findings provide clinically important characterization of social and emotional processing in persons with AgCC. More broadly, the results support the hypothesis that functional integration across the hemispheres is important for the development of defense mechanisms.

Lifetime Physical Activity and White Matter Hyperintensities in Cognitively Intact Adults.

BACKGROUND: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) observed on magnetic resonance images are associated with depression and increase the risk of stroke, dementia, and death. The association between physical activity and WMHs has been inconsistently reported in the literature, perhaps because studies did not account for a lifetime of physical activity or depression. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which a lifetime of leisure-time physical activity is associated with less WMHs while accounting for depression. METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the Lifetime Total Physical Activity Questionnaire, where the metabolic equivalent of task hours per week per year was calculated. Cognitively intact participants also underwent magnetic resonance imaging, where WMHs as a percentage of intracranial volume was obtained. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was performed to compare WMHs in a more active group with a group with no psychiatric history (n = 20, mean age = 62.2 years), with a less active group with no psychiatric history (n = 13, mean age = 64.0 years), and a less active group with history of late-onset depression (n = 14, mean age = 62.8 years). RESULTS: There was not a statistically significant difference in WMHlg10 between the more and less active groups without a psychiatric history (b = .09, p > .05) or between the more active group without a psychiatric history and the less active group with a history of depression (b = .01, p > .05). The model was predictive of WMHlg10, explaining an adjusted 15% of the variance in WMHs (p = .041). DISCUSSION: A lifetime of leisure-time physical activity was not associated with WMHs when accounting for depression.

An Initial Study of Alexithymia and Its Relationship With Cognitive Abilities Among Mild Cognitive Impairment, Mild Alzheimer's Disease, and Healthy Volunteers.

The present study examined the degree to which alexithymia is greater in mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) relative to healthy volunteers (healthy comparison [HC]), and investigated relationships between alexithymia and cognition. Eighty-five participants (MCI = 30, AD = 21, HC = 34) underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological examination and completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Relative to HC, MCI and AD reported greater alexithymia total scores and higher scores on the TAS factor difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF). The remaining two factors, difficulty in describing feelings (DDF) and externally oriented thinking showed no significant group differences. In MCI, TAS-20 and DIF were negatively correlated with working and long-term verbal memory. In AD, TAS-20 was negatively correlated with general cognition, attention, memory, and visual spatial constructive and executive abilities. Also in AD, DIF was negatively correlated with general cognition, memory, and executive abilities. The correlation between DIF and long-term verbal memory in both MCI and AD suggests a potential common mechanism for alexithymia in these neurocognitive disorders. Declines in verbal memory may hinder a patient's ability to recall an association between a given sensation and the episodic experience of that sensation, thus leading to difficulty identifying feelings, as measured by the DIF factor of the TAS-20.

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Is Critical for Helping Others Who Are Suffering.

Neurological patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are reported to display reduced empathy toward others in their daily lives in clinical case studies. However, the empathic behavior of patients with damage to the vmPFC has not been measured experimentally in response to an empathy-eliciting event. This is important because characterizing the degree to which patients with damage to the vmPFC have lower empathic behavior will allow for the development of targeted interventions to improve patients' social skills and in turn will help family members to better understand their impairments so they can provide appropriate supports. For the first time, we induced empathy using an ecologically-valid empathy induction in neurological patients with damage to the vmPFC and measured their empathic emotional responses and behavior in real time. Eight neurological patients with focal damage to the vmPFC were compared to demographically-matched brain-damaged and healthy comparison participants. Patients with damage to the vmPFC gave less money in the empathy condition to a person who was suffering (a confederate) than comparison participants. This provides the first direct experimental evidence that the vmPFC is critical for empathic behavior toward individuals who are suffering.

Poststroke agitation and aggression and social quality of life: a case control study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Aggression and agitation are common after a stroke. The association between agitation/aggression following stroke and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in stroke survivors is unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between agitation/aggression and HRQoL in Chinese stroke survivors. METHODS: Three hundred and twenty-four stroke patients entered this cross-sectional study. Agitation/aggression was assessed using the Chinese version of Neuropsychiatric Inventory (CNPI). HRQoL was measured with the Stroke Specific Quality of Life (SSQoL). RESULTS: Three months after the index stroke, agitation/aggression was found in 60 (18.5%) patients. In the agitation/aggression group, 44 patients (73.3%) showed passive agitation/aggression, whereas 16 (26.7%) displayed passive and active agitation/aggression. No patients showed only active agitation/aggression. Patients with agitation/aggression were more likely to have history of diabetes and greater severity of depression, as well as lower SSQoL total score and Personality Changes and Social Role scores. Controlling for diabetes and depression severity did not alter the above results. The Energy and Thinking scores of the SSQoL were significantly lower in the passive/active agitation/aggression group relative to the passive agitation/aggression group (adjusted for CNPI aggression/agitation score). CONCLUSION: In this study sample, agitation/aggression was preponderantly of the passive type and was associated with poorer HRQoL independently from depression or medical conditions. Patients with both passive and active agitation/aggression had lower Quality of Life (QoL) than patients with only passive agitation/aggression. The causality of the association between low QoL and agitation/aggression needs to be explored in future studies.

Longitudinal assessment of clinical risk factors for depression in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

BACKGROUND: During initial assessment of individuals with schizophrenia and related disorders (schizophrenia spectrum disorders [SSDs]), clinicians tend to pay greater attention to psychotic symptoms than mood symptoms, including depression. Depression is reported to influence the course of SSDs, but not much is known about the risk factors for depression in SSDs. In the present study, we examined clinical predictors of depression in SSDs. METHODS: The sample included 71 patients with SSDs followed in a modified Assertive Community Treatment program, the Community Support Network of Springfield, Illinois. The study design was naturalistic, prospective, and longitudinal (mean follow-up = 8.3 years; SD = 7.3). The GENMOD procedure appropriate for repeated measures analysis with dichotomous outcome variables followed longitudinally was computed. RESULTS: Rates of depression ranged from 18% to 41% over the differing assessment periods. Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder did not vary by depression rate. Depression independent of SSD diagnosis was associated with greater hospitalization rates. Clinical variables predict- ing depression were auditory hallucinations, delusions, poor insight, and poor judgment. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotic symptoms in the course of SSDs are risk factors for depression. As a consequence, the mental status examination of patients with SSDs with active psychosis should include assessment of mood changes. Further research is warranted to determine if treatment of depression among patients with SSDs may reduce their rates of hospitalization.

Suicidal thoughts and emotion competence.

BACKGROUND: During deployment and upon returning home, veterans experience emotional challenges that test their social and psychological adaptation and place them at risk for suicidal thinking. Individual variability in skill-based capacity to adaptively perceive, understand, correctly use, and manage emotions (called emotional competence) may play a role in the development of psychological suffering and suicidal thinking. Based on research in healthy and clinical samples, poor emotional competence was predicted to be associated with suicidal thinking among returning veterans. METHOD: Participants were selected from the W. F. Caveness Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS) registry, which in the late 1960s began prospectively assessing 1221 veterans). The study sample was composed of veterans examined between 2003 and 2006 and included 185 participants who at the time of assessment with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) did (N= 46) or did not endorse (N= 139) suicidal thinking then or during the previous two weeks and received performance-based measures of emotional competence (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test; MSCEIT, Version 2.0) and theory of mind. MSCEIT subtests and theory of mind tasks were condensed via principal component analysis: Component 1 (Emotion Processing) included use, understand, and manage emotions tasks, and Component 2 (Emotion Perception) included perceive emotions. RESULTS: Veterans endorsing suicidal thoughts showed poorer emotion processing whereas emotion perception and theory of mind tasks did not show significant group effects. In addition, veterans who endorsed thoughts of suicide were deployed at a younger age, had lower education, and tended to report more negative experiences in social interactions upon return to the United States. CONCLUSIONS: The capacity to understand, use, and manage emotionally charged stimuli and situations may represent risk factors for suicidal thinking among veterans.

Depressive symptoms related to low fractional anisotropy of white matter underlying the right ventral anterior cingulate in older adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease.

We sought to characterize the relationship between integrity of the white matter underlying the ventral anterior cingulate (vAC) and depressive symptoms in older adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease (AVD), a condition associated with preferential degeneration of the white matter. The vAC was defined as including white matter underlying ventral Brodmann Area 24 and Brodmann Area 25, corresponding with the "subcallosal" and "subgenual" cingulate respectively. This region of interest was chosen based on the preponderance of evidence that the white matter in the region plays a critical role in the manifestation of depressive symptoms. Participants had current unequivocal diagnoses of AVD and were between 55 and 90 years-old. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was used as an index of white matter integrity and organization. Whole-brain mean diffusivity (MD) was used as an index of global white matter lesion burden. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) Depression Scale. Depressive symptoms were significantly related to low FA in the right vAC (r = -0.356, df = 30, p = 0.045) but not the left vAC (r = 0.024, df = 30, p = 0.896) after controlling for total brain MD (a statistical control for global white matter lesion burden). Further, depressive symptoms were significantly related to low FA in the right vAC (r = -0.361, df = 31, p = 0.039), but not the left vAC (r = 0.259, df = 31, p = 0.145) when controlled for the contralateral vAC FA. The correlation coefficients for this follow-up analysis were found to be significantly different between left and right vAC (Z = 2.310, p = 0.021). Poor white matter health in the vAC may be a biological mechanism for depressive symptoms in older adults with vascular disease. Further studies may corroborate that the right vAC plays a unique role in depressive symptom manifestation in cases where the white matter is preferentially affected, as is the case in AVD. This could lead to future targeting of the region for somatic antidepressant treatment, as well as the development of a precise approach for patients with white matter damage, which could produce significant improvement in quality of life, medical morbidity, and mortality.

Larger hippocampus size in women with anorexia nervosa who exercise excessively than healthy women.

Exercise has been shown to increase hippocampal volume in healthy older adults. Observations from animal models of diabetes and hypertension suggest that the combination of exercise and caloric restriction may exert greater neuroprotection in the hippocampus than either behavior alone. Yet, in humans, the effects of exercise and caloric restriction on the hippocampus are not known. We measured the volume of the hippocampus prior to clinical treatment in women with anorexia nervosa (AN) who were restricting calories and engaging in excessive exercise, women with AN who did not exercise excessively, and healthy women who did not engage in either behavior. Women with AN were also examined longitudinally (once weight was restored and 6 months later). In the present report, we found that women with AN engaged in caloric restriction and excessive exercising prior to clinical treatment had larger hippocampal volumes than healthy comparison women. After weight restoration, women with AN who had engaged in food restriction and excessive exercise prior to treatment had hippocampal volumes similar to that of women with AN who only engaged in caloric restriction. These results advance the field by showing for the first time that hippocampal volume may be increased by exercise alone or exercise interacting with food restriction in AN.

Social adaptive functioning, apathy, and nondysphoric depression among nursing home-dwelling very old adults.

BACKGROUND: Apathetic and subsyndromal depressive conditions are common in the oldest old. This study examined whether nondysphoric depression (NDD), a clinical condition characterized by ideational and vegetative but no emotional symptoms of depression, belongs to the apathetic presentations of late-life depression. Rates of NDD, dysphoric depression (DD), apathy, and social functional impairment were examined in a sample of nondemented very old (mean age 87.5 years, SD = 7.7) nursing home residents. It was hypothesized that individuals with NDD show greater apathy and greater social functional impairment relative to DD and nondepressed individuals. METHODS: Social functioning was measured using the Social-Adaptive Functioning Evaluation (SAFE) and apathy was measured using the global apathy rating on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). RESULTS: The rates of DD (50.0%) and NDD (27.4%) were quite high. Participants with DD reported greater apathy than those with NDD (and nondepressed individuals). NDD and DD subjects showed greater social functional impairment relative to the comparison group. There was no difference in social functioning between DD and NDD individuals. CONCLUSIONS: The present data are inconsistent with the view that NDD among the oldest old is an apathetic form of depression. NDD involves social functional impairment. Limitations include rather selected population of nursing home residents that may have included individuals with early dementia, lack of data on prior depressive episodes, and apathy assessment not validated on the specific population.

Characterizing white matter health and organization in atherosclerotic vascular disease: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Atherosclerotic vascular disease (AVD) is endemic to the developed world, with known negative outcomes for cognition and brain health. The effects of AVD on the white matter fibers of the brain have not yet been studied using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This study examined differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) between AVD and healthy comparison (HC) participants, and described the regional patterns of FA in each group. AVD participants were hypothesized to have lower FA than HC participants, indicating abnormalities in white matter health or organization. 1.5 T diffusion tensor imaging was performed in 35 AVD and 22 HC participants. Mean FA measures were calculated for the white matter of the whole brain, as well for individual lobes. Globally and in every brain region measured except the temporal lobes, there were significant effects of group where AVD participants had lower FA values than their HC counterparts. Group differences in FA remained significant when controlled for white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume, suggesting that FA detects white matter abnormality above and beyond what is measurable using the older WMH technique. These findings suggest a likely neural substrate underlying the changes in cognition and mood reported in atherosclerotic vascular disease patients.

Modifiable risk factors for depressed mood among farmers.

BACKGROUND: Risk for depression among farmers is not fully understood. DSM-IV considers sadness or depressed mood a critical symptom of depression. The aim of this study was to examine risk factors for depressed mood among farmers using a longitudinal study design. METHODS: Participants were principal farm operators in the Iowa Certified Safe Farm study. We identified risk factors for depressed mood by calculating relative risks (RR) using the generalized estimating equations method. RESULTS: In the multivariate model, pesticide exposure (RR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.53), having an additional job off the farm (RR = 1.32; 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.62), stress (RR = 3.09; 95% CI: 2.55 to 3.75), and previous injury (RR = 1.41; 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.89) prospectively increased the risk of depressed mood. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with earlier non-longitudinal studies, the results of this study suggest that reducing pesticide exposure, stress, and injury may reduce the risk of depression in the farm setting.

Alexithymia, emotional empathy, and self-regulation in anorexia nervosa.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) who are starved have poor awareness (alexithymia), reduced understanding of others' mental states (cognitive empathy), and difficulty regulating personal emotions (self-regulation). Despite its important role in social interaction, sympathy for others (emotional empathy) has not been measured in AN. Furthermore, it is unknown how restoring weight affects the relationship among alexithymia, empathy, and self-regulation in AN. METHODS: Women with AN were tested longitudinally during their starvation period (N = 26) and after weight was restored (N = 20) and compared with 16 age-matched healthy women. Alexithymia, empathy, and self-regulation were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and items measuring self-regulation from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, respectively. RESULTS: Relative to comparison participants, individuals with AN during both starvation and weight restoration reported greater alexithymia and emotional empathy in one domain, personal distress (vicarious negative arousal to others' suffering). Among AN participants, personal distress was positively correlated with alexithymia and negatively correlated with self-regulation, when accounting for depression. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of alexithymia and personal distress may be persistent features of AN because they do not resolve upon weight restoration. Greater personal distress in AN may be a function of poor emotional awareness and regulation.

Recognition of emotion from body language among patients with unipolar depression.

Major depression may be associated with abnormal perception of emotions and impairment in social adaptation. Emotion recognition from body language and its possible implications to social adjustment have not been examined in patients with depression. Three groups of participants (51 with depression; 68 with history of depression in remission; and 69 never depressed healthy volunteers) were compared on static and dynamic tasks of emotion recognition from body language. Psychosocial adjustment was assessed using the Social Adjustment Scale Self-Report (SAS-SR). Participants with current depression showed reduced recognition accuracy for happy stimuli across tasks relative to remission and comparison participants. Participants with depression tended to show poorer psychosocial adaptation relative to remission and comparison groups. Correlations between perception accuracy of happiness and scores on the SAS-SR were largely not significant. These results indicate that depression is associated with reduced ability to appraise positive stimuli of emotional body language but emotion recognition performance is not tied to social adjustment. These alterations do not appear to be present in participants in remission suggesting state-like qualities.

A selective role for right insula--basal ganglia circuits in appetitive stimulus processing.

Hemispheric lateralization of hedonic evaluation ('liking') and incentive motivation ('wanting') in neural networks connecting the basal ganglia and insula (BG-I) in humans was examined. Participants with brain damage restricted to the BG-I of the right (n = 5) or left (n = 5) hemisphere, and 26 healthy participants matched on age, sex and intelligence quotient were tested on positively and negatively valenced pictures drawn from varied stimulus categories (Vijayaraghavan et al., 2008). Liking was assessed with explicit ratings of pleasantness using a nine-point Likert scale. Wanting was quantified as the amount of work (via repeated keypresses) that participants expended to increase (approach) or decrease (withdraw) viewing time. Right-lesion patients showed abnormally low viewing times and liking ratings for positive images. For a subset of positive images depicting sexual content, right-lesion patients exhibited active withdrawal, while the other two groups approached such stimuli. These results suggest that the right basal ganglia-insula complex plays a greater role than the left in supporting hedonic evaluation and motivational approach to positively valenced stimuli. The finding that active avoidance of stimuli that were not 'liked' was spared in both right- and left-sided lesion subjects suggests that unilateral damage to insula/basal ganglia circuits may not be sufficient to affect general incentive motivation independent of preference.

Emotional blunting following left basal ganglia stroke: the role of depression and fronto-limbic functional alterations.

Disorders of the basal ganglia (BG) alter perception and experience of emotions. Left hemisphere BG (LBG) stroke is also associated with depression. The interplay between depression and alterations in emotional processing following LBG stroke was examined. Evoked affective responses to emotion-laden pictorial stimuli were compared among LBG stroke and healthy participants and participants with stroke damage in brain regions not including the LBG selected to equate depression severity (measured using the Hamilton Depression Scale) with LBG damage participants. Brain activity {[O(15)]water positron emission tomography, PET} was measured in LBG stroke relative to healthy participants to identify changes in regions associated with emotion processing and depression. LBG stroke subjects reported less intense emotions compared with healthy, but not stroke comparison participants. Depression negatively correlated with emotional experience for positive and negative emotions. In response to positive stimuli, LBG subjects exhibited higher activity in amygdala, anterior cingulate, dorsal prefrontal cortex, and insula compared to healthy volunteers. In response to negative stimuli, LBG subjects demonstrated lower activity in right frontal-polar region and fusiform gyrus. Higher baseline activity in amygdala and ventral and mesial prefrontal cortex and lower activity in left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex were associated with higher depression scores. LBG stroke led to blunted emotions, and brain activity alterations accounting for reduced affective experience, awareness and depression. Depression and fronto-limbic activity changes may contribute to emotional blunting following LBG stroke.

Struggle for life, struggle for love and recognition: the neglected self in social cognitive neuroscience.

In the following article we present a view that social cognition and social neuroscience, as shaped by the current research paradigms, are not sufficient to improve our understanding of psychopathological phenomena. We hold that the self, self-awareness, and inter-subjectivity are integral to social perception and actions. In addition, we emphasize that the self and self-awareness are, by their very nature and function, involved over the entire lifespan with the way the individual is perceived in the social environment. Likewise, the modes of operation and identification of the self and self-awareness receive strong developmental contributions from social interactions with parental figures, siblings, peers, and significant others. These contributions are framed by a competitive and cooperative struggle for love and recognition. We suggest that in humans social cognitive neuroscience should be informed by a thoughtful appreciation of the equal significance of the struggle for "life" and that for love and recognition. In order to be better positioned to improve the research agenda and practice of clinical psychiatry, we propose that cognitive and social neurosciences explicitly incorporate in their models phenomena relative to the self, self-awareness, and inter-subjectivity.

Trait empathy as a predictor of individual differences in perceived loneliness.

Loneliness has been shown to be inversely correlated with empathy in younger adults. The present study extends previous research by investigating the association between empathy and loneliness across the adult lifespan and examining the role of relevant demographic and personality factors. 110 community-dwelling adults (18 to 81 years old) completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Empathy Quotient. Empathy scores were inversely associated with rated loneliness and predicted 8.7% of variance in loneliness scores after accounting for sex, age, relationship status, education, and neuroticism. The Social Skills factor of the Empathy Quotient was the strongest predictor of the association between perceived empathy and loneliness. Previous research is extended by the finding that rated loneliness was inversely associated with empathy scores across the adult lifespan. Underlying this relationship may be negative perceptions of personal social proclivity as a function of difficulty in understanding the mental states of others and high trait neuroticism.