Why are we so concerned about being in large groups at festivals, anniversaries and other public events? According to the social brain hypothesis, that’s because the human brain evolved specifically to support social interactions. Studies have shown that Belong to the group It can lead to better well-being and more satisfaction with life.
Unfortunately, many people experience loneliness or social isolation. And if the human brain has indeed evolved for social interaction, we should expect that to have a major impact.
Our recent study, Posted in Neurologyshows that social isolation is linked to changes in brain structure and cognition — the mental process of acquiring knowledge — and even increases the risk of dementia in older adults.
There is already a lot of evidence to support the social brain hypothesis. A study identified brain regions associated with social interaction in Almost 7000 people.
He has shown that brain regions consistently involved in diverse social interactions are closely related to the networks that support cognition, including the default mode network (which is active when we are not focused on the outside world), the salience network (which helps us determine what we pay attention to), and the subcortical network (involved in memory, emotion, and motivation) and the central executive network (which allows us to regulate our emotions).
We wanted to take a closer look at how social isolation affects gray matter — the brain regions in the outermost layer of the brain, which are made up of neurons. That’s why we examined the data of nearly 500,000 people from Biobank in the UK, with an average age of 57 years.
People were classified as socially isolated if they lived alone, had less than monthly social contact, and participated in social activities for less than a week.
Our study also included neuroimaging (MRI) data from approximately 32,000 subjects. This found that socially isolated people had impaired cognition, including memory and reaction time, and decreased gray matter volume in many areas of the brain.
These regions include the temporal area (which processes sounds and helps encode memory), the frontal lobe (which is involved in attention, planning and complex cognitive tasks), and the hippocampus — an important area involved in learning and memory, that is usually disrupted early in the day. Alzheimer’s disease disease.
We also found an association between lower gray matter volumes and specific genetic processes involved in Alzheimer’s disease.
There were follow-ups with participants 12 years later. This found that those who were socially isolated, but not lonely, had a 26 percent increased risk of developing dementia.
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Social isolation needs to be explored in more detail in future studies to determine the exact mechanisms behind its profound effects on our brains. But if you’re isolated, of course you might be suffers from chronic stress† This, in turn, has a huge impact on your brain, as well as your physical health.
Another factor could be that if we don’t use certain parts of the brain, we lose part of it their job† A study of taxi drivers showed that the more they remember routes and addresses, the more they counted hippocampus volume a plus. For example, if we don’t engage in regular social discussions, our language use and other cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, may decline.
This can affect our ability to perform many complex cognitive tasks – memory and attention are central to complex cognitive thinking in general.
Treating Loneliness
We know that a powerful set of thinking abilities throughout life called “cognitive reserve” can be built by keeping your brain active. The best way to do this is by learning new things, such as a different language or a musical instrument.
Cognitive reserve has been shown to reduce the course and severity of aging. For example, they may protect against a number of diseases or mental disorders, including dementias, Schizophrenia And the depressionespecially follow-up brain damage.
There are also lifestyle elements that can be improved Your consciousness and well-beingIncluding a healthy diet and exercise. There are only a few for Alzheimer’s disease pharmacological treatmentsHowever, the effectiveness of these drugs needs to be improved and side effects reduced.
There is hope that in the future there will be better treatments for aging and dementia. One way to investigate this exogenous ketones – a An alternative energy source for glucose These can be taken with dietary supplements.
But as our research shows, tackling social isolation can also help, especially in old age. Health authorities should do more to monitor isolated people and organize social activities to help them.
When people are unable to communicate personally with each other, technology can offer an alternative† However, this may apply more to younger generations who are familiar with using technology to communicate. But with trainingIt may also be effective in reducing social isolation in the elderly.
Social interaction is very important. One study found that the volume of Our social group It is actually related to the size of the orbitofrontal cortex (involvement in social cognition and emotion).
But how many friends do we need? Researchers often refer to the “Dunbar number” to describe the size of social groups, and they find that we are unable to create more than 150 relationships and Usually you only manage five close relationships.
However, there are some reports pointing to a lack of empirical evidence surrounding Dunbar counting and further research into the optimal level The size of social groups popular.
It’s hard to argue that humans are social animals and enjoy communicating with others, no matter how old we are. But as we reveal it more and more, it’s also important for the health of our cognition.
Barbara Jacqueline SahakianProfessor of Clinical Neuropsychology, Cambridge University; Christelle LangleyPostdoctoral Research Fellow, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cambridge University; Chun Shinopostdoctoral researcher, Fudan UniversityAnd the Jianfeng Fengprofessor of science and technology for brain-inspired intelligence, Fudan University
This article was republished from Conversation Under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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