Loneliness, hunger for relationships

2020/04/24 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna
• Medikuntza
• Berdintasuna
• Etika
• Giza zientziak

Compared to other primates, our species is especially social, it is said that we are social animals. Moreover, according to evolutionary anthropologist Susanne Shultz, the tendency to form complex groups and to maintain multiple and close relationships between them has led to being our species as it is. From this perspective, it is no wonder that confinement seems “unnatural” to many, especially if they live alone.

Many psychologists have compared hunger and thirst: feeling loneliness is a biological alarm; as hunger drives us to seek water, loneliness invites us to relate to others.

On 26 March, coinciding with the expansion of plague on all continents, the results of an experiment comparing social isolation with the effect of hunger on the brain were published. The experiment was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by neuroscientists Livia Tomova and Rebecca Saxe, in which 40 volunteers participated.

First, the brain of the volunteers was analyzed using a magnetic resonance drawing technique (fMRI). This technique is widely used in this type of experiments and allows to visualize the activity of certain areas of the brain.

The experiment was divided into two sessions of 10 hours each. In the first session they were denied food and in the second social relations. In the first they could only drink water; in the other, besides being physically isolated, they did not allow them to have phone or computer and, although they could have readings, in those books could not appear characters that could give some friendship.

After each session, brain activity was analyzed. They focused on the so-called black theme. It is one of the centers that produce dopamine, related to the mind and desire, with important functions in remuneration, learning and addictions, among others. In fact, in dependent people the activity of this area intensifies when they are shown the addictive substance.

After the first session, volunteers were shown photographs of the foods they liked and the social relationships they liked after the second session. For the control they used photographs of the flowers. In both cases, the researchers showed that the activity of the black issue increased, but the intensity of the response was more pronounced in the case of hunger than in the case of loneliness.

MRI images fit the subjective tastes and solitudes expressed by volunteers and were confirmed by an artificial intelligence program, able to predict responses.

However, the confinement order is not a voluntary experiment and is not limited to ten hours. In addition, some groups are especially vulnerable, such as the majors.Researchers from the Public University of Navarra working on the project Perception of loneliness of older people have found that confinement has aggravated the feeling of older people who were already alone.

At the same time, older people who feel better have developed strategies to cope with loneliness by maintaining social relationships and participating in activities of personal growth, training, sport or leisure. It would be convenient for everyone, from adults to children, to develop such strategies; otherwise, the effects of confinement will be evident, even in the brain.