Loneliness changes how our brains function. Here’s how to address it

Everyone feels lonely from time to time – after, say, a move to a new school or city, when a child leaves for university, or after the loss of a spouse.

Research has shown that lonely people are hypersensitive to negative social words, such as “disliked” or “rejected,” and to faces expressing negative emotions. What’s more, they show a blunted response to images of strangers in pleasant social situations, suggesting that even positive encounters may be less rewarding for them. In the brain, chronic loneliness is associated with changes in areas important for social cognition, self-awareness and processing emotions.

The more general way in which loneliness affects mental and physical health may also factor into cognitive decline. The feeling is closely linked to depression, another condition that increases the risk for dementia. And people who are lonely are less likely to be physically active and more likely to smoke cigarettes. “All those different things can affect how our brains age,” Lee says. “I think there are many paths to get from loneliness to cognitive decline.

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