Are you lonely? Your brain is special

A study indicates that people who prefer to be alone see things differently and have the power of decision or analysis different from others. On the other hand, loners have less activity in the area of ​​the brain related to the reward system. It is not yet known which happens first: isolation or the change in activation. Do you consider yourself lonely?

A loner can be so by his own decision or because of the fault of others.. That is, someone can say that they feel better if they spend most of their time away from the company of others or, despite not wanting this, they can’t find anyone to spend their hours with. Be it one way or another, the brains of lonely people have a lot to do with it.

Rewards and the lonely brain

According to the report in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, the region of the brain called the “striatum” has less activity in people who are lonely. This area is associated with certain everyday rewards, such as money and food.

To reach this conclusion, 23 university students were grouped together and asked a series of questions to determine the degree to which they felt socially isolated, to what degree they were solitary people, and to what degree they enjoyed and sought social contact.

Their brains were then scanned while they looked at photographs of happy people. So, They found that in those students who did not have an intense social life, the “reward” area illuminated less.a sign of lower activation.

As the sample taken for the study was small and very restricted in terms of the variability of certain parameters, such as age, dedication or sex, the authors asked in the conclusions of the study itself that these be interpreted with the caution that the study error determined. .

The scientists in charge of the experiment handled the following hypothesis: In a lonely person, being less dependent on society, the rewards related to this context do not arouse great enthusiasm.

Loneliness, introversion and perception

Not many studies have yet been carried out to have well defined the brain characteristics of those who prefer solitude. However, although the literature in this field is not extensive, curious results have been found.

For example, It has been shown that there is a close relationship between introversion, creativity and originality. At the same time, it is surprising that solitary people enjoy greater enjoyment or satisfaction when obtaining results from their “mental efforts.”

According to psychologist at the National Institute of Health in Maryland, Amanda Guyer, Socially withdrawn people are more sensitive to sensory and emotional interactions. This would mean that what happens in this context of interaction affects them more.

To arrive at this theory, the researcher designed a study with two groups of children: some reserved and others not. Everyone had to participate in a game where by pressing a button they won money. Those who were withdrawn had up to three times more brain activity – striatal region – than members of the other group.

On the other hand, research has discovered that The brains of lonely people have a greater volume of gray matter and better connected neural networks. Specifically, default networks (brain areas related to remembering the past, planning the future, or imagining) are more strongly connected in these individuals. Presumably, this may be because loners spend more time engaged in these types of mental tasks.

The brains of lonely people are more activated in situations of social contact

One of the situations that lonely people must go through is finding themselves in the middle of a meeting, party or event that involves being close to other people. At these times, certain areas of the brain noticeably increase blood flow, experiencing a kind of over-excitation. This could be one of the reasons why shy people don’t like to socialize.

However, it is not all bad news. Studies suggest that The brain of an introvert has the ability to adapt to various experiences thanks to its additional sensitivity. Because of this, for example, they can respond faster in times when there may be high social demand, such as in certain states of emergency.

Finally, it is worth saying that Shy people are good at perceiving subtleties or details that the rest of us ignore. For this reason, they tend to be good writers, painters or witnesses since their brain prepares them for this. In fact, genius, apart from a certain degree of madness, is associated with loneliness.

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