How does loneliness impact social information processing? Study 2 - fMRI/EEG/ECG

Perceived social isolation (PSI), or as it is commonly termed - ‘loneliness’, refers to the subjective mismatch between the quantity and quality of social relationships one have and his/her preferences for social involvement. Recent social neuroscience conceptualizations emphasize that PSI is driven by one’s perception of his/her social relationships, which is affected by person’s attributions and cognitive biases, rather than by objective qualities of social relationships per se. Due to the significant impact of the PSI on multiple health outcomes and elevated mortality rates observed in lonely individuals (LI), loneliness is currently recognized as a major societal problem and burden for healthcare worldwide. However, little is known about precise neural or physiological mechanisms through which loneliness may impact mortality. PSI was shown to elicit specific cognitive mechanisms, including hypervigilance for social threats and reduced perspective taking, that may be linked to altered structure and function of crucial nodes of social perception (the posterior superior temporal sulcus; pSTS) and theory of mind (the temporoparietal junction; TPJ, the medial prefrontal cortex; mPFC) neural networks in LI. Furthermore, parasympathetic dysregulation, which may be reflected by reduced vagal flexibility in LI compared to non-lonely individuals (NLI) may be a plausible mechanism linking abnormal brain response to social threats with long term health effects of PSI. The goal of the current project is to examine the putative role of the decreased vagal flexibility as a physiological marker of the abnormal social information processing and social brain activity in LI.