Affective neuroscience of loneliness: Impacts on health and wellbeing

项目摘要/摘要。对美国人来说，孤独是一种再熟悉不过的感觉，据估计，25%-50%的人 美国民众报告称，在应对新冠肺炎疫情时，他们感到社会孤立，并与社会疏远 可能会急剧增加孤独感。与关系质量和社交频率相关但又不同 接触，孤独不仅仅是一种不愉快的主观体验：它与焦虑有关， 抑郁、炎症、心脏病，以及与吸烟相当的死亡率增加。寂寞是 理论上会导致特定的生化级联反应和情感干扰(包括对 威胁和情绪调节中断)，在经历社交缺失时可在短期内适应 接触，但从长远来看，不适应。因为异常的情绪反应会损害功能和 增加精神病理学和压力相关障碍的易感性，关键是要了解 与孤独和相关的负面健康相关的心理、情感和神经过程 以及幸福的结果。建议的研究利用了现有的多模式情感神经科学数据 有了身体健康的生物标记物和来自大型、多项目、公开共享的自我健康报告， 美国中年纵向(MIDUS)研究确定：孤独何时扰乱情感神经 加工；什么结构和功能的神经成像差异与孤独有关；以及如何 这些神经差异对健康和幸福感产生了负面影响。具体地说，拟议的研究旨在： 1)使用脑电(EEG)测量情绪反应来调查神经何时 对情绪刺激的反应因孤独而异；2)使用多模式磁共振成像(MRI)来 了解大脑的解剖和功能差异与孤独有关；以及3) 研究孤独感相关神经变化如何调节已知孤独感相关的负面健康 结果是横向和纵向的。拟议的为期3年的研究和培训计划将 在威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校，MIDUS项目的发源地，所有神经科学和 要分析的健康数据由赞助商Stacey Schaefer博士、共同赞助商Richard博士收集和监督 Davidson和合作者MRI生物统计学家Jeanette Mumford博士，并包括以下方面的详细培训： 多模式神经成像数据；关键情感神经科学理论；高级数据分析；关键数据 分析软件；领导独立研究实验室所需的额外技能，包括撰写拨款， 指导和负责任的研究行为。总体而言，拟议的研究金将：扩大 神经科学对孤独的理解；阐明大脑和孤独相关健康之间的联系 结果；提出新的干预途径以减少孤独的影响；并为安娜博士提供 芬利在情感神经科学、健康和福祉方面接受了出色的博士后培训。

Project Summary/Abstract. Loneliness is an all too familiar feeling for Americans, as an estimated 25-50% of the US population report feeling socially isolated, and social distancing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to sharply increase loneliness. Related to but distinct from relationship quality and frequency of social contact, loneliness is more than just an unpleasant subjective experience: it is associated with anxiety, depression, inflammation, heart disease, and an increase in mortality comparable to smoking. Loneliness is theorized to result in a specific biochemical cascade and affective disruptions (including increased sensitivity to threat and disrupted emotion regulation) that are adaptive in the short-term when experiencing lack of social contact, but maladaptive in the long-term. Because abnormal emotional responses can impair functioning and increase vulnerability to psychopathology and stress-related disorders, it is crucial to understand the psychological, affective, and neural processes that are linked with loneliness and associated negative health and wellbeing outcomes. The proposed research utilizes existing multimodal affective neuroscience data linked with biomarker of physical health and self-reports of wellbeing from the large, multi-project, publicly shared, longitudinal Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study to determine: when loneliness disrupts affective neural processing; what structural and functional neuroimaging differences are associated with loneliness; and how these neural differences negatively impact health and wellbeing. Specifically, the proposed research aims to: 1) use electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of emotional responding to investigate when the neural response to emotional stimuli differs with loneliness; 2) use multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to understand what anatomical and functional differences in the brain are associated with loneliness; and 3) investigate how loneliness related neural changes mediate known loneliness-associated negative health outcomes cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The proposed 3-year research and training plan will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, home to the MIDUS project and location where all neuroscience and health data to be analyzed was collected, supervised by sponsor Dr. Stacey Schaefer, co-sponsor Dr. Richard Davidson, and collaborator MRI biostatistician Dr. Jeanette Mumford, and includes detailed training in: multimodal neuroimaging data; crucial affective neuroscience theories; advanced data analytics; key data analysis software; additional skills needed to lead an independent research lab including grant-writing, mentorship, and responsible conduct of research. Overall, the proposed fellowship will: expand the neuroscientific understanding of loneliness; clarify the links between the brain and loneliness-associated health outcomes; suggest novel avenues for intervention to reduce the impacts of loneliness; and provide Dr. Anna Finley with exceptional postdoctoral training in affective neuroscience, health, and wellbeing.