TY - JOUR
T1 - White matter structures associated with loneliness in young adults
AU - Nakagawa, Seishu
AU - Takeuchi, Hikaru
AU - Taki, Yasuyuki
AU - Nouchi, Rui
AU - Sekiguchi, Atsushi
AU - Kotozaki, Yuka
AU - Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto
AU - Iizuka, Kunio
AU - Yokoyama, Ryoichi
AU - Shinada, Takamitsu
AU - Yamamoto, Yuki
AU - Hanawa, Sugiko
AU - Araki, Tsuyoshi
AU - Hashizume, Hiroshi
AU - Kunitoki, Keiko
AU - Sassa, Yuko
AU - Kawashima, Ryuta
N1 - Funding Information:
Our study was supported by JST/RISTEX, JST/CREST, and a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) [KAKENHI23700306] from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. We respectfully thank Yuki Yamada for operating the MRI scanner and Haruka Nouchi for administering the psychological tests. Furthermore, we would like to thank the participants in the study, the other individuals who administered psychological tests, and our colleagues in the Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer at Tohoku University for their support.
PY - 2015/11/20
Y1 - 2015/11/20
N2 - Lonely individuals may exhibit dysfunction, particularly with respect to social empathy and self-efficacy. White matter (WM) structures related to loneliness have not yet been identified. We investigated the association between regional WM density (rWMD) using the UCLA Loneliness Scale in 776 healthy young students aged 18-27 years old. Loneliness scores were negatively correlated with rWMD in eight clusters: the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right anterior insula (AI), posterior temporoparietal junction (pTPJ), left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC). The bilateral IPL, right AI, left pSTS, pTPJ, and RLPFC were strongly associated with Empathy Quotient (EQ), whereas the bilateral IPL, right AI, left pTPJ, and dmPFC were associated with General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) score. The neural correlates of loneliness comprise widespread reduction in WMD in areas related to self-and social cognition as well as areas associated with empathy and self-efficacy.
AB - Lonely individuals may exhibit dysfunction, particularly with respect to social empathy and self-efficacy. White matter (WM) structures related to loneliness have not yet been identified. We investigated the association between regional WM density (rWMD) using the UCLA Loneliness Scale in 776 healthy young students aged 18-27 years old. Loneliness scores were negatively correlated with rWMD in eight clusters: the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), right anterior insula (AI), posterior temporoparietal junction (pTPJ), left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC). The bilateral IPL, right AI, left pSTS, pTPJ, and RLPFC were strongly associated with Empathy Quotient (EQ), whereas the bilateral IPL, right AI, left pTPJ, and dmPFC were associated with General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) score. The neural correlates of loneliness comprise widespread reduction in WMD in areas related to self-and social cognition as well as areas associated with empathy and self-efficacy.
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U2 - 10.1038/srep17001
DO - 10.1038/srep17001
M3 - Article
C2 - 26585372
AN - SCOPUS:84947780371
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 5
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 17001
ER -