Neural basis for loneliness social contact-seeking behavior has been finally discovered by a study at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan, published in Nature Communications.
Loneliness (perceived social isolation) has become a major stress during the COVID pandemic that further increases the risk of various mental and physical health issues such as depression, substance abuse, obesity, and premature death.
‘Sensing isolation and driving social contact-seeking behavior is done by amylin peptide in the brain according to a new study.’
The study states that social contact-seeking behavior in mice is driven by the peptide amylin in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the forebrain , and that being alone decreases the amount of amylin in this brain region.
“Among other reported molecules, amylin is the one that responds the most to isolation and reunion, and itself facilitates contact-seeking behaviors. With all these results, we became confident that amylin is the major player in the brain that is needed for sensing and seeking social contacts,” says Kansai Fukumitsu at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan.
“Both parental care and female-female social contact depend on amylin and augment its expression. This synergy might facilitate cooperative parenting, in which multiple females care for young together, as is observed in mice and humans,” says, Kuroda.
Source: Medindia
