Key result
Weaker causal flow from the dorsal attentional network to the ventral attentional network, and from the affective network to the visual network, significantly predicted higher perceived loneliness scores.
Cross-Sectional (n=30)
No
Effect estimate: R = 0.665
p-value: p=0.007
Resting-state fMRI reveals that weaker causal connectivity between specific attentional and affective neural networks can predict higher levels of perceived loneliness.
Associates specific network causal flows with loneliness; hypothesis-generating and requires longitudinal validation before clinical relevance.
Loneliness is broadly described as a negative emotional response resulting from the differences between the actual and desired social relations of an individual, which is related to the neural responses in connection with social and emotional stimuli. Prior research has discovered that some neural regions play a role in loneliness. However, little is known about the differences among individuals in loneliness and the relationship of those differences to differences in neural networks. The current study aimed to investigate individual differences in perceived loneliness related to the causal interactions between resting-state networks (RSNs), including the dorsal attentional network (DAN), the ventral attentional network (VAN), the affective network (AfN) and the visual network (VN). Using conditional granger causal analysis of resting-state fMRI data, we revealed that the weaker causal flow from DAN to VAN is related to higher loneliness scores, and the decreased causal flow from AfN to VN is also related to higher loneliness scores. Our results clearly support the hypothesis that there is a connection between loneliness and neural networks. It is envisaged that neural network features could play a key role in characterizing the loneliness of an individual.
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Tian et al. (2017) conducted a cross-sectional in Perceived loneliness (n=30). Resting-state network causal interactions vs. Low loneliness was evaluated on Correlation between predicted and actual loneliness scores based on Granger causality connectivity (R = 0.665, p=0.007). Weaker causal flow from the dorsal attentional network to the ventral attentional network, and from the affective network to the visual network, significantly predicted higher perceived loneliness scores.
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