
Loneliness Affects How The Brain Operates - peter123
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090215151800.htm
======
tokenadult
"Although loneliness may be influence brain activity, the research also
suggests that activity in the ventral striatum may prompt feelings of
loneliness, Decety said. 'The study raises the intriguing possibility that
loneliness may result from reduced reward-related activity in the ventral
striatum in response to social rewards.'"

So it is not clear here what is cause and what is effect. It's time to set up
an experimental study design

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

and see if that can be teased out. Meanwhile, a young hacker might proactively
seek the company of more human beings.

~~~
ovi256

      a young hacker might proactively seek the company of more human beings.
    

I'm puzzled here. I'm sure it's just an unfortunate turn of phrase, but you
seem to suggest that the others are more human than the young hacker. Lovely.

~~~
moe
Interesting play on the definition of "human" indeed. As a hacker myself I
find that an interesting train of thought.

If you go by the popular definition for "human" that distinguishes us from the
other mammals by defining us as "social beings" then that statement isn't even
so far offbase. The process of [computer] hacking is often inherently unsocial
after all. Yes, we _do_ spend hours on end in front of a screen, often without
or with only very little social interaction taking place.

So, technically, by that definition, our profession makes us less human than,
say, a callcenter agent who talks to other humans all day.

Well, okay I admit that argument falls apart pretty quickly. But interesting
train of thought nonetheless...

------
joubert
New York Magazine had an interesting article recently: Is Urban Loneliness a
Myth? <http://nymag.com/news/features/52450/>

~~~
calambrac
Anecdotes aren't data, I know, but I've been in NYC for 2 weeks now, have had
something to do with people I like more than half the evenings I've been here,
and I'm still starting to feel the weight of the city. I'm coming from SF,
where I went out far less often, but I somehow didn't feel lonely at all in
that town.

I think the big difference here is that it's just so in your face, how much of
a bubble everyone keeps around them when dealing with strangers and casual
acquaintances, but also how warm people can be when they let someone in. It's
harder than I expected to hear people laughing loudly with each other on the
subway, or to walk past crowded restaurants in the cold, even when you just
came from that situation yourself.

------
TomOfTTB
fMRI technology (which allows us to see what part of the brain is used during
cognitive processes for those who didn’t read the article) is going to be one
of the bigger items in the future and while I find the research interesting
I’m not sure what it necessarily proves. It’s fascinating to see how these
people’s brains are working but as a society what we’re really looking for is
the cause of that activity. Are they born that way? Do their brains adapt over
time? Etc...

That’s the real relevant question. Martin Lindstrom wrote a book about his
experiments with fMRI technology in trying to determine buying trends
([http://www.amazon.com/Buyology-Truth-Lies-About-
Why/dp/03855...](http://www.amazon.com/Buyology-Truth-Lies-About-
Why/dp/0385523882/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234932440&sr=8-1)) and
to be honest I didn’t find the conclusions he reached much more compelling
than those that people had reached without an fMRI.

I guess what I’m saying is that using the fMRI is like the Neanderthal
watching a tornado. He can see it but he doesn’t understand it or know how to
avoid it yet so that information is of limited use. Still a step forward for
him, but not by all that much.

------
critic

        Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on 
        loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health 
        and can be as detrimental as smoking
    

If they saw a correlation between loneliness and bad health, it does not
necessarily mean that the former caused the latter. Perhaps sickly looking
women are more likely to be lonely?

~~~
CalmQuiet
Or perhaps when ill we feel a greater need for companionship?

------
bk
It should be pointed out that there is a difference between loneliness and
aloneness. Not everyone who is alone is lonely. (That's why the article speaks
of "perceived loneliness").

Aloneness is crucial for productivity, flow depends on not being interrupted.
The art is to configure one's environment in such a way that balances
aloneness and social contact.

------
psyklic
This title is a catch 22 -- loneliness is an emotion (aka brain state)! Hence
of course it affects the brain, and the brain affects it ;-)

~~~
gaius
No, they mean that loneliness doesn't just affect the inputs into an
algorithm, but the algorithm itself.

------
pasbesoin
Not that it devalues the article, but just FYI the researcher mentioned

[http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/cacioppo/index...](http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/cacioppo/index.shtml)

has been doing press in the last some months with regard to his book

<http://scienceofloneliness.com/?q=homepage> [all Flash site]

<http://www.wpr.org/book/090201b.cfm> [archived show is Real format]

[http://wpr.org/kathleendunn/index.cfm?strDirection=Prev&...](http://wpr.org/kathleendunn/index.cfm?strDirection=Prev&dteShowDate=2008-09-10%2022%3A00%3A00)
[archived show is Real format]

As for loneliness itself, I tend to be towards the high end (in more quantity
that desired) of social isolation. My anecdotal experience is that it does
become self-reinforcing and that it does, in this circumstance, diminish life
experience including my perceived neurological function.

~~~
calambrac
Where are you at? If you're in NYC, let's grab a beer sometime. (Anyone else
reading this, feel free to take the offer as well. Beer is good.)

~~~
pasbesoin
Thank you for the invitation -- I appreciate it. I'm in the Chicagoland (as
it's called) area. I have some friends in New York, but haven't been out that
way recently. Travel is minimal until I find my next gig, but if I'm out that
way, I might give a shout.

If you make it to Chitown, feel free to drop a note. (Didn't this site used to
support messaging? I'll have to drop an email address into my profile.) I'm
not the most exciting company, but I do recall a good pub or three. Plus, you
have to get a "cheezborger cheezborger" from the original Billy Goat Tavern.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Goat_Tavern>

