Andy’s Quick Hits (18): How do Lonely Brains Differ from Wise Brains?

I reported a few weeks ago how wise people are less likely to be lonely and how lonely people are less likely to be wise. There seems to be strong inverse relationship to these two characteristics — so why, and what drives this in the brain?

Recent research has given us some answers to this by focusing on how wise and lonely people process emotions. The researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine showed that the brains of lonely and wise people process some emotions in opposing ways.

The research included 147 people from the ages of 18–85 and involved making decision on directions of arrows when combined with distractors that were pictures of faces expressing different emotions. This was combined with EEG measurements measuring brain activity. The results are fascinating.

• Those higher on loneliness responded slower when presented with angry faces showing higher sensitivity to angry or threatening stimuli.
• Those higher on wise traits responded quicker when presented with happy faces, showing positive responses to positive stimuli

This opposing relationship is fascinating, showing how social responses are different. A question to answer is that is this a self-fulfilling prophecy lonely people…