Abstract
As a social and public health concern, loneliness is associated with an abundance of negative life outcomes such as depressive symptomatology, mortality, and sleep disturbance. Nevertheless, the neural basis underlying loneliness remains elusive; in addition, previous neuroimaging studies about loneliness mainly focused on the elderly and were limited by small sample sizes. Here, utilizing the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approach via structural magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the association between brain GMV and loneliness in 462 young adults (67.7% females, age = 18.59 ± 1.14 years). Results from whole-brain VBM analyses revealed that individuals with higher loneliness tended to have greater GMV in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which was thought to be associated with emotional regulation deficits and executive dysfunction. Importantly, the GMV-based predictive models (a machine-learning method) demonstrated that the correlation between loneliness and GMV in the DLPFC was robust. Further, interpersonal self-support traits (ISS), a Chinese indigenous personality construct and pivotal personality factor for resisting negative life outcomes, mediated the relationship between the GMV in the right DLPFC and loneliness. Taken together, the present study reveals that the GMV in right DLPFC acts as an underlying neurostructural correlate of loneliness in the healthy brain, and further provides a brain-personality-symptom pathway for protection against loneliness in which GMV of DLPFC affects loneliness through ISS traits. Future intervention procedures aiming to decrease loneliness and enhance mental health levels among young adults should be developed through improving interpersonal relationships such as social skills training.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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References
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the research assistants who supported the recruitment and scanning for this study.
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This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31771237) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. SWU1709106).
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Shuang Zheng and Ximei Chen wrote the paper. Mingyue Xiao and Yong Liu were responsible for the acquisition of data.Weijun Liu and Ziang Li prepared and revised the manuscript.
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Zheng, S., Chen, X., Liu, W. et al. Association of loneliness and grey matter volume in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: the mediating role of interpersonal self-support traits. Brain Imaging and Behavior 17, 481–493 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-023-00776-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-023-00776-4