Social Disconnection in the Brain: Loneliness and Age across Networks using Graph Theory

Abstract

Loneliness, conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct of unmet social needs, has been linked to adverse health outcomes across the lifespan, prompting significant interest in its underlying neural processes. Our study aimed to address the limitations of prior neuroimaging studies of loneliness by leveraging the Lifespan Human Connectome Project Aging dataset and applying graph theory to characterize its relationship with age and resting-state brain network organization. Socio-demographic measures confirmed prior work that higher loneliness was associated with younger age, being male, unmarried, and living alone. While loneliness showed no main effects on neural graph measures, a significant interaction between loneliness and age emerged for the local interconnectivity of the Default Model and Frontoparietal networks after adjusting for key socio-demographic factors. Conversely, older age was associated with lower functional connectivity, reduced global efficiency, and less modular brain network organization. Different graph measures showed distinct age-related associations, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of brain aging. The absence of a main effect of loneliness, while unexpected, underscores the complex, subjective nature of loneliness and suggests that its neural correlates may manifest differently across ages.