ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2018
Brain activity mediates the relation between emotional but not instrumental support and trait loneliness.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- A new taxonomy of social support: Clarifying supportive behaviours and measures.Journal of health psychology · 2026Review
- Brain activity and functional connectivity patterns associated with loneliness: A resting-state fMRI study.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Social Disconnection in the Brain: Loneliness and Age across Networks using Graph Theory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Social disconnection in the brain: loneliness and age across networks using graph theory.Oxford open neuroscience · 2026Article
- Topic: Evaluation and Treatment of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Evidence-based Recommendations for Stroke and Neurological Rehabilitation.Current physical medicine and rehabilitation reports · 2025Article
- Loneliness and brain rhythmic activity in resting state: an exploratory report.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Effects of Social Support Provided by Disabled Older Adults to Others on Their Own Depressive Symptoms: A Moderated Mediation Model.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- Altered brain regional homogeneity is associated with depressive symptoms in COVID-19.Journal of affective disorders · 2022Article
- Instrumental support: A conceptual analysis.Nursing forum · 2022Article
- Neuroimaging studies exploring the neural basis of social isolation.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2021Review
- Impact of social reward on stress circuit function and regulation: Path differences between value affirmation and emotional support.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Loneliness results from lacking satisfied social connections. However, little is known how trait loneliness, which is a stable personal characteristic, is influenced by different types of social support (i.e. emotional and instrumental support) through the brain activity associated with loneliness. To explore these questions, data of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) of 92 healthy participants were analyzed. We identified loneliness-related brain regions by correlating participants' loneliness scores with amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) of R-fMRI data. We then conducted mediation analyses to test whether the negative relation between each type of social support and loneliness was explained via the neural activity in the loneliness-related brain regions. The results showed that loneliness was positively related to the mean ALFF value within right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG). In addition, the negative relation between emotional support and loneliness was explained by a decrease in the spontaneous neural activity within right ITG but this pattern was not observed for instrumental support. These results suggest the importance of social information processing on trait loneliness and highlight the need to differentiate the functions of different types of social support on mental health from a neural perspective.
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