ArticleScientific reports2019
Structural Brain Correlates of Loneliness among Older Adults.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- How loneliness and social isolation are linked to cognitive decline among older adults? A systematic review of underlying physiological and psychobehavioral mechanisms.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Pooled it
- Bidirectional associations between sensorineural hearing loss and depression and anxiety: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Neurobiology of loneliness: a systematic review.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Lonelier people feel less empathic despite intact neural empathy responses after meditation training.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Trial
- Withdrawal-related threat sensitivity mediates associations between perceived rejection and loneliness: Divergent neural correlates in younger and older adults.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Strain-Specific Cognitive and Neurobiological Vulnerabilities to Social Isolation in Late Middle-Aged Wistar, Wistar-Kyoto, and Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.Neurochemical research · 2026Article
- Social interactions between people of same and different generations shape longitudinal changes in interpersonal neural synchrony, loneliness, and social connection.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The brain network underlying social participation: a multimodal, data-driven investigation.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Article
- Associations between self-reported change in lifestyle behaviors and brain health: Findings from the Healthy Brain Initiative.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Article
- PTSD symptoms, loneliness, and amygdala volumes during pandemic social distancing associated with risk of suicidal ideation in trauma survivors with and without pre-pandemic PTSD.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2026Article
- Social Disconnection in the Brain: Loneliness and Age across Networks using Graph Theory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Loneliness exacerbates age differences in the -allostatic-interoceptive system during induced affect.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Social disconnection in the brain: loneliness and age across networks using graph theory.Oxford open neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association between loneliness and hippocampal responses to dynamic social stimuli in psychotic disorders.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of loneliness on balance learning ability in aging patients with Parkinson's disease.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Loneliness in schizophrenia: Just loneliness.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Exploring the influence of loneliness on cognitive decline: differential effects in Black and White older adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- The role of Life's Crucial 9 in cardiovascular disease incidence and dynamic transitions to dementia.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the sensitivity of episodic and spatial memory tests to healthy and pathological cognitive aging.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Topic: Evaluation and Treatment of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Evidence-based Recommendations for Stroke and Neurological Rehabilitation.Current physical medicine and rehabilitation reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ample evidence indicates that loneliness in old age is associated with poor bodily and mental health. However, little is known about structural cerebral correlates of loneliness in healthy older adults. We examined such correlates in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsample of 319 older adults aged 61 to 82 years drawn from the Berlin Aging Study II. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and structural equation modeling (SEM), latent hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine associations of (i) loneliness, (ii) a range of covariates, and (iii) loneliness by covariate interactions with latent brain volume estimates of brain structures known to be involved in processing, expressing, and regulating emotions. Results from whole-brain VBM analyses showed that individuals with higher loneliness scores tended to have smaller gray matter volumes in three clusters comprising (i) the left amygdala/anterior hippocampus, (ii) the left posterior parahippocampus and (iii) the left cerebellum. Significant associations and interactions between loneliness and latent factors for the amygdala and the hippocampus were confirmed with a region-of-interest (ROI)-based approach. These findings suggest that individual differences in loneliness among older adults are correlated with individual differences in the volumes of brain regions that are central to cognitive processing and emotional regulation, also after correcting for confounders such as social network size. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying these associations and their implications.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.