That Neuroscience Guy - Social Isolation and the Brain

Episode Date: February 21, 2021

Curious about COVID and your brain? You should listen.

Hi, my name is Olof Kregolsen, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to the podcast. The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly hard on us, especially when we think about the impact of social isolation. especially when we think about the impact of social isolation. Most of us aren't used to staying home so much, and in a lot of instances, we've been required to stay home. I know there was a stretch for my family personally where we realistically didn't leave the house for a couple of weeks. So what is the impact of isolation on the brain?

On today's episode, we're going to talk about the neuroscience of being isolated from other people. Most of the research that's been done looking at the impact of isolation on the brain hasn't been done in the environments that we've experienced the last couple of months. Instead, it's been looking at environments that are considerably more extreme. For instance, early research on the impact of isolation on the brain looked at complete sensory deprivation. You might have heard of this. This is when you're put in an environment, sometimes in a water tank, sometimes just in a room, where all sources of outside information are removed. The body and the brain

in particular receives no sensory input. And the results of these studies show quite clearly that people don't do well in these environments. In fact, sensory deprivation is so hard on our brain that long duration sensory deprivation has been used as a form of torture. Other research in this area done by NASA, for instance, has looked at the impact of long term isolation. If you think of long-duration space travel, the astronauts will be in a very small group in a very small space for a long period of time. So of course, NASA, the European Space Agency, and people like this have been

interested on the impact of isolation on the brain. In general, the results aren't good. isolation on the brain. In general, the results aren't good. Isolation has been shown to increase stress levels. People that are isolated tend to be more stressed than people that aren't isolated. Isolation also increases the incidence of depression. People that are in isolated environments are more prone to becoming depressed. Isolation also increases anxiety. When we're isolated, we tend to be more anxious. Interestingly, there's even research that shows that isolation causes a reduction in the functional efficacy of our immune systems. So if you put that in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, where we want our immune systems to be functioning as well as they can, you could make a case that isolation is

literally bad for our immune system. Of course, in terms of COVID-19, you have to weigh that against the virus itself and what might happen if you catch it. So I wouldn't use this as advice to not isolate and not socially distance wherever appropriate. So why is isolation so hard on our brain? It turns out that we're hardwired to be social creatures. To quote Matthew Lieberman, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, is that what this suggests is that becoming more socially connected is essential to our survival. In a sense, evolution has made bets at each step that the best way to make us more successful is to make us more social. And this appears to be the truth. Our brains are hardwired to be social. And isolation, therefore, isn't that great for us, because we're literally wired

to not isolate. There's a lot of evidence for this, of course. For instance, whenever we see someone, we see activity in the amygdala, an emotional part of the brain. This part of the brain underlies visual recognition in the sense that we perceive the ones we love with an emotional response, more than we get when we see a stranger. But we still have that response in the amygdala when we look at people relative to inanimate objects like a rock. So this emotional response is hardwired when we see other people. And this is one of the reasons we're hardwired to be social. And the amygdala fires whenever we interact with other people. Again, more evidence that we're hardwired to be social. More recently, electroencephalography, or EEG, what a lot of people would call brainwaves, have provided further evidence of this.

In some very interesting research done by laboratories around the world, people have measured EEG, or brainwaves, while people are interacting. And the results of these studies have shown that when we interact with others, our brainwaves change. And you actually start to see synchronous brain activity between the people that are interacting. So it's like my brainwaves are trying to get in sync with yours, literally, and your brainwaves are trying to get in sync with mine. This probably helps us facilitate communication and understanding of each other, but again, it's also evidence that our brains are hardwired to be social. So, what can we do about it? What can we do to offset the negative impact of social

isolation on our brain? I'm probably going to sound like your mom here, but the advice is what a lot of us would call common sense. Sleep has been shown to be extremely effective in mitigating the impact of social isolation on the brain. During something like the COVID-19 pandemic, this would be the worst time to not get a good night's sleep. Our bodies need rest to recover, and given that social isolation increases stress, anxiety, depression, it makes sense to sleep because sleep will help you deal with these issues. Diet's another factor that's been shown to have a massive impact on social isolation. If you have a healthier diet, then you're less likely to be anxious, less likely to be depressed, and less likely to be stressed. So a lot of us probably broke down on our diets during the COVID pandemic.

But given the impact of social isolation on the brain, this would be the worst time to start going for that extra scoop of ice cream. Another factor that's been shown to have an impact mitigating the effects of social isolation on the brain is exercise. We all know that exercise is good for us, but when we exercise, there are positive benefits that help mitigate these factors that are brought about by social isolation. For instance, exercise has been shown to reduce stress. Exercise has been shown to help with depression and with anxiety. Although we've been asked to maintain social distance, it's really important during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain our exercise. Get outside and go for a walk. Now, interestingly,

it is important to get outside and go for a walk. Last year, before the pandemic began, we ran a study in my own laboratory where we looked at the impact of exercise on the brain. We had people just go for a 15-minute walk and we measured their brain activity using EEG before and after the walk. And what we found was that even going for a short walk that was only 15 minutes long enhanced brain activity. that even going for a short walk that was only 15 minutes long enhanced brain activity. That wasn't too surprising because a lot of other researchers have shown the positive impact of exercise on brain function. However, what was interesting with our study is we had people either walk inside or outside. And what we found was that walking outside for 15 minutes had an even more positive impact on brain function than walking inside. So in terms of social isolation in the brain, it's really important to get exercise, but it's even more important to get outside when you do so. Another important factor that helps with social isolation in the brain is to be social. Now that's tricky when we've been told to socially distance, but now is not the time

to not reach out to others. And I think a lot of us have done this. I found it really interesting in the early stages of the pandemic when I tried to buy a webcam for my son and found that for the first time ever on Amazon, you couldn't buy a webcam. So it's clear that people have tried this and it's effective. One of the best things you can do to offset the effects of social isolation is to try to be as social as you can. You might have noticed this. Another observation I had personally was that all of a sudden at the grocery store, the person in line behind me really wanted to talk. And I really wanted to talk to them too. And I found myself having these random conversations with strangers about all manner of things.

And again, this is just evidence that our brains are hardwired to be social, and that we were all craving that bit of interaction. So during the pandemic, and to offset the effects of social isolation on the brain, it's really important to be as social as you can. And of course, with social distancing in effect, it's important to do that appropriately. Not to put a downer on all of this, unfortunately, research has shown that those connections we make through Zoom

and other forms of online communication are not as effective as doing it in person. You're far better to talk to someone face-to-face than you are to send them text messages or to Zoom them. But being on Zoom is better than doing nothing at all. So in terms of your brain and offsetting the effects of social isolation, it's really, really important that you reach out and communicate with other people. So to summarize, what can you do to offset the negative effects of social isolation on the brain? Well, make sure you get a good night's sleep, keep an eye on your diet and try to eat healthy, exercise, and try to be as social as you can. I myself had some pretty extreme

experience with this. In December of 2019, I was part of a research team that went inside the high seas Mars habitat in Hawaii. You might have seen it. It's the white bubble that NASA uses to train astronauts for the Mars mission. And our mission in the Mars habitat was to test a new technology that would help develop to monitor brain health and performance. But in essence, right before COVID started, we experienced some pretty extreme social isolation. In the high seas habitat, you can't go outside unless you're wearing a spacesuit because it's a simulation. In the high seas habitat, it's a pretty small environment. It's a lot smaller than your average single family home, and our crew of six was locked in there for a week. When we went

outside, we had to wear a space suit and we had to go in pairs. When we communicated with the outside world, our communications were delayed by 20 minutes to simulate the transmission time from Mars. So there was no FaceTime or Skype, it was just email. And we saw the effects of social isolation. Although we had each other, it was really hard for us

to be locked inside the bubble for a week. And interestingly, we saw it in terms of our data. We were using mobile EEG devices, in this case something called the Muse headband, and we were measuring our brain function across the week we were in the Mars habitat. And what we saw was interesting. Each day we woke up and our brains were functioning reasonably well. But by the end of the day, we were exhausted. And not physically exhausted, mentally exhausted.

What a lot of researchers would call cognitive fatigue. That we also saw an increase in cognitive fatigue across the week. Now, we didn't track some of the other things I mentioned, like stress, anxiety, or depression. But we did see this increase in cognitive fatigue across the week. Now, we didn't track some of the other things I mentioned like stress, anxiety, or depression, but we did see this increase in cognitive fatigue across the week, and this is another impact of social isolation. It may seem counterintuitive. You might think that being locked at home is restful and good for you, but what we observed is something else you see in social isolation situations, an increase in cognitive or mental fatigue. So that's something else you have to monitor.

The good news is, is the same tips I've already provided, sleep, diet and exercise and being social, help offset the negative impact of social isolation that leads to increased mental or cognitive fatigue. Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you learned something about the impact of social isolation on your brain. My name is Olof Kregolsen, and I'm That Neuroscience Guy. You can follow me on Twitter at That Neurosci Guy, or you can check out my blog in the home of the podcast on thatneuroscienceguy.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode.