Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are now having to self-isolate. Because of this, family gatherings, meeting with friends and going out on day trips, have been put to a stop. Family gatherings now take the form of displaying what we’re having for tea on a webcam; meetings with friends are replaced with an online quiz and going out is limited to the supermarket, and our one form of exercise a day. We know quarantine has been put in place to help us, however it’s difficult to ignore the dramatic impact on our mental and physical well-being.
Humans are Social
Humans are social creatures, much more so than others in the animal kingdom. Because of humans’ social nature, social distancing is something our species finds particularly difficult. There are many explanations for our social nature, but we'll focus on a neurological basis for today. But how are humans biologically hard-wired in this way? In the human brain there is an area called the neocortex. The neocortex is responsible for a range of functions that affect our social life, including social perception, regulating emotions and behaviour, conscious thought and language. The neocortex is much larger in humans than in many other animals. As a result, it is often said that humans have a ‘social brain’. Despite the obvious benefits of having a ‘social brain’, social distancing has also highlighted some limitations.
Self-Isolation and Loneliness
I’m sure many of you have noticed a feeling of loneliness during quarantine. For those of you who are not isolating with another person, this can be particularly evident. Loneliness is not synonymous with social isolation (often many of us enjoy having a little alone time), however long periods of isolation has been linked with this feeling. There are two main types of loneliness: reactive loneliness and chronic loneliness. Reactive loneliness often occurs after a big life event, for example when a loved one dies or following divorce. This type of loneliness is painful but does improve. What tends to cause the most problems is chronic loneliness. This is caused by a lack of social stimulation due to long periods of isolation. Ami Rokach notes "If reactive loneliness is painful, chronic loneliness is torturous". But don’t worry, there are lots of things we can do to counter this. In my next article I will discuss the things we can do to make quarantine a little less stressful. If you do feel lonely, and would like someone to talk to about it, please click on the link here.
Physiological Responses to Isolation
It has been suggested that social isolation can impact our ability to deal with stressful situations, increase feelings of depression, impose problems in information processing and even make us more susceptible to illness. The latter is ironic given that we are self-isolating to protect our health! But how exactly does loneliness impact our physical health? Steven Cole and colleagues found that white blood cells play a big role in this. They argued that white blood cells of lonely participants displayed more inflammation genes and less genes associated with fighting viruses. In other words, lonely people have fewer antiviral genes fighting their corner, meaning they are more likely to get ill. This is why we must try and reduce loneliness, despite social distancing measures.
Social Isolation and the Brain
Can loneliness effect how our brain works as well as our bodies? In short, yes it can! In 2009, the University of Chicago conducted some research into this. Researchers displayed pictures of people in both pleasant and unpleasant settings to participants. They found that two parts of the brain react differently in lonely people: the ventral striatum and the temporoparietal junction. The ventral striatum is involved in learning and reward, and it was. They found that the ventral striatum was less active in lonely participants, both when viewing the pleasant, as well as the unpleasant photos. This suggests that when we feel lonely, we get less reward out of visual social stimulation. Maybe that zoom call doesn't do it for us when we're feeling alone. The temporoparietal junction is associated with empathy. They found that lonely participants also had less activity in this part of the brain when shown unpleasant photos. This implies that when we feel lonely, we tend to feel less sympathetic towards others too.
How can Isolation Effect our Mood?
Isolation has caused many of us to feel angry and scared about the situation in front of us. But why is it that we feel this way? Cue the biology! It’s down to the chemicals released in our brain. Researchers have found that a protein called tachykinin promotes aggression in socially isolated fruit flies. Luckily, I don’t have to try and convince you of our similarities to a fruit fly, because researchers already have! Zelikowsky and colleagues wanted to investigate whether this protein is also released in mammals. They used mice to explore this (mice have a very similar brain structure to us). They found that tachykinin and neurokinin were released more in socially isolated rats. These chemicals are released from parts of the brain called the amygdala and the hippocampus. Funnily enough, these areas are involved in emotional and social behaviour. Therefore, the reason why you might be feeling angry, scared and stressed whilst in isolation, is because the areas of the brain which deal with our social interactions, aren’t getting what they need, and so are making us feel a bit blue because of it!
Virtual Hugs
One of the first things many of us have said that we will do when quarantine comes to an end, is giving our friends and family a big old squishy hug (myself included). I don’t know about you, but I much prefer giving my friends and family a hug over an inanimate object, but maybe that’s just me! But why is this? When you touch an object, it tells you a lot about its properties. But when you touch a person, it can tell you a lot more. Even just a handshake can tell us about how that person is feeling. So, what happens when we’re not able to do this? Lee Masson and colleagues conducted some research into this, just prior to COVID-19 coming into our lives. They showed participants videos consisting of either social (human-to-human) or non-social (human-to-object) touching. They found that when participants watched the social videos, there was greater activation in areas of the brain associated with social behaviour, as well as greater activation of the brain in general. This is one of the reasons why not being able to hug our loved ones hurts so much. Having said this, the fact that participants experienced greater brain activation when watching videos at all, suggests all is not lost! Maybe that virtual hug will do just nicely for now.
As always in psychology, much of this data is correlational (we can’t always determine cause and effect). Nevertheless, social distancing does seem to have a big impact on both our mental and physical well-being. Being social creatures, many of us are really feeling the strain of lock-down. Sometimes a facetime just doesn’t really hit the spot. But, of course, we still need to keep safe for ourselves and for others around us. So even if it is virtually, give someone the hug they need today. I hope you found this interesting. If you would like to read more into this subject area, much of this article is hyperlinked. If you are more of a visual or auditory learner, please see my video on this topic. In my next post I will discuss the ways we in which we can combat the negative effects of quarantine. Thanks for reading and happy learning!
Click on the link here if you are feeling a little low and would like to speak to someone about it.
I just wanted to say thank you to all our key workers out there. You’re all doing an amazing job! Thank you for doing what you do, in order to keep everyone safe and healthy. We couldn’t be more grateful. Keep safe everyone!