Mental Help: Coping with Loneliness & Social Isolation

Brains get lonely! C2ST presents research on social isolation & offers strategies for coping with loneliness during the pandemic and beyond.

Dr. Livia Tomova (University of Cambridge) will share the research on the effects of acute social isolation on the brain. Ornella Razetto, Social Services Manager for CommunityHealth in Chicagoland, will discuss the impact of social isolation and loneliness on mental health and offer strategies for coping with the blues.

When people are forced into isolation from each other, do they crave social interactions? Researchers in the Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure neural responses evoked by food and social cues after participants were deprived of food and social contact. After isolation, people felt lonely and craved social interaction. Results support the intuitive idea that acute isolation causes the social craving, similar to how fasting causes hunger.

In the second program of our Mental Help series, C2ST is pleased to continue to partner with research experts and practitioners to offer current information on how the human brain experiences loneliness and practical strategies to help you keep your mental health fit.

For more details and registration for this free event by the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, please click here.