In the eye of the beholder: individual differences in perceived social isolation predict regional brain activation to social stimuli.

Abstract in brief

• The study finds that lonely and nonlonely young adults process social stimuli differently in their brains, with lonely individuals showing less reward response to positive social images and more attention to distressing social cues.
• For pleasant social images, lonely individuals have weaker activation in the ventral striatum (a brain area linked to reward), indicating they find social interactions less rewarding compared to nonlonely individuals.
• When viewing unpleasant social images, lonely people show increased activity in the visual cortex (attention to distress), while nonlonely people activate the temporoparietal junction (reflection on others' perspectives), highlighting different social processing patterns based on loneliness.]