fMRI signals of social craving following acute social isolation in the human brain
Description
When people are forced to be isolated from one another, do they crave social interactions in the same way a hungry person craves food? Positive social interactions in and of themselves may be basic human needs, analogous to other basic needs like food consumption or sleep. If so, the absence of positive social interaction may create a want, or "craving", that motivates behavior to repair what is lacking. In the mouse model, even a brief acute period of social isolation causes an aversive, ‘loneliness-like’ brain state causing the mice to seek social interaction which is mediated specifically by dopaminergic midbrain neurons (Matthews et al. 2016), similar to other kinds of craving. However, the homology to human loneliness has been disputed, and it is not possible to assess whether a mouse subjectively feels lonely. Would acute isolation evoke a similar response in humans? To address this question, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural responses in participants (n=40) evoked by food and social cues after ten hours of mandated fasting or total social isolation. After isolation, people felt lonely and craved social interaction. Midbrain regions showed increased activation to food cues after fasting and to social cues after isolation; these responses were correlated with self-reported craving. Neural patterns in response to food cues when participants were hungry generalized to social cues after isolation. Our results support the intuitive idea that acute isolation causes social craving, similar to hunger.
Link to join Zoom webinar: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97066927497
Speaker Bio
Livia Tomova Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Email: tomova@mit.edu, Website: https://tomova.scripts.mit.edu/tomova/
EDUCATION
• PhD in Psychology, with distinction, November 2011 - July 2016 Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna Thesis: Effects of stress on empathy – a social neuroscience approach Advisor: Prof. Claus Lamm Thesis was awarded the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science Award of Excellence for Best Austrian Dissertations in 2016.
• M.Sc. in Psychology, with distinction, October 2006 - November 2011 (Combined Bachelor + Master Program / “Diplomstudium”) Department of Biological Psychology, University of Vienna Thesis: Dynamics of brain processing during mental imagery Advisor: Dr. Igor Riecansky
RESEARCH POSITIONS & ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
• College Research Fellow, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, starting October 2020
• Erwin Schrödinger Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 2017 – present (Advisor: Rebecca Saxe; Collaborator: Kay Tye)
• Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, October 2016 – August 2017 (Advisor: Luiz Pessoa)
• Research Associate, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, March 2016 – July 2016 (Advisor: Claus Lamm)
• Visiting Graduate Student, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, MIT, August 2015 – February 2016 (Host: Rebecca Saxe)
• Visiting Graduate Student, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, February 2015 – July 2015 (Host: Markus Heinrichs)
• Project Scientist, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods / Cognitive Science Research Platform, University of Vienna, November 2011 – January 2015 (Advisor: Claus Lamm)
• Research Assistant, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, University of Vienna, March 2011 - November 2011
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
• Henslow Research Fellowship, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, 2020
• Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship (Host department: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT), FWF Austrian Science Fund, 2019
• Max-Kade Postdoctoral Research Exchange Grant (Host department: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT; starting date: September 2017), Austrian Academy of Sciences and Max Kade Foundation, 2017 (extension of the fellowship granted in 2018)
• Merit Scholarship from the University of Vienna, 2017
• Award of Excellence Price for Best Austrian Dissertations 2016, Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, 2016
• L’Oréal Austria For Women in Science Fellowship, L’Oréal/UNESCO and Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2016
• Marietta-Blau PhD Student Exchange Fellowship, Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, 2014 (Host departments: University of Freiburg, Germany (February- July 2015) and MIT, USA (September 2015-February 2016))
• Travel Fellowship, Austrian Research Association, 2015
• Dissertation Completion Scholarship, University of Vienna, 2014
• Research Scholarship, University of Vienna, 2013-2015
• Travel Fellowship, Austrian Research Association, 2013
• Short-term Grant Abroad (for visiting the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Nijmegen, Netherlands), University of Vienna, 2013
• Short-term Grant Abroad (for visiting the University Medical Center UKE Hamburg, Germany), University of Vienna, 2012)
PUBLICATIONS
Peer reviewed papers
• Orben, A.*, Tomova, L.*, Blakemore, SJ. (in press). The effects of social deprivation on adolescent social development and mental health. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. *Joint first authors
• Tomova, L., Saxe, R., Kloebl, M., Lanzenberger, R., Lamm, C. (in press). Acute stress alters neural patterns of value representation for others. Neuroimage.
• Tomova, L., Tye, K., Saxe, R. (in press). The neuroscience of unmet social needs. Social Neuroscience.
• Tomova, L., Heinrichs, M., Lamm, C. (2019). The other and me: Effects of oxytocin on self-other distinction. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 136, 49-53.
• Tomova, L., Pessoa, L. (2018). Information about peer choices shapes human risky decision-making. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 5129.
• Tik, M., Hoffmann, A., Sladky, R., Tomova, L., Hummer, A., Navarro de Lara, L., Biswal, B., Bukowski, H., Pripfl, J., Lamm, C., Windischberger, C. (2017). Towards understanding rTMS mechanisms of action: Stimulation of the DLPFC causes network-specific increase in functional connectivity. Neuroimage, 162, 289-296.
• Tomova, L., Majdandžić, J., Hummer, A., Windischberger, C., Heinrichs, M., Lamm, C. (2017). Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12 (3), 401-408.
• Tomova, L., von Dawans, B., Heinrichs, M., Silani, G., Lamm, C. (2014). Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others? Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other distinction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 43, 95-104.
• Pripfl, J. *, Tomova, L.*, Riecansky, I., Lamm, C. (2014). Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreases both cue-induced nicotine craving and EEG delta frequency mean power. Brain Stimulation, 7(2), 226-233. *Joint first authors
• Riecansky, I., Tomova, L., Katina, S., Bauer, H., Fischmeister, F., Lamm, C. (2013). Visual image retention does not contribute to modulation of event-related potentials by mental rotation. Brain and Cognition, 83, 163-170.
In preparation
• Tomova, L., Wang, K., Thompson, T., Matthews, G., Takahashi, A., Tye, K., Saxe, R. (under revision). The need to connect: Acute social isolation causes neural craving responses similar to hunger. [Preprint on bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.006643]
Book chapters
• Lamm, C., Tomova, L. (2018). The neural bases of empathy in humans. In: Meyza, K., Knapska, E (Eds.), Neural correlates of empathy – from rodent to man (pp. 25-36). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Additional Info
Upcoming Cog Lunch Talks:
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