Everyday Neuro 023 Part 1: Social Connection - The Impact of Digital Media on Our Thinking and Wellbeing

Introduction to Podcast

0:00Hello and welcome to the Everyday Neuro podcast series. I'm your host Dr. Janine Cooper and I'm aiming to provide you with the knowledge and inspiration to understand the fascinating world of the human brain. It's really lovely to have you join me once again and I'd like to start by asking you how you've been. It's actually been a little while as you may or may

0:33not know since I did the last episode but hopefully like all good connections it all feel like no time has passed at all. Recently I've had the pleasure of reconnecting with friends that I've not really been able to catch up with very easily in person and so for many years I've relied on online ways to say hello. 102 miles ago the oil light came on. 100 miles ago you noticed. Now it's time to head

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Social Connection Investigation

2:12That's kind of led me to consider whether that's impacted the strength of those relationships and I'm really delighted to say that the answer for me is no and in fact it's not been a detrimental thing at all but instead it's been really beneficial. Saying that I personally don't

2:42use social media, well maybe occasionally for everyday neuro, but realize that many of us do and we rely on it for our daily feeds and our connections to the world and people beyond. It's due to my reliance on using online methods, you know, to keep in contact with my family and friends that has led me to really investigate social connection and how online social connection may or may not differ from the real interactions that we have with people

3:13and how that affects our brain both structurally and also functionally. So the more I explored this area I realized it's such an interesting and a really big topic to cover and also, you know, it's ever evolving. So for that reason I think it actually deserves a two-part episode. So you're

Social Isolation and Loneliness

3:35currently listening to part one and in this part we're going to be exploring what social isolation and loneliness are and as I just mentioned then we're going to be looking at how it affects the brain structurally and functionally. I'd also like to explore, you know, what does social isolation and loneliness do to us on a sort of real world level. So that will be part one. But another area that I think is really interesting and it is such a big topic at the moment is how is the internet

4:08and being on social media and living in a digital world as it were affecting our younger generation and for some of those younger generation they don't know a world without the internet. So the focus of part two is to really look into this but I'm delighted to say I'm going to be joined by Dr Milovan Savage who has agreed to talk to us about his area of research expertise and that is looking into the impact and uses of digital and social media on our interpersonal communication

4:40and social connection. I'm delighted to say that Milovan in part two will be talking with me about the loneliness pandemic and what hearing about this might do to us as a society and he's also going to shed some much needed light on the very current talks of social media bans for young people and what will the impact of these be for younger people who are trying to form social connections. So that'll be in part two and I look forward to listening to that. But before we hear from Milovan, let's return to part

5:15one and I would like us to consider recent suggestions that from a neuroscience perspective there are actually significant differences between online social connections and real life in-person interactions. I'd like to start by talking about neural activity. If we look at in-person interactions then when people engage in face-to-face conversations apparently their brains exhibit heightened neural activity and this includes increased signals related to like gaze time,

5:52pupil dilation and enhanced face processing ability. These responses reflect greater arousal in the brain and social cue exchange. But if we look at online interactions perhaps it's via zoom or teams then studies suggest that neural signaling during online exchanges is substantially suppressed. Researchers have observed less coordinated neural responses during virtual interactions than when it's face-to-face.

6:25Current digital representations of faces like those that we get from having a zoom or a team session don't apparently engage our social neural circuits as effectively as live interactions. So what I'd like to do now is to delve into what it means in a bit more depth by looking at a rather complicated sounding term called inter-brain coherence. Neuroimaging studies show that during in-person interactions there's more inter-brain coherence. Well okay so what does that actually mean?

7:00Well it's apparently when the activity of the brains of those who are involved in the interactions start to show synchronization or they start to match in activity and this can be seen especially during emotion sharing tasks. In contrast if we look at virtual interactions then apparently this kind of generates more coherence during problem solving and creativity tasks. So I'm starting to

7:32ask myself maybe it's the type of task that will affect how beneficial using an online sort of tool would be versus face-to-face. So there's also the area of social systems activation and that's the sort of phenomenon that when we interact in person our brains are apparently finely tuned to process dynamic facial cues during real-life encounters and social systems in the brain are therefore more active during in-person interactions. So we've kind of got this idea

8:07that maybe the task is what will differentiate whether you do an in-person or an online task and also the fact that sometimes when we're using an online method that we might not necessarily get those dynamic facial cues in the same way as we would if we were doing the task in person. I think it's also important to consider that not all of us prefer face-to-face meetings or for others you know the idea of an online meeting is is lacking in some way but I think the thing to

8:42remember here is that it depends on the individual and when we do create these kind of options then it's probably good to consider the the whole audience because for some neurodivergent people it might be that they prefer more direct communication whereas others might prefer communicating through art or a story and so many social opportunities where there isn't that pressure to make eye contact or sit still or where people can easily take breaks and then join back in the conversation are

9:13really beneficial and being online often affords you that so to recap while online connections provide convenience research suggests that they don't fully replicate the richness and neural engagement of face-to-face interactions however if you have no opportunity for those face-to-face interactions then maybe it's a much better option than no connection at all but although there may be

9:44differences many people turn to online methods because it is a way of interacting easily the thing is though although it might be easier and it appears like this should allow for greater experiences of connection there is a rise in self-reported feelings of social isolation and apparently we're in a pandemic of loneliness and that's especially the case for younger and older people but before we look

Defining Social Isolation

10:14at how this might affect the brain i'd like us to go over what social isolation and loneliness are and the sort of health and well-being impacts that they have on us so social isolation refers to an objective or sort of an evidence-based condition where there is an actual sort of lacking of social contacts in an individual's world and therefore they are disengaged from groups and social activities

10:44research by the world health organization shows that social isolation is associated with serious health risks and these include heart disease depression cognitive decline and even death loneliness is a perceived or subjective feeling so different to the idea of social isolation in that that was very objective it's an actual lacking whereas loneliness is this subjective feeling that you're dissatisfied with the quality

11:20and or the quantity of your social relationships so in essence it's actually more about there being a gap between what a person desires and their actual social contact

11:35102 miles ago the oil light came on 100 miles ago you noticed now it's time to head to take five this oil change fall in love with your car all over again in just 10 minutes your dream technician will check your tire pressure top off fluids change your oil and verify with carfax exactly what your car really needs all while keeping you in the driver's seat take five to stay in your car 10 minute oil change save up to 30 on your next oil change to take five 15 value valid participating locations terms and conditions apply

12:08so if we look at the demographics associated with social isolation and loneliness that come from the research then first of all if we look at age groups then approximately one in five young adults experience loneliness and nearly one-fourth of adults aged 65 and older are considered socially isolated if we look at gender and this the thing here is that uh the research often looks at very binary associations of gender hopefully that changes um as more and more countries take on the idea of there being more than

12:42uh woman and man but for this particular piece of research i'm mentioning they noted that women tend to report feeling lonely more than men and if we look at um men about 17 percent of men who experience loneliness are between the ages of 15 and 24 some other factors are that people who are single or widowed are at particular risk of loneliness and in terms of health conditions then people with um poorer health or with limited conditions are more likely to feel lonely and again i think that's

13:18kind of going back into this idea that you might not be able to physically or emotionally make connection i think though if you look at the demographics um in housing it's really interesting because renters report feeling more lonely than homeowners and i think it's also got to be that as we develop more and more buildings within our cities or certainly as cities expand into more rural areas then planners are hopefully going to be taking into account that communities are really a great way of making people

13:50feel connected rather than these kind of high rise um sort of buildings where there might not be a general meeting place but certainly forward thinking planners are making all of those great decisions to to make things a lot more sort of connection um beneficial in terms of sense of belonging those who feel less connected to their neighborhood experience loneliness more frequently and as i say that then goes back to this idea of making all sort of um places to live more interconnected loneliness as i mentioned earlier poses health risks

14:26and in fact if we look at how severe they can be then they're comparable to smoking consuming alcohol and also when we don't do physical activity so really the idea of loneliness is a major health concern and it affects mental well-being and overall quality of life quite dramatically so now we know that social isolation is an

Brain Impact of Social Isolation

14:50actual lack of social context and disengagement let's have a look how it impacts the brain both structurally and functionally and there are several effects i'd like to talk to you about and i'm going to start with the stress response so really this um kind of is all about the amygdala the part of the brain in the medial temporal lobe and isolation sort of triggers an increased activity in this area of the brain and it's the area that's associated with fear and stress responses and over time isolation can lead

15:22to chronic stress which negatively affects overall brain health the next thing i'd like to talk to you about are neurotransmitters and in particular dopamine and serotonin and if you recall um dopamine is sort of linked to um overall sort of feelings of pleasure and well-being and so is serotonin it's a sort of the happy neurotransmitter so when we are faced with uh social isolation then often we see a reduction in these neurotransmitter levels the other thing that i'd like to mention as well as dopamine

15:56and serotonin is oxytocin and this is a social bonding um neurotransmitter because it helps us when it is released to feel trust and social connections so when we're isolated it decreases oxytocin production and we are less likely to feel trust and probably more likely to start feeling negatively about others i'd also like to talk briefly about cognitive decline because when we are socially isolated we

16:28actually see a reduction in the stimulation of our brains and i touched on that earlier um lack of social engagement leads to reduce cognitive stimulation and therefore it potentially and again this is from research accelerates cognitive decline and if we look at one area that's particularly affected in cognition well it's memory and isolated individuals may experience memory problems due to this kind of decreased mental activity so by being around others or certainly having some social

16:59interactions then you actually see stimulation of the neural networks and therefore it's less likely to be negative towards your cognitive health if we look at things from a physical health point of view then social isolation has been linked to immune system deficits and when we see our immune system being impoverished then of course then we start to see problems in all areas so it could be your cardiovascular health and quite often we do see research that links loneliness

17:31um with cardiovascular risks and that's sometimes to do with the fact that we have differences in brain blood flow but it's quite an area of mixed kind of research when i say that some of it some of the methodology a little bit questionable but anyway we'll leave it there for now 102 miles ago the oil light came on 100 miles ago you noticed now it's time to head to take five

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18:27i really like the idea of neuroplasticity and that's the idea that our brain is able to sort of do different tasks when it's put in the correct environment so i wouldn't say it regenerates that's incorrect information but neuroplasticity is the ability to sort of adapt and so when we have limited stimulation social interactions actually because they promote neuroplasticity or brain adaptability then when we have those limited stimulations then it gives us less likelihood that

19:03we're going to see this adaptability and finally i'll sort of conclude this sort of area with emotional well-being and isolation increases the risk of depression and anxiety again these are clinical conditions anxiety is one of the the most um it's a condition that can be treated with with strategies in some forms of depression strategies are very helpful sometimes pharmacology can be very beneficial but basically in those of us who may be more susceptible to having uh depression and anxiety then social

19:38isolation can actually be quite a negative thing and one of the reasons for that is that it alters our reward circuitry in the brain so when we have laughter or shared experiences then this really is a positive thing for the neural connections within our brain and especially those that are linked to the reward pathways and this links back to our neurotransmitters dopamine serotonin and oxytocin so there we go if social isolation has such negative impacts on the brain could there be benefits

20:14to using another means of um if you can't meet up with friends if you can't physically get together then maybe virtual interaction um is the preferred option because then it's going to sort of increase the likelihood of there being social connection so while virtual interactions may not fully replicate the richness of in-person connections as i mentioned earlier they do therefore potentially offer several benefits benefits and i'd like to just talk to you about those now as well so what are some of the

20:50benefits of virtual interactions well the first one is accessibility of course virtual interactions will allow people to connect across you know large geographical distances and i've been benefiting from that for many years so this accessibility is especially valuable for people like myself who can't meet in person due to physical limitations or other constraints and obviously um for people who have a disability or there might be another reason why it's not easy to meet in person then really that accessibility is enhanced by virtual interaction

21:26another benefit to online communication is convenience and it's also really efficient so it enables us to have quick exchanges it helps with our scheduling flexibility and also our multitasking so for example we're able to to attend meetings while working from home um obviously many companies now are trying to do this kind of go back into the office but for some people being able to attend meetings while they're in in their home has been absolutely game-changing um and i think you know that's something that we really need to consider moving forward

22:00another thing that i'd like to talk about is reduced anxiety because for some individuals virtual interactions are less anxiety provoking than face-to-face encounters i know it's not that for all people but in the case of some people with social anxiety then the screen acts as a buffer and it makes the communication that they're having with others feel less intimidating and as i mentioned earlier maybe some time out or just turning off the camera can really allow a person to sort of take a breath restocking and then um join the meeting again

22:36and perhaps the last benefit i would like to talk about before we um end part one of this episode is really the learning opportunities that a virtual world has presented us with so for example online courses webinars and virtual conferences all provide that sort of really rich opportunity to to to get education to get knowledge to um acquire skills that perhaps we wouldn't have been able to without um using the internet and of course during the pandemic our younger generation especially um were very heavily reliant on

23:14using the virtual world to be able to continue with the the very important topics of schooling and education and education and that brings me to the end of this uh episode but we will be continuing to really look into this in in a lot more detail in part two so um i hope you can join me for that and as i said earlier in that uh part two we're going to be meeting with dr milivan savage who is going to be sharing his knowledge about social connection in a lot more detail and will share his expertise and

23:51research about empowering younger people to make informed choices about social media so please join me for that and as always please look after that incredible brain of yours until next time take care

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