Age differences in functional brain networks associated with loneliness and empathy

Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo; Roni Setton; Danilo Bzdok; Gary R Turner; R Nathan Spreng

doi:10.1162/netn_a_00293

Age differences in functional brain networks associated with loneliness and empathy

Netw Neurosci. 2023 Jun 30;7(2):496-521. doi: 10.1162/netn_a_00293. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo¹, Roni Setton², Danilo Bzdok^{1

3

4

5

6}, Gary R Turner⁷, R Nathan Spreng^{1

4

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁴ McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁵ School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁶ Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁷ Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁹ Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada.

Abstract

Loneliness is associated with differences in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) within and between large-scale networks in early- and middle-aged adult cohorts. However, age-related changes in associations between sociality and brain function into late adulthood are not well understood. Here, we examined age differences in the association between two dimensions of sociality-loneliness and empathic responding-and RSFC of the cerebral cortex. Self-report measures of loneliness and empathy were inversely related across the entire sample of younger (mean age = 22.6y, n = 128) and older (mean age = 69.0y, n = 92) adults. Using multivariate analyses of multi-echo fMRI RSFC, we identified distinct functional connectivity patterns for individual and age group differences associated with loneliness and empathic responding. Loneliness in young and empathy in both age groups was related to greater visual network integration with association networks (e.g., default, fronto-parietal control). In contrast, loneliness was positively related to within- and between-network integration of association networks for older adults. These results extend our previous findings in early- and middle-aged cohorts, demonstrating that brain systems associated with loneliness, as well as empathy, differ in older age. Further, the findings suggest that these two aspects of social experience engage different neurocognitive processes across human life-span development.

Keywords: Aging; Default network; Empathy; Loneliness; Resting-state functional connectivity; Social cognition.

Grants and funding

R01 AG068563/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States