RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Home alone: A population neuroscience investigation of brain morphology substrates
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.09.06.459185
DO 10.1101/2021.09.06.459185
A1 Noonan, MaryAnn
A1 Zajner, Chris
A1 Bzdok, Danilo
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/07/2021.09.06.459185.abstract
AB As a social species, ready exchange with peers is a pivotal asset - our “social capital”. Yet, single-person households have come to pervade metropolitan cities worldwide, with unknown consequences in the long run. Here, we systematically explore the morphological manifestations associated with singular living in ∼40,000 UK Biobank participants. The uncovered population-level signature spotlights the highly associative default mode network, in addition to findings such as in the amygdala central, cortical and corticoamygdaloid nuclei groups, as well as the hippocampal fimbria and dentate gyrus. Sex-stratified analyses revealed male-specific neural substrates, including somatomotor, saliency and visual systems, while female-specific neural substrates centred on the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. In line with our demographic profiling results, the discovered neural imprint of living alone is potentially linked to alcohol and tobacco consumption, anxiety, sleep quality as well as daily TV watching. The secular trend for solitary living will require new answers from public-health decision makers.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.