Are You A Loner? Your Brain Is Special

Research indicates that people who prefer to be alone see things differently and have different decision-making and analytical power than others.

On the other hand, loners show less activity in the brain area related to the reward system.

We don’t really know what happens first with them: the isolation or the changes in this activity.

A loner can be by personal decision or because of others. That is, someone can feel better if they spend the majority of their time alone or vice versa: they would like to spend time with other people but cannot find anyone.

Whatever the reason, the brains of these lonely people mold themselves in a certain way.

Rewards and the Lonely Brain

According to the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience report, the region of the brain called the “striate body” is less active in lonely people.

This area is linked to certain daily rewards, such as money and food.

To come to this conclusion, a group of 23 academics asked these people a series of questions to find out to what degree they felt socially isolated, and to what degree they benefited and wanted social contact.

Then they scanned their brains as they looked at pictures of happy people.

Thus, they found that in people who did not have an intense social life, the “reward” area lit up less, which is a sign of less activity.

As the test was very small and restricted regarding the variability of such parameters such as age, work or gender, the authors insisted on caution in using the results of this study.

Scientists in charge of the experiment established the following hypothesis: in a lonely person, who is not dependent on society, does not feel great enthusiasm when asked about the rewards in connection with social relations.

Loneliness, introversion and perception

There have been no other studies yet and it is still complicated to define the brain characteristics of people who prefer solitude.

But, even if the literature in this field is not very extensive, the results are quite astonishing.

For example, it has been shown that there is a close relationship between introversion, creativity and originality.

In addition, loners would enjoy or feel more satisfaction when they get results from their “mental efforts”.

According to Maryland National Institute of Health psychologist Amanda Guyer, socially withdrawn people have more sensitivity to sensory and emotional interactions.

This would mean that what happens in the contexts of interaction affects them more.

To arrive at this theory, the researcher carried out a study with two groups of children: a group of reserved children and another not reserved.

Everyone had to participate in a game where they had to press a button to win money.

The discrete children had up to three times more brain activity – the striated region – than members of the other group.

Their brain activates more in situations of social contact

One of the situations that loners dread is finding themselves in the middle of a meeting, party, or event that requires being close to other people.

At these times, certain areas of the brain noticeably increase the flow of blood, which generates a kind of over-arousal.

This could be one of the reasons shy people don’t like socializing so much.

But it’s not all bad news. Studies suggest that an introverted person’s brain has the ability to adapt to various experiences due to its heightened sensitivity.

Thanks to this, for example, it can respond more quickly in times when there is a strong social demand, such as in cases of emergency in particular.

Finally, it must be said that the timid are good at perceiving subtleties or details that others ignore.

This is why they are often good writers, painters or witnesses because their brain is available for it. In fact, genius, in addition to madness, is often associated with loneliness.