Affecting Brain and Body
In addition to having a significant impact on the mind and the body, social connection, or lack thereof, can have a direct effect on brain health. T hat’s because being social uses a lot of “important brain networks and specific areas of the brain,” says Rachael Ellison, PhD, assistant professor and associate director of clinical training and practicum coordinator in the College of Health Professions. Much like doing crossword-puzzle exercises for your brain to potentially maintain cognitive function, interacting with people gives your brain a great workout, too.

“Your brain is a muscle,” Dr. Ellison says. “When you’re socially engaged, you are engaging your brain and working parts of it.” For example, the frontal lobe is used to pay attention and think about what you’re going to say next. During a social interaction, people are often engaging their memory systems to pull information out and lock information in. Social interactions also prompt the release of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin. “The cascade of those neurotransmitters are going to feel good and are good for our body,” she adds.

In addition to causing an instant mood lift, emerging research suggests dopamine may push the body to produce an enzyme that breaks down the plaques that affect the brain in people with Alzheimer’s disease. More dopamine? Greater chance of slowing the production of such brain-altering protein clumps.

Repeating these kinds of interactions and releasing those neurotransmitters is like putting money in a piggy bank that pays off by protecting your brain. “Physical loneliness won’t cause Alzheimer’s disease, but if you have plaques and tangles in the brain, lack of fulfilling social interaction is essentially taking coins out of the brain’s piggy bank,” Dr. Ellison says. “This may contribute to earlier and/or more severe expression of clinical pathology. On the other hand, the experience of strong social support may be protective in adding coins to the brain’s piggy bank, delaying or reducing the expression of neuropathological disease.”

“When you look at healthy populations of people, they all are in community, which involves not just physically being around people but having people that you have meaningful conversations with, and are deeply connected to.”

An Enduring Problem
During the worst of COVID-19, people sacrificed physical interaction for the sake of slowing the spread of disease. But even as the worst of the pandemic has ebbed, loneliness remains. 

According to a 2025 poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 33% of adults said they felt lonely at least once a week during the previous 12 months. That’s up 3% from the year before. The APA also found that young adults ages 18 to 34 were more likely to experience loneliness than older adults. Those young adults more often turn to social media when they’re feeling lonely, with 58% reporting it as a loneliness-busting tactic. 

The internet can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to combating loneliness, says Erica Jowett Hirst, PhD, BCBA-D, DipACLM, a clinical behavior analyst, lifestyle medicine professional and adjunct faculty member in the ÎÞÂëȺ½» College of Health Professions. Online, people are able to find activities and like-minded people whom they may not have met in real life. At the same time, she says, screens are “reducing our need for in-person interactions. Because if I can communicate with anyone anywhere through my device, why am I going to have an in-person connection?”

The short answer is because online and in-person connections are different: It’s communication, but our brains don’t experience it in the same ways, Dr. Jowett Hirst says. She points to a University of Wisconsin–Madison study, called “Instant messages vs. speech: hormones and why we still need to hear each other,” which looked at hormonal responses in girls who instant-messaged their mothers when they were stressed. When they interacted in person, their bodies released the neurotransmitter oxytocin, a hormone that plays a role in the feeling of trust. When the connection was through instant message or phone, researchers found no oxytocin released but, instead, higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

Compounding the loneliness issue, fewer Americans are taking part in traditional group activities, such as volunteering and even religious services, which can be a key place for social interaction and forming meaningful relationships. Part of the loneliness problem is culture, and part of it is priorities. “Many people don’t really prioritize social interactions anymore,” Dr. Jowett Hirst says. “They’re exhausted in how much they’re investing in other things they’re doing and don’t really have anything left for being social.”

“Your brain is a muscle. When you’re socially engaged, you are engaging your brain and working parts of it.”

Combating Loneliness
The aforementioned UK minister of loneliness was tasked with tackling the problem of isolation by addressing three things: reducing the stigma around loneliness, driving a government shift so relationships and loneliness are considered in policymaking, and conducting research and studies to better understand the loneliness problem. One result of the work was the unlocking of £30 million to reduce loneliness through various programs.

The 2023 U.S. surgeon general’s report presented potential structural solutions to the loneliness crisis, including making social connection a priority, prioritizing research funding, training and educating healthcare providers on the importance of social connection, developing a cross-disciplinary research agenda, and developing a strategic plan for school connectedness and social skills with benchmark tracking.

Reports aside, figuring out how to combat loneliness is a very personal thing, Dr. Ellison says. Just like not everyone wants to exercise their brain via The New York Times crossword app, everyone’s ideal kind of social engagement is going to be different.

“Maybe your version of ‘social’ is going to sit in on a free class at a university,” she says. “Maybe your version of social is video-gaming and talking to others online. Maybe it’s having dinner with a friend and then seeing a movie and chatting on the way home.” The key is not the quantity of such social connections and interactions but the “perceived quality,” with some people needing a lot of social connections, while others are fulfilled with just one or two.

For those struggling with finding connections, going to events that happen at regular times with the same groups of people can also help because such regular interactions can become deeper connections and friendships. Taking classes at a gym where you’re seeing the same people each week can also work in many of the same ways, Dr. Ellison says. A religious service is “a great place because it has a set day and time, and you can show up without pressure of social engagement.” For older adults, senior-living homes can also be an ideal setup, because “they’re prolonging functional independence and increasing social connections.

“When you look at healthy populations of people, they all are in community, which involves not just physically being around people but having people that you have meaningful conversations with, and are deeply connected to,” Dr. Jowett Hirst says. There is no question that social isolation affects mental and physical health and, in turn, the larger community. Recognition of loneliness as a public-health problem rather than a social problem, along with new research and expansion of ways to combat it, can help both individuals and communities build bridges to social inclusion.