Wired For Connection | Loneliness and Disease: What the Science Reveals - PBS

Loneliness and social isolation are widespread in the United States. According to a 2023 report, about half of U. S. adults experience loneliness, while nearly as many are socially isolated. Despite health consequences that can rival other major risk factors, both problems remain relatively overlooked as urgent public health concerns. Until recently, however, researchers had little idea how many years of good health might actually be lost to loneliness and social isolation.

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With 302 neurons, 200 of them in their heads, hermaphrodite female roundworms reveal surprising sex-specific differences in the nervous system and how these differences influence behavior, reproduction, and aging. Researchers at Northeastern University compared brain activity in male and hermaphroditic Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm widely used in biological research to understand how sex wires males and female nervous systems differently.