当我们孤独时，亲密的朋友、同事和名人对我们的大脑来说似乎都是一样的

当我们孤独时，亲密的朋友、同事和名人对我们的大脑来说似乎都是一样的

The activity patterns of these brain regions reflect self-other closeness: The closer the relationship, the more the patterns resemble each other.

这些大脑区域的活动模式反映了自我与他人的亲密关系：关系越密切，彼此之间的模式就越相似。

If you're lonely, your brain might value Ellen DeGeneres, Mark Zuckerberg, your coworker and your best friend all the same.

如果你感到孤独，你的大脑可能会将艾伦·德杰尼勒斯、马克·扎克伯格、你的同事和你最好的朋友视为平等的。

Loneliness — a perceived gap or disconnection between yourself and others — might affect how your brain perceives the people or relationships in your life, according to a study published Monday in the journal J. Neurosci.

根据周一发表在《J.神经科学》杂志上的一项研究，孤独——你和他人之间的一种感知差距或脱节——可能会影响你的大脑对你生活中的人或关系的感知。

Here's how that perception might happen.

下面是这种感知是如何发生的。

Social connection is critical to our well-being, according to studies showing that having good relationships with friends and family boosts our mental and physical health. The more socially connected a person is, the higher his or her likelihood of reduced blood pressure, weight and stress.

社会关系对我们的幸福至关重要，研究表明，与朋友和家人保持良好的关系可以促进我们的身心健康。一个人的社会关系越密切，他或她降低血压、体重和压力的可能性就越高。

On the flip side, social isolation has been linked with a higher risk of early death and a higher risk of diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

另一方面，社交孤立与早逝的高风险以及心脏病和癌症等疾病的高风险有关。

Although feeling close to others is so crucial, how the brain reflects that closeness has remained mostly obscure, according to the study. Filling this research gap was critical, the authors contended, as it might reveal mechanisms doctors and lonely patients could act upon to improve interpersonal connection and thus health.

研究显示，尽管与他人的亲密感是如此重要，但大脑如何反映这种亲密关系，目前仍不清楚。作者认为，填补这一研究空白是至关重要的，因为它可能揭示出医生和孤独患者可以采取哪些机制来改善人际关系，从而促进健康。

With increased reports of loneliness around the world, the impact of loneliness on people's health has researchers concerned.

随着世界各地关于孤独的报道越来越多，孤独对人们健康的影响引起了研究人员的关注。

Previous research has emphasized the strength of "weak ties" — those maintained by regular interactions with acquaintances with whom we work or attend school. Acquaintances might have an important role in well-being and social support.

之前的研究强调了“弱关系”的力量——那些通过与工作或上学的熟人定期互动而保持的关系。熟人可能在幸福和社会支持方面发挥重要作用。

"Our findings suggest that understanding how the brain represents weak ties may yield important insight into how loneliness links to negative outcomes," the study said.

研究称:“我们的发现表明，了解大脑是如何表现弱关系的，可能有助于深入了解孤独与消极结果之间的关系。”

Some recent articles on social distancing and working from home have cited the obscure importance and current absence of weak ties as reason for worry about the potential effects of both shifts on our mental health.

最近一些关于社交距离和在家工作的文章提到，这种重要性不再明显以及目前弱关系的缺失，让我们担心这两种变化对我们心理健康的潜在影响。

"We're missing out on a lot of that," said first author Andrea Courtney, a postdoctoral research fellow in psychology at Stanford University in California. "So that could be a part of why we're seeing increases in loneliness."

“我们错过了很多这样的弱关系，”第一作者安德里亚·考特尼说，他是加州斯坦福大学心理学博士后研究员。“所以这可能是我们看到孤独增加的部分原因。”

In the new study, the authors conducted brain scans on the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), the region of the brain associated with self-representation.

在这项新的研究中，作者对内侧前额叶皮质(MPFC)进行了脑部扫描，MPFC是大脑中与自我表现相关的区域。

The MPFC is known to activate when thinking about oneself, but it has exhibited similar activation when thinking about people one is close with.

我们知道，MPFC在思考自己的时候会被激活，但在思考自己亲近的人的时候，它也表现出类似的激活。

The scans showed that the MPFC maintained a network of social circles, based on closeness. The gap between oneself and others that lonely people often perceive was reflected by altered activity patterns in the brains of lonelier participants.

扫描结果显示，MPFC维持着一个基于亲密度的社交圈网络。孤独的人经常察觉到自己与他人之间的差距，这反映在孤独者大脑活动模式的改变上。