(Press-News.org) Loneliness may be a fundamental part of the human condition, but scientists have only recently begun exploring its causes, consequences, and potential interventions. A special section in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, aims to bring these strands of inquiry together, presenting a series of articles that review the current state of scientific research on loneliness.
The section, edited by psychological scientist David Sbarra of the University of Arizona, investigates loneliness across multiple levels, from evolutionary theory to genetics to social epidemiology.
"As a group, these articles set the bar high for future research on loneliness," Sbarra writes in his introduction to the special section. "At the same time, they also contain 'something for everyone' -- they are accessible, thought-provoking ideas that can be tackled from many different perspectives."
In this special section:
- J.T. Cacioppo and colleagues argue that loneliness is not unique to humans but is likely part of a biological warning system that, like signals of hunger or pain, enhances chances of survival and reproduction for members of various social species.
- Goossens and colleagues explore the potential genetic basis for loneliness, highlighting the need to integrate a whole range of approaches, from genomics to behavioral science, in understanding the underpinnings of loneliness.
- Holt-Lunstad and colleagues present an analysis of over 70 studies, including data from more than 3 million participants, demonstrating a link between social isolation, loneliness, living alone and greater odds of mortality, even after taking various other factors into account.
- S. Cacioppo and colleagues review various types of existing interventions (one-on-one, group, community) that provide social support, increase opportunities for social interaction, and teach social skills as a way of preventing or mitigating the negative effects of loneliness.
- Qualter and colleagues approach loneliness from a lifespan perspective, showing that people of all ages experience a motive to reconnect with others in order to mitigate loneliness. While the motive to reconnect is often constructive, the researchers point out that it can sometimes spur thoughts and behaviors that exacerbate feelings of loneliness.
According to Sbarra, these articles "display a breadth, depth, and collective synergy that will not only spur answers to the questions outlined above but will also open lines of inquiry that are currently unexplored and will be highly generative in time."
INFORMATION:
The special section is available online at:
http://pps.sagepub.com/content/10/2.toc#SpecialSectiononLoneliness.
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (March 12, 2015) Targeting deadly, drug-resistant bacteria poses a serious challenge to researchers looking for antibiotics that can kill pathogens without causing collateral damage in human cells. A team of Boston College chemists details a new approach using a "warhead" molecule to attack bacteria -- and spare healthy human cells -- by targeting a pair of lipids found on the surface of deadly germs, according to a report today in the journal Nature Communications.
The new strategy required the researchers to develop a novel type of "warhead molecule" ...
Study links oddly shaped hippocampus to poor long-term memory in former marijuana users
The longer teens used cannabis, the more abnormal the hippocampus as adults
Former users perform 18 percent worse on long-term memory test
Cannabis affects short and long-term memory
CHICAGO --- Teens who were heavy marijuana users - smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.
The hippocampus is important to long-term memory (also known as ...
A team of scientists from the John Innes Centre (JIC), the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) have successfully transferred a receptor that recognises bacteria from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana - a dicot, to wheat - a monocot. They showed that the receptor can trigger a defensive response and confers increased resistance to bacterial disease. The research findings demonstrate that the signalling pathways or circuitry downstream of the receptor are conserved between evolutionary distant monocots and dicots.
Drs Henk-jan ...
Researchers from ZSL and the Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, surveyed 43 farms in China and worked with the Shaanxi Province Fisheries Office to investigate the Chinese giant salamander farming industry. They found that, although only a decade old, the industry houses millions of animals and is a major contributor to the Chinese rural economy. The farming industry however, poses a number of threats to the Chinese giant salamander, but also has potential to benefit the species.
Wild salamanders are illegally poached to supplement farmed populations which often do not ...
The indoor air quality in nursing homes has a serious effect on the lung health of elderly residents, according to the findings of a new study.
The study, which is published online today (12 March 2015) in the European Respiratory Journal, is the first to detail the negative effects of poor air quality in nursing homes across several countries.
Researchers from the EU-funded GERIE research project collected data on five indoor air pollutants: PM10, PM0.1, formaldehyde, NO2 and O3. These pollutants come from a range of sources including heaters, building materials, ...
A comprehensive programme providing older people at risk of dementia with healthy eating guidance, exercise, brain training, and management of metabolic and vascular risk factors appears to slow down cognitive decline, according to the first ever randomised controlled trial of its kind, published in The Lancet.
In the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) study, researchers led by Professor Miia Kivipelto from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, and ...
DURHAM, N.C. - Despite legal and ethical mandates for disclosure, results from most clinical trials of medical products are not reported promptly on a registry specifically created to make results of human studies publically available, according to Duke Medicine researchers.
Among all clinical trials of medical products, those funded by industry were the most likely to be publicly disclosed in a timely fashion, but even then, compliance was poor. Research funded by the National Institutes of Health and academic institutions lagged further, according to findings published ...
New research has shown that patients having heart surgery do not benefit if doctors wait until a patient has become substantially anaemic before giving a transfusion.
In the UK, about half of all patients having cardiac surgery are given a red blood cell transfusion after the operation, using up to ten per cent of the nation's blood supply. The proportion of patients having a transfusion is high because blood loss and severe anaemia are common after cardiac surgery and transfusion is the preferred treatment. Blood loss causes anaemia which doctors detect by measuring ...
MINNEAPOLIS - Older people who are physically active may be protecting themselves from the effects of small areas of brain damage that can affect their movement abilities, according to a new study published in the March 11, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Many older people have small areas of damage in their brains seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as white matter hyperintensities. Higher levels of this damage have been linked to more problems with movement, such as difficulty walking. But this new ...
The origin of life is still a mystery with many unsolved puzzles. How were molecules created? How did they assemble into large structures? Among the conundrums, the "homochirality" phenomenon upon which amino acids and sugars form is particularly fascinating. University of Akron A. Schulman Professor of Polymer Science Tianbo Liu has discovered that Mother Nature's clear bias toward certain amino acids and sugars and against others isn't accidental.
Liu explains that all life molecules are paired as left-handed and right-handed structures. In scientific terms, the phenomenon ...
