A £1.5 million investment, as part of the Wellcome Career Development Award from the Wellcome Trust, has been awarded to a new project that will use brain scanning techniques to understand how loneliness can change the function and structure of brains in young people.
The study, which will span eight years, will also investigate the links to the development of mental health problems and how social media use interacts with the effects of loneliness on young people's brains.
Social disconnection is increasingly affecting young people and adolescents. Brain development in this part of life is particularly sensitive to social cues, and loneliness in adolescence has been associated with mental health problems. Yet, the brain pathways of how social disconnection impacts brain function in adolescence are not clear.
Dr Livia Tomova said: "Using brain imaging over a long period, we will test the impacts of social disconnection on the brain function of young people, and study the links between adolescent social disconnection and the development of mental health problems. Our research will also uncover new information about the interactions between social disconnection and social media use in adolescents.
"This funding will allow us to further our understanding of the impacts of social disconnection on young people and open new avenues for interventions at the time point of greatest likely impact."
The investment will fund three studies, including an short-term MRI study, as well as a MRI study that will track the impact of loneliness in young people over several years.
The short-term study will recruit 90 healthy participants aged between 11 and 19 years old. They will experience short-term social and virtual isolation, and the impacts will be measured through MRI scans of their brains whilst doing tasks to asses their learning, attention and behaviour, as well as social brain activity.
In the longer study, the researchers will recruit 190 participants aged between 11 and 19 years from schools and universities around Cardiff. The young people will be assessed for their levels of social connection, self-reported loneliness, social network size, social exclusion, bullying, mental health and substance use. The young people will be scanned with functional MRI to look at the way their brains function and their brains' structure - measuring over three different time points over the course of three years.
"Social isolation and loneliness can have dramatic implications on our health and our brains - it's important that we understand how loneliness impacts the brains of young people in such a crucial stage of life and development," added Dr Tomova.
Professor Katherine Shelton, Head of School of Psychology, said: "This programme of research will provide crucial insights into how loneliness impacts adolescent cognition and brain function and it's exciting to see that this important work is taking place here at the School of Psychology at Cardiff University."
Professor Roger Whitaker, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Enterprise, said: "Dr Tomova's research tackles a pressing and complex societal challenge - adolescent loneliness - through a pioneering integration of experimental neuroscience, computational modelling, and longitudinal approaches."
Her work is positioned to advance the frontiers of knowledge and offer critical insights into a core contributor to the mental health crisis among young people.
"Having this calibre of research at the University strengthens our leadership in interdisciplinary mental health science and underscores our commitment to addressing the most urgent issues facing society today," added Professor Whitaker.
