Social Cognition: We Need Eachother!

 Our brains are wired for social interaction, and when we don’t get it, we lose nerve connections and lose certain nerve connections in the brain.

Before covid, this was more noticeable in older people who lived alone, cut off from families, or couldn’t drive. Researchers saw that social isolation quickened age related cognitive decline, and could be at risk for developing Alzheimer’s or dementia. 


After Covid and the lockdown, we saw more evidence of these brain changes in younger people. For example, a foggy feeling like not being able to remember certain words or feeling tired even though you haven’t really done anything physically demanding. 


Social isolation does this because our brains are made up of a network of nerves that connect to one another. The tighter the connection between the nerves, the better we are able to transmit signals. There are a number of reasons for loosening connections, like inflammation, disease, or social isolation. Social isolation affects your social cognition. On its own, cognition involves thinking, perception, learning, and judgment; social cognition focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in our social interactions. How we think about others can greatly influence how we think, feel, and interact with the world around us.


An example of social cognition is reading someone's emotional expressions, or remembering someone, interpreting someone’s voice, or showing empathy. Even though these skills are learned early on, we need social interaction to maintain them.


In the MRI scan People showed brain loss in the temporal lobes, frontal lobes and the hippocampus. Our hippocampus is an important part of our emotional processing, for example studies have also shown that people who are depressed have a smaller hippocampus.


Here is the good news! It is completely possible for our brains to rewire, through plasticity. This is the cycle of rewiring and building new connections through the practice of some type of activity. So you can build up your “cognitive reserve,” which is a term that describes the ability to compensate and function even when we have experienced some loss. The stronger your cognitive reserve, the better you’re able to function through challenges like isolation, chronic stress, trauma or environmental factors. 


Strategies to boost your cognitive reserve:


  • Education

  • High levels of social interaction

  • High level cognitively challenging jobs

  • Activities like crossword puzzles, choreography, learning a language, or a new task.

  • Physical exercise

  • Diet and self-care 


References


Cherry, K. (2023, August 10). What is social cognition? Verywell Mind. Retrieved March 15, 2025, from https://www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912

Lieberz, J., Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Saporta, N., Esser, T., Kuskova, E., Stoffel-Wagner, B., Hurlemann, R., Scheele, D., Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions. Adv. Sci. 2021, 8, 2102076. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202102076 


Feng C, Eickhoff SB, Li T, et al. Common brain networks underlying human social interactions: Evidence from large-scale neuroimaging meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021;126:289-303. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.03.025

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