Neuroscientists have found in the brains of mice Center loneliness – Rosbalt.RU

 US neuroscientists have found in mice brain unusual area, which is responsible for the emergence of feelings of loneliness and the need for the company of their own kind.

 

 “As far as we know, we were the first who managed to find the cellular underpinnings of loneliness. Now we can start its substantive and objective study. Differences in the structure of the area can determine why some people prefer the solitude of others, “- said Kai Tai from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)
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 Initially, the researchers involved in the fact that studied how the different parts of the brain react to dopamine, the pleasure hormone, and those violations in its distribution, and the works that are the result of the development of drug addiction.

 

 During the experiments, the researchers placed addicts rodent-insulators cells, where they carried out a day alone and without access to the drugs, constantly watching the changes in their brain activity that occurred over time, using a fluorescent protein molecules, the light at the moment, when nerve cells begin to actively share signals.

 

 During these observations, their attention was attracted by a relatively little-studied part of our nervous system, the so-called mid-brain nuclei (DRN), located at a great depth from the surface of the hemispheres, almost at the base of the skull and neck. Activity in this area has grown during their stay in the isolation that was typical not only for mice, drug addicts, but also for their relatives in the control group.

 

 This led them to suggest that these nerve cells may somehow be involved in the mechanisms that control social interaction of animals and forces them to seek the company of relatives. Tai and his colleagues tested this idea by comparing the extent of the active region was DRN in isolated mice and rodents such pairs.

 

 As it turned out, this part of the brain is switched on only at the time when the mouse was alone, and its activity fell off sharply if its cells appear kinsman. DRN activity, judging from the behavior of rodents, forcing them to improve their social activities and actively communicate with neighbors or look for them when they return to the overall cell.

 

 Interestingly, this increased social disappeared at the moment when the scientists turned off this area of ​​the brain, using a different set of light-sensitive proteins. This means that the midbrain region is a kind of “center of loneliness”, which pushes the mice and, according to investigators, the man on the search of their own kind, RIA “Novosti».