| People who are forced to be isolated crave social interactions in a way that is similar to how a hungry person craves food, according to the findings from a new study. Chronic social isolation and loneliness are known to be associated with diminished physical and mental health. Little is known, however, about the effects of sudden mandatory isolation on people. Published in Nature Neuroscience, the study was partially funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Forty healthy young adults who have frequent, regular social interactions underwent 10 hours of social isolation one day and 10 hours of fasting another day. At the end of each day, participants had functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while doing a cue-induced task to measure their neural responses to social cues and food cues. The social cues were color images showing groups of people as they met, talked, laughed, and smiled. The food cues were images of highly palatable foods. Both sets of cues were paired with verbal descriptions and individually tailored to the participants' preferred foods and modes of social interaction. | 
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