Only the Lonely

The chemical signal dopamine plays an unexpected role in social interactions, showed research in February, led by Mark Ungless at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Kay Tye at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dopamine is a messenger molecule in the brain already linked to memory, learning and addiction. Previous studies have hinted that it’s involved in social behaviour. The study in Cell shows that when mice are kept on their own for a short time, the nerve cells in the brain that release dopamine become particularly active. There are many different groups of these nerve cells in the brain, and the team focused on those in an area called the dorsal raphe nucleus (pictured). They labelled them with a green fluorescent protein and stained red the molecules that make dopamine; overlap coloured yellow. The finding could hold clues to how social isolation affects people and influences our mental health.

Find out more about this study, and research on the brain at the Clinical Sciences Centre.

Written by Deborah Oakley

Deborah Oakley

Writer

Deborah is researching healthy cognitive ageing at the University of Cambridge. She previously worked as a science communicator in London, working closely with the BPoD team.

• Image from work by Gillian A. Matthews, Edward H. Nieh and Caitlin M. Vander Weele, and colleagues
• MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Cell, February 2016