Amylin peptide in the brain senses isolation and drives social-contact-seeking behavior

As we have experienced during the COVID pandemic, loneliness, or perceived social isolation, is a major stress for social animals and increases the risk of mental and physical health issues such as depression, substance abuse, obesity and premature death. In efforts to understand the neural basis for loneliness, Kansai Fukumitsu and others at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan have found a molecular indicator and regulator of social isolation in female mice. The new study, published in Nature Communications, reports that social-contact-seeking behavior in mice is driven by the peptide amylin in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the forebrain, and that being alone decreases the amount of amylin in this brain region.