Social Instability and the Amygdala

What happens when we disrupt social bonds

Neuroscientist and Assistant Professor Nicole Ferrara, PhD, is working to illuminate the biological pathways that may underlie human responses to loneliness and social stress. She wants to understand how early social experiences — or their absence — reshape the brain’s emotional circuitry. Her research focuses on the amygdala, a key region of the brain involved in fear and emotion, modeling how the disruption of social bonds during adolescence can leave lasting marks on behavior and emotional health.

“It’s rare that people are in total isolation,” Dr. Ferrara explains. “More often, it’s restricted or inconsistent contact, and we want to see how that affects the brain.” Her current study focuses on two forms of social disruption: social deprivation, when normal peer interactions are limited, and social instability, when familiar social groups are repeatedly unsettled. She adds, “What we’re learning from the research during the lockdown is that those breaks correlate with rising rates of anxiety, depression and social dysregulation.”

Dr. Ferrara’s research suggests that these effects may persist because, during critical developmental windows — particularly adolescence — stress can interfere with brain maturation. When neural circuits in regions such as the amygdala fail to develop properly, the result can be lifelong challenges in emotional regulation.

Dr. Ferrara and her colleagues hope to identify patterns that could inform human mental-
health research. Her work underscores a growing recognition in neuroscience: The bonds we form with others aren’t just psychologically important — they are biologically fundamental to emotional well-being and brain development.

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