Physical, Emotional, and Social Pain During COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Social Isolation

Abstract

The socio-emotional condition during the COVID-19 pandemic subsidises the (re)modulation of interactive neural circuits underlying risk assessment behaviour at the physical, emotional, and social levels. Experiences of social isolation, exclusion, or affective loss are generally considered some of the most "painful" things that people endure. The threats of social disconnection are processed by some of the same neural structures that process basic threats to survival. The lack of social connection can be "painful" due to an overlap in the neural circuitry responsible for both physical and emotional pain related to feelings of social rejection. Indeed, many of us go to great lengths to avoid situations that may engender these experiences. Accordingly, this work focuses on pandemic times; the somatisation mentioned above seeks the interconnection and/or interdependence between neural systems related to emotional and cognitive processes such that a person involved in an aversive social environment becomes aware of himself, others, and the threatening situation experienced and takes steps to avoid daily psychological and neuropsychiatric effects. Social distancing during isolation evokes the formation of social distress, increasing the intensity of learned fear that people acquire, consequently enhancing emotional and social pain.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emotional pain; Neuroscience; Social distancing; Social pain.

Fig. 1

Pain pathways from nociception to sensory discriminative perception and emotional pain

Fig. 2

Brain areas that have been shown to be related to physical pain, emotional pain, and social pain. S1: Primary somatosensorial cortex; S2: Secondary somatosensorial cortex; ACC: anterior cingulate cortex; PFC: prefrontal córtex; AI: anterior área of the insula; PI: posterior área of the insula