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Brain activity during guided imagination differentially relates to loneliness in younger and older adults

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Adam Turnbull¹ (aturnbu2@stanford.edu), Mia Anthony¹, Meishan Ai¹, Andrew Anderson², Feng Vankee Lin¹; ¹1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, ²Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin

Background: Decreasing emotional well-being (EWB) is an area of concern during aging. Loneliness, in particular, increases risk for negative health outcomes, cognitive decline, and mortality. Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can examine age-related differences in cognitive processes that may confer vulnerability for decreasing EWB. Research suggests we spend 30-50% of our mental lives mind wandering and differences in mind wandering content have been associated with EWB. Age-related differences in mind wandering processes may reflect mechanisms for decreasing EWB. Methods: In a case-control design, 30 cognitively unimpaired older adults and 30 younger adult controls performed guided imagination during fMRI scanning. Individual differences in brain activity while imagining specific scenarios was extracted and associated with EWB components (perceived quality of life and loneliness) using Generalized Estimating Equations. Results: Brain activity was not associated with perceived quality of life. Ventral attention network activity during social scenarios was linked to increased loneliness in older adults and younger controls, while default mode network (DMN) activity during social scenarios was associated with decreased loneliness only in younger adults. For older adults, frontoparietal network activity during active alone scenarios was linked to less loneliness. Behavioral analyses suggested that the protective effects of DMN activity for loneliness may be linked to imagining more pleasant social scenarios; this mechanism was not present in older adults. Conclusions: We found differences in how neural and behavioral aspects of mind wandering processes relate to loneliness between younger and older adults that warrants exploration with more ecologically valid and temporally precise methods.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Development & aging