“Neuroscience Explains Why the Grinch Stole Christmas”  

Dr. John Cacioppo, a researcher from U of Chicago and his team, use fMRI in thier work surrounding social isolation, connection and evaluative processes. David DiSalvo writes about Cacioppo’s recent work re: neurobiology of emotion, showing that:

…people with an acute sense of social isolation appear to have a reduced response to things that make most people happy, and a heightened response to human conflict.  This explains a lot about people who not only seem to wallow in unhappiness, but also seem obsessed with the emotional “drama” of others. (via)

Above:  Clusters of voxels in the left and right visual cortices exhibited a positive relationship between loneliness and activation in the unpleasant social-unpleasant nonsocial contrast; whereas clusters of voxels in the left and right TPJ exhibited a negative relationship between loneliness and activation in the unpleasant social-unpleasant nonsocial contrast. (Via)

Cacioppo, J. T., Norris, C. J., Decety, J., Monteleone, G., & Nusbaum, H. (2009). In the eye of the beholder: Individual differences in perceived social isolation predict regional brain activation to social stimuli. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21(1), 83-92. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21007