Apathy linked to ‘loose connections’ in the brain

In a revolutionary discovery researchers have announced that they have found a definite and lasting cure for apathy but, unfortunately, no-one seems to care. OK, so that’s a joke and fairly well-worn one at that but it does illustrate apathy quite nicely. It is enticing to think that apathy could be so all encompassing that a truly apathetic person would not care that a cure had been found for their state of malaise, if they could even be bothered thinking if they felt malaise or not. Alas, of course, we don’t have a cure for apathy although a new study may have us a step closer to that remedy by showing us how apathy occurs at the biological level in the brain.

When the researchers examined more deeply however, they found that connections in the front part of the brain of apathetic people are less effective.

The study involved healthy volunteers completing a questionnaire to establish their motivation levels. They were then asked to play a game that involved them being made offers, each one with a different level of reward and activity required. Of course offers with high reward and low effort were more likely to be accepted by all people but people who showed up as being apathetic were less likely to accept offers that required effort. None of this is surprising but the interest came when the brain activity of the people was examined using MRI scans.

The pre-motor cortex is a part of the brain that becomes active just before you take action. It was expected that apathetic people would have less activity in this part of the brain but in fact the opposite was true. Apathetic people showed more activity in the pre-frontal cortex. When the researchers examined more deeply however, they found that connections in the front part of the brain of apathetic people are less effective. This in turn means that it takes more energy to plan an action as the connections are not good. The brain uses around 20 per cent of your daily energy so if too much energy is required to make decisions to act then it will shut down the process and hence you have “apathy”.

There is something beautifully, if tragically, poetic about lack of connection being the biological underpinning of a lack of connection with the world.

It seems then that we know the biological basis of apathy; not that you care.