Youseok Eom
Yonsei University · Social Sciences
About the Lab
Professor Youseok Eom's research lab specializes in the intersection of social networks, neuroscience, and aging, focusing on how social connectedness influences cognitive health and brain structure across the lifespan. The lab investigates the neural underpinnings of social behavior using neuroimaging and network analysis, particularly examining how brain regions like the orbitofrontal cortex and prefrontal cortex relate to social network size and embeddedness. A key focus is on understanding the role of social integration—especially in older adults and marginalized populations such as North Korean defectors—in maintaining cognitive function and emotional well-being. The lab also explores dyadic and triadic network dynamics, including homophily and information exchange, using both population-based surveys and in-depth qualitative methods.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Selected Papers
15BACKGROUND: This paper has two objectives. Firstly, it provides an overview of the social network module, data collection procedures, and measurement of ego-centric and complete-network properties in the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP). Secondly, it directly compares the KSHAP structure and results to the ego-centric network structure and results of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), which conducted in-home interviews with 3,005 persons 57 to 85 ye
Among people who had fewer than 13 lifetime sex partners, those with no social friends were only 0.4 times as likely to be infected as those with one or more social friends. Among people who had 13 or more lifetime partners, those with many friends (5 or 6) but weak ties to them (talking less than once a day with them) were only 0.2 times as likely to be infected as those with either fewer friends or stronger ties to their friends. Additional regressions suggest that network effects resting on d
The social brain hypothesis proposes that large neocortex size evolved to support cognitively demanding social interactions. Accordingly, previous studies have observed that larger orbitofrontal and amygdala structures predict the size of an individual's social network. However, it remains uncertain how an individual's social connectedness reported by other people is associated with the social brain volume. In this study, we found that a greater in-degree network size, a measure of social ties i
People often have the intuition that they are similar to their friends, yet evidence for homophily (being friends with similar others) based on self-reported personality is inconsistent. Functional connectomes-patterns of spontaneous synchronization across the brain-are stable within individuals and predict how people tend to think and behave. Thus, they may capture interindividual variability in latent traits that are particularly similar among friends but that might elude self-report. Here, we
이 연구는 북한이탈주민의 사회연결망 유형에 대한 근거 이론 연구이며 이를 위하여 “북한 이주민의 정체성과 사회 적응에 대한 패널 연구”로부터 구축된 북한이탈주민에 대한 설문 자료(NKIP: North Korean Immigrant Panel)에 대한 접근을 허가받아 연구대상자를 선정하였다. 2007년에 남한에 입국한 500명의 북한이탈주민을 대상으로 한 원자료를 검토한 후, 30대에서 50대의 응답자 중 사회연결망의 크기나 남한사회만족도에 있어서 다양한 분포를 보이는 15명을 선정하였다. 이렇게 선정된 15명을 대상으로 심층면접을 통한 근거이론을 이용하여 이들의 사회연결망 유형을 파악하였다. 기존의 연구와는 다르게 사회연결망의 효과보다는 형성의 과정을 심층면접을 통하여 검토하고자 하였다. 우선 적극적으로 남한인들과 사회연결망을 형성하고자 하지만 그 범위는 매우 제한적인 유형이 발견되었다. 특히 비혼(非婚)의 자녀가 없는 여성의 경우에는 남한인 배우자를 만나기 위해 적극적인 노력을 보
Social networks are known to protect cognitive function in old age. For the first time, this study examines how social network size and social network embeddedness measured by k-core score are associated with functional connectivity in the brain using the complete social network of an entire village. According to the results, social network size has both positive and negative associations with functional connectivity; showing no meaningful pattern relative to distance among brain regions. Howeve
Late-life depression has been considered to be associated with memory deficits and hippocampal volume reduction. Considering that not all depression patients undergo the same amount of cognitive impairment or regional brain volume loss, moderating factors such as complex mental activity and social activity have been examined to assess whether these factors attenuate the detrimental impact of depressive symptoms on cognitive function and regional brain volume. However, the premise that a cognitiv
Various economic and sociological approaches have attempted to solve the puzzle of persistent gender inequality in the division of housework, but with mixed results. We propose a game-theoretic model in which the structural embeddedness of the partners is the key contingency predicting family members' behavior. Under the condition of strong embeddedness, partners behave as if they share a unitary utility function because they can safely assume their partners' gain will be their own gain. Under t
Various aspects of social relationships have been examined as risk factors for mortality. In particular, most research has focused on either loneliness or social disengagement. We aimed to extend the current research by adding a group-level segregation measure utilizing the whole social network of one entire village in South Korea. The analyses were based on the Korean Social Life, Health and Aging Project data collected over eight years across five waves. Of the 679 old adults who participated
This study examined the effects of cosponsorship network on the process of legislative bill adoption at the standing committee of Public Health and Social Welfare in the 16th congress in Korea. It revealed the strong and systematic effect of brokearage position in the cosponsorship network even after controlling for individual attributes of congressmen such as age, sex, party membership, and the number of getting elected. Not all types of brorkeage, however, had influence on the adoption. Two ty
Our results show that maintaining a large and intimate social support network is associated with a lower risk of osteoporosis among elderly Korean women, while a large but less-intimate social relationship is associated with a higher risk.
Neuropsychological test is an essential tool in assessing cognitive and functional changes associated with late-life neurocognitive disorders. Despite the utility of the neuropsychological test, the brain-wide neural basis of the test performance remains unclear. Using the predictive modeling approach, we aimed to identify the optimal combination of functional connectivities that predicts neuropsychological test scores of novel individuals. Resting-state functional connectivity and neuropsycholo
Research Areas
Dive deeper into Youseok Eom's research on Nubint
Open this lab's papers in the app to read with AI, summarize, and cite in your writing.