The Sociable Brain

In an article in the NYT on hints of consciousness in patients in vegetative states:

Findings from modern neuroscience suggest that the brain is a highly social organ; more than enjoying company, it needs interactions to develop, to regulate mood, to solve problems, to responds to threats. When people are in isolation their brainwaves slow down; prisoners can become withdrawn, traumatized.

Weird.  Would this indicate that scientists working more or less alone in labs, students studying in the library, etc., have brains that are slowing down?