Brain microstructural properties related to subjective well-being: diffusion tensor imaging analysis

Abstract

Although it is known that health is not merely the absence of disease, the positive aspects of mental health have been less comprehensively researched compared with its negative aspects. Subjective well-being is one of the indicators of positive psychology, and high subjective well-being is considered to benefit individuals in multiple ways. However, the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in subjective well-being remain unclear, particularly in terms of brain microstructural properties as detected by diffusion tensor imaging. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between measurements of diffusion tensor imaging (mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy) and the degree of subjective well-being as measured using a questionnaire. Voxel-based analysis was used to investigate the association between mean diffusivity and subjective well-being scores in healthy young adults (age, 20.7 ± 1.8 years; 695 males and 514 females). Higher levels of subjective well-being were found to be associated with lower mean diffusivity in areas surrounding the right putamen, insula, globus pallidus, thalamus, and caudate. These results indicated that individual subjective well-being is associated with variability in brain microstructural properties.

Brain conditions mediate the association between aging and happiness

“…In an analysis we conducted in the past, which is consistent with this study, FA was shown to be correlated with measures close to happiness, such as subjective well-being and post-materialism (a personality that prefers mental affluence to physical affluence), but GM showed no correlation with these 21 . In the same vein, recent studies have also shown that measures such as well-being and life satisfaction, which are close to happiness, correlate with indicators related to white matter including FA 63,91 .…”

“…First, in this study, the age range was from 21 to 63 years, and it did not include many elderly people. However, studies involving more older people showed a statistically significant negative correlation between age and FA, while a statistically significant positive correlation between well-being and FA 21,63,91 . In addition, many studies, including the elderly, have shown that there is no statistically significant correlation between age and SHS 2,[7][8][9][10][11] .…”

“…On the other hand, the reason why knowledge work is used as a variable is that it is necessary to control the intellect of the respondents because this study deals with the brain. Previous studies investigating the relationship between SHS and brain structure also used variables related to intelligence as covariates 30,63 . In a study by Sato and colleagues who analyzed the relationship between GM volume and SHS, full-scale intelligence quotient (IQ) was used as a covariate in addition to sex and age 30 .…”

“…In a study by Sato and colleagues who analyzed the relationship between GM volume and SHS, full-scale intelligence quotient (IQ) was used as a covariate in addition to sex and age 30 . On the other hand, in a study by Maeda and colleagues who investigated the relationship between FA and well-being as in this study, a widely used measure of general intelligence, which is different from IQ, was used as a covariate in addition to brain volume 63 . In this study, we decided to use knowledge work instead of IQ as a variable that reflects the more social background of the respondents, which is not sufficiently captured by IQ, although previous studies have shown that knowledge work generally has a high IQ 64 .…”

Investigation of Altered Spontaneous Brain Activity Patterns In Herpes Zoster Keratitis Using The Percent Amplitude of Fluctuation Method: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…Their results indicated that adolescents with a history of suicide attempts might have atypical maturation in the subcortical area of the right putamen, which may lead to suicidal behavior 10 . Research by Maeda et al showed that the right putamen is related to subjective well-being, with a negative correlation between subjective well-being and the average diffusion rate in the area around the right putamen 11 . Another study found a signi cant functional change in the right putamen of patients who had undergone vertical sleeve gastrectomy, and the change was also related to weight loss 12 .…”