Sustained Striatal Activity Predicts Eudaimonic Well-Being and Cortisol Output

Abstract

Eudaimonic well-being—a sense of purpose, meaning, and engagement with life—is protective against psychopathology and predicts physical health, including lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Although it has been suggested that the ability to engage the neural circuitry of reward may promote well-being and mediate the relationship between well-being and health, this hypothesis has remained untested. To test this hypothesis, we had participants view positive, neutral, and negative images while fMRI data were collected. Individuals with sustained activity in the striatum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to positive stimuli over the course of the scan session reported greater well-being and had lower cortisol output. This suggests that sustained engagement of reward circuitry in response to positive events underlies well-being and adaptive regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services

“…Another study used structural MRI and found that purpose was positively associated with right insular cortex gray matter and negatively associated with middle temporal gyrus gray matter (27). Additionally, functional MRI scans from another study revealed that when people were shown positive stimuli, people with higher eudaimonic well-being (an overarching umbrella term that includes purpose) displayed sustained ventral striatum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity (28).…”

“…Further work has linked purpose to better regulation of physiological systems (e.g., reduced inflammatory markers and cardiovascular risk factors) as well as brain-based mechanisms (e.g., insular cortex volume, reduced amygdala activation, sustained ventral striatum activation) (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). Additionally, a study that examined gene transcriptional profiles found that eudaimonic well-being (an overarching umbrella term that includes purpose) was associated with enhanced expression of antiviral response genes and reduced expression of proinflammatory genes (31).…”

Extraversion mediates the relationship between structural variations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and social well-being

“…Evidence from an electroencephalography study has revealed that greater left than right superior frontal activation is associated with individual well-being including life satisfaction, positive affect and psychological well-being (Urry et al, 2004). Furthermore, two functional MRI (fMRI) studies reported that psychological wellbeing was associated with activities of the ventromedial (VMPFC) in response to negative stimuli (van Reekum et al, 2007) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in response to positive stimuli (Heller et al, 2013). Recently, using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), Takeuchi et al (2014) found significant negative relationships between regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in specific regions of the PFC including left dorsomedial and rostrolateral regions and individuals' total life satisfaction (as measured by the self-report WHOQOL questionnaire).…”

Different neural pathways linking personality traits and eudaimonic well-being: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

“…Previous neuroimaging studies have begun to investigate the neural basis of EWB at the regional level and found that EWB is involved in multiple brain regions including the temporal, insular, prefrontal, and limbic cortices (Heller et al, 2013;Lewis, Kanai, Rees, & Bates, 2013;Luo, Huang, Yang, Li, Liu, & Wei, 2014;van Reekum et al, 2007). For example, structurally, higher EWB is associated with larger gray matter volume (GMV) in the insula (Lewis et al, 2013).…”

“…For example, structurally, higher EWB is associated with larger gray matter volume (GMV) in the insula (Lewis et al, 2013). Functionally, higher scores on EWB or related measures (e.g., happiness) are associated with increased activities of the superior temporal lobe and decreased activities of the thalamus at rest (Luo et al, 2014), and associated with increased or sustained activities of the prefrontal cortex in response to affective stimuli (Heller et al, 2013;van Reekum et al, 2007). In this study we tried to use restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to explore the neural correlates of EWB at both the regional and the functional connectivity levels in a unified way, and examine how its neural correlates are differently associated with the five basic personality traits.…”