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

Chiaki Terao Maeda,Yuka Kotozaki,Yasuyuki Taki,Seishu Nakagawa,Yuko Sassa,Sugiko Hanawa,Tsuyoshi Araki,Takayuki Nozawa,Rui Nouchi,Atsushi Sekiguchi,Shigeyuki Ikeda,Kohei Sakaki,Ryoichi Yokoyama,Carlos Makoto Miyauchi,Ryuta Kawashima,Hikaru Takeuchi,Susumu Yokota,Daniele Magistro,Kunio Iizuka

doi:10.1093/scan/nsab063

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 (SWB) is one of the indicators of positive psychology, and high SWB is considered to benefit individuals in multiple ways. However, the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in SWB 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 (MD) and fractional anisotropy] and the degree of SWB as measured using a questionnaire. Voxel-based analysis was used to investigate the association between MD and SWB scores in healthy young adults (age, 20.7 ± 1.8 years; 695 males and 514 females). Higher levels of SWB were found to be associated with lower MD in areas surrounding the right putamen, insula, globus pallidus, thalamus and caudate. These results indicated that individual SWB is associated with variability in brain microstructural properties.

Highlights

Every person hopes to lead a healthy life
Accumulating evidence implies the involvement of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system in reward and motivation, which have long been identified as the roles of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system (Wise, 2009)
This can support the possibility of an association of the dopaminergic system with the negative correlation between Mean diffusivity (MD) and Subjective well-being (SWB) observed in the present study

Summary

Introduction

Health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This statement defines health as more than a lack of illness, neuropsychological investigations conducted of positive mental health have been fewer than those of psychological disorders and diseases. Subjective well-being and its components Subjective well-being (SWB) is an indicator of positive psychology as well as happiness, life satisfaction, and positive social influence (Sell and Nagpal, 1992). SWB is considered to have pleasant and unpleasant affective features and a cognitive aspect of life satisfaction (Diener and Suh, 1997). Because a decrease in NA does not necessarily promote an increase in PA, it appears to be important to consider PA and NA separately when investigating SWB

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion