1. The neural correlates of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness: An fMRI study
- Author
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Sergio Duca, Igor Sotgiu, Maria Luisa Rusconi, Franco Cauda, Matteo Diano, Angelo Carlo Suardi, and Tommaso Costa
- Subjects
Settore M-PSI/01 - Psicologia Generale ,Adult ,Male ,0301 basic medicine ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Happiness ,Anterior cingulate cortex ,Eudaimonic happiness ,Hedonic happiness ,fMRI ,Imagination task ,Right precentral gyrus ,Eudaimonia ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,media_common ,Cued speech ,Neural correlates of consciousness ,Functional Neuroimaging ,General Neuroscience ,Life events ,Brain ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Settore M-PSI/02 - Psicobiologia e Psicologia Fisiologica ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Imagination ,Female ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
The current study investigated the neural correlates of both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness. Seventeen students underwent fMRI while cued with written sentences describing three classes of life events: Hedonic events (HE), eudaimonic events (EE) and neutral events (NE). We asked participants to imagine and empathize with all these event types. Results showed that, compared to NE, both HE and EE activated a network involving frontal, temporal and parietal regions, as well as subcortical structures. However, in the HE/EE comparison, HE showed enhanced activity in frontal medial/middle regions and anterior cingulate cortex; by contrast, EE showed increased activity in the right precentral gyrus. Findings suggest that hedonic and eudaimonic happiness activate similar neural correlates. However, both kinds of happiness are also associated with distinctive brain areas serving distinctive functions.
- Published
- 2019
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