Neural correlates of the ‘good life’: eudaimonic well-being is associated with insular cortex volume
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Eudaimonic well-being reflects traits concerned with personal growth, self-acceptance, purpose in life and autonomy (among others) and is a substantial predictor of life events, including health. Although interest in the aetiology of eudaimonic well-being has blossomed in recent years, little is known of the underlying neural substrates of this construct. To address this gap in our knowledge, here we examined whether regional gray matter (GM) volume was associated with eudaimonic well-being. Structural magnetic resonance images from 70 young, healthy adults who also completed Ryff's 42-item measure of the six core facets of eudaimonia, were analysed with voxel-based morphometry techniques. We found that eudaimonic well-being was positively associated with right insular cortex GM volume. This association was also reflected in three of the sub-scales of eudaimonia: personal growth, positive relations and purpose in life. Positive relations also showed a significant association with left insula volume. No other significant associations were observed, although personal growth was marginally associated with left insula, and purpose in life exhibited a marginally significant negative association with middle temporal gyrus GM volume. These findings are the first to our knowledge linking eudaimonic well-being with regional brain structure.
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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).
“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 -30).”
From Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services (2014) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Lewis, G. J., Kanai, R., Rees, G., & Bates, T. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Stirling (GB)
- Division of Psychology, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK, 2UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK, 3School of Psychology, Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9QH, UK, 4Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK, and 5Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK
- Corresponding author
- Lewis, Gary J.
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-04-24
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 615-618
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC4014105
- OpenAlex
- W2116529202
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 15.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 100227, 100227/Z/12/Z)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- eudaimonic well-being, insula, gray matter volume, neural correlates, personal growth, positive relationships, meaning of life, Ryff scale, middle temporal gyrus
- MeSH terms
- Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Organ Size, Self Concept, Young Adult, Gray Matter
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