In recent years, several studies have emerged on the so-called “neuroscience of happiness”. In fact, relatively few years ago, neuroscientists and psychologists began researching the brain states associated with the components of happiness and considering their relationship to well-being.
For years, research has shown that over time our experiments reshape our brains and can change our nervous system. It happens for the good and for the worse.
- Currently.
- Researchers in the field of happiness neuroscience are focusing on how we can leverage this “plasticity” of the brain to cultivate and maintain positive emotions.
The ability to maintain positive emotion is the secret of psychological well-being. The benefits of positive emotions are well documented. For example, positive emotions have been shown to improve physical health, promote confidence and compassion, and compensate for and/or alleviate depressive symptoms.
Positive emotions have also been found to help people recover from stress and can even reverse the effects of negative emotions. In addition, positive emotions promote a better social connection.
However, the inability to maintain positive emotions over time is an important feature of depression and other psychopathologies, but the mechanisms underlying the ability to maintain positive emotional responses have been understood very recently.
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in July 2015 found that prolonged activation of a region of the brain called ventral striatum is directly related to maintaining positive emotions and rewards.
The good news is that we can control the activation of the ventral striatum, which means that we can enjoy the most positive emotions that we have at our fingertips.
In general, according to the study, people with more sustained activity levels in ventral striatum have higher levels of psychological well-being and lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
In previous studies, the research team has identified that enjoying things like a beautiful sunset and the positive emotions associated with it can help improve well-being. For this new study, researchers wanted to identify how and why some people can maintain a positive attitude feelings alive.
One of the great advantages of identifying a specific region of the brain related to the maintenance of positive emotions is that it facilitates the visualization of what we might call a switch, this allows us to consciously activate this region.
For this new study, researchers studied the neurosciences associated with maintaining positive emotions in the real world by conducting two human experiments.
The first experiment was a reward response task monitored by functional MRI images; the second was an experience demonstration task that measures emotional responses to a reward. The lab test positively predicted the duration of positive emotional responses in the real world.
Examining these dynamics can facilitate a better understanding of the brain’s behavioral associations underlying positive and negative emotions; in this sense, it should be noted that, according to the authors, it is important to take into account not only the amount of emotion that the person feels, but also the time during which these emotions persist.
The exact mechanism that allows the creation of instances in the brain of real-world emotions, lived in seconds, minutes and hours, remains a mystery; however, the authors say that these results suggest that the duration of activity in specific brain circuits, even more relatively short periods of time, such as a few seconds, can predict the persistence of a person’s positive emotions a few minutes and hours later.
The results of this study help to better understand how mental disorders, such as depression, manifest themselves in the brain.
In addition, the findings could also help explain why some people are more cynical than others and why some people tend to see the glass always half full, rather than half empty.
According to the study authors, the neural pattern observed in the new study, particularly in the ventral striatum, predicted higher levels of well-being in previous studies.
According to them, practices such as loving kindness and compassion for others, which aim to cultivate certain forms of positive emotion, can help increase the ability to savor positive emotions.
On the other hand, according to the authors, the methodological innovations presented in this study can be applied to investigate whether the impact of simple forms of meditation can improve the positive emotions maintained in real-world contexts, as well as the activation sustained by ventral measurement. striatum using brain imaging technology.