Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Psychol Med. 2023 Mar;53(4):1215-1223. doi: 10.1017/S0033291721002695. Epub 2021 Aug 2.
Although mental wellbeing has been linked with positive health outcomes, including longevity and improved emotional and cognitive functioning, studies examining the underlying neural mechanisms of both subjective and psychological wellbeing have been sparse. We assessed whether both forms of wellbeing are associated with neural activity engaged during positive and negative emotion processing and the extent to which this association is driven by genetics or environment.
We assessed mental wellbeing in 230 healthy adult monozygotic and dizygotic twins using a previously validated questionnaire (COMPAS-W) and undertook functional magnetic resonance imaging during a facial emotion viewing task. We used linear mixed models to analyse the association between COMPAS-W scores and emotion-elicited neural activation. Univariate twin modelling was used to evaluate heritability of each brain region. Multivariate twin modelling was used to compare twin pairs to assess the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to this association.
Higher levels of wellbeing were associated with greater neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, localised in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), in response to positive emotional expressions of happiness. Univariate twin modelling showed activity in the IFG to have 20% heritability. Multivariate twin modelling suggested that the association between wellbeing and positive emotion-elicited neural activity was driven by common variance from unique environment ( = 0.208) rather than shared genetics.
Higher mental wellbeing may have a basis in greater engagement of prefrontal neural regions in response to positive emotion, and this association may be modifiable by unique life experiences.
尽管心理健康与积极的健康结果有关，包括长寿和改善情绪和认知功能，但研究主观和心理幸福感的潜在神经机制的研究却很少。我们评估了这两种幸福感是否都与积极和消极情绪处理过程中参与的神经活动有关，以及这种关联在多大程度上是由遗传或环境驱动的。
我们使用先前验证过的问卷（COMPAS-W）评估了 230 名健康成年同卵和异卵双胞胎的心理健康状况，并在面部情绪观察任务期间进行了功能磁共振成像。我们使用线性混合模型分析了 COMPAS-W 评分与情绪诱发的神经激活之间的关联。单变量双胞胎模型用于评估每个脑区的遗传性。多变量双胞胎模型用于比较双胞胎对，以评估遗传和环境因素对这种关联的贡献。
更高的幸福感与在右额下回（IFG）局部的背外侧前额叶皮层对快乐等积极情绪表达的神经活动增加有关。单变量双胞胎模型显示 IFG 的活动有 20%的遗传性。多变量双胞胎模型表明，幸福感与积极情绪诱发的神经活动之间的关联是由独特环境中的共同方差（ = 0.208）驱动的，而不是由共享遗传决定的。
更高的心理健康可能是由于前额叶神经区域对积极情绪的反应增强，而这种关联可能可以通过独特的生活经历来改变。
