Broderick Matthew-Zane L, Khan Qadir, Moradikor Nasrollah
Faculty of Medicine and Stomatology, Tbilisi State Medical University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
International Center for Neuroscience Research, Institute for Intelligent Research, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Prog Brain Res. 2025;293:127-148. doi: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2025.03.004. Epub 2025 Mar 25.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines happiness as "a state of well-being and contentment". Psychologically, happiness can be defined as a state of current well-being and positivity resulting from recent stimuli, as well as long-term life satisfaction and peace of mind. This refers to two aspects of happiness discussed in psychology, first coined by Aristotle, pleasurable happiness known as "hedonia" and the long-term happiness of living a good life called "eudaimonia". These early concepts break down the vaguer and complex idea of happiness into long-term pleasure and positivity. This is where it starts to get more challenging when we try to define happiness in neurobiological terms. Many regions, pathways and circuits in the brain work in tandem to create the conscious and recognized state of happiness we cognitively perceive as humans. However, happiness is a feeling that transcends species boundaries. It is a positive state of emotions that can be expressed in different ways, including contentedness, peace, pleasure, excitement, relief, joy, and more. To do this, happiness must be broken down into constituent parts, localized to specific neuroanatomical regions, and associated with specific projects and structures to really build the anatomical architecture of happiness. Understanding how emotion is quantified and experimentally studied allows the field of neuroscience to build a comprehensive "neurobiological happiness model". Here in this chapter, we discuss historical and novel findings into this emotion; we discuss its implication as an evolutionary advantage in the adaptive response, how laughter is associated with happiness, and how a state of positive well-being plays a role in promoting positive brain health.
韦氏词典将幸福定义为“一种幸福安康、心满意足的状态”。从心理学角度来看，幸福可被定义为一种因近期刺激而产生的当前幸福安康与积极状态，以及长期的生活满意度和内心平静。这涉及到心理学中所讨论的幸福的两个方面，最早由亚里士多德提出，即被称为“享乐主义”的愉悦幸福，以及被称为“幸福论”的美好生活的长期幸福。这些早期概念将幸福这个更模糊、更复杂的概念分解为长期的愉悦和积极状态。当我们试图从神经生物学角度定义幸福时，情况就开始变得更具挑战性了。大脑中的许多区域、通路和回路协同工作，以创造出我们人类在认知上所感知到的有意识且被认可的幸福状态。然而，幸福是一种超越物种界限的感觉。它是一种积极的情绪状态，可以通过不同方式表达，包括满足、平静、愉悦、兴奋、解脱、喜悦等等。要做到这一点，必须将幸福分解为组成部分，定位到特定的神经解剖区域，并与特定的投射和结构相关联，才能真正构建幸福的解剖学架构。了解情绪是如何被量化以及如何进行实验研究，有助于神经科学领域构建一个全面的“神经生物学幸福模型”。在本章中，我们将讨论关于这种情绪的历史和新发现；我们将讨论它作为适应性反应中的一种进化优势的意义、笑声与幸福的关联，以及积极幸福状态在促进积极大脑健康方面所起的作用。
