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Li Z, Jiang K, Zhu Y, Du H, Im H, Zhu Y, Feng L, Zhu W, Zhao G, Jia X, Hu Y, Zhu H, Yao Q, Wang H, Wang Q. Happy people are always similar: The evidence from brain morphological and functional inter-subject correlations. Neuroimage 2024; 297:120690. [PMID: 38880309 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120690] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2024] [Revised: 06/13/2024] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
A fundamental question in the study of happiness is whether there is neural evidence to support a well-known hypothesis that happy people are always similar while unfortunate people have their own misfortunes. To investigate this, we employed several happiness-related questionnaires to identify potential components of happiness, and further investigated and confirmed their associations with personality, mood, aggressive behaviors, and amygdala reactivity to fearful faces within a substantial sample size of college students (n = 570). Additionally, we examined the functional and morphological similarities and differences among happy individuals using the inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA). IS-RSA emphasizes the geometric properties in a high-dimensional space constructed by brain or behavioral patterns and focuses on individual subjects. Our behavioral findings unveiled two factors of happiness: individual and social, both of which mediated the effect of personality traits on individual aggression. Subsequently, mood mediated the impact of happiness on aggressive behaviors across two subgroup splits. Functional imaging data revealed that individuals with higher levels of happiness exhibited reduced amygdala reactivity to fearful faces, as evidenced by a conventional face-matching task (n = 104). Moreover, IS-RSA demonstrated that these participants manifested similar neural activation patterns when processing fearful faces within the visual pathway, but not within the emotional network (e.g., amygdala). Morphological observations (n = 425) indicated that individuals with similar high happiness levels exhibited comparable gray matter volume patterns within several networks, including the default mode network, fronto-parietal network, visual network, and attention network. Collectively, these findings offer early neural evidence supporting the proposition that happy individuals may share common neural characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zixi Li
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Keying Jiang
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Ye Zhu
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Hanxiao Du
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | | | - Yingying Zhu
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Lei Feng
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Wenwei Zhu
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
| | - Guang Zhao
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Xuji Jia
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Ying Hu
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
| | - Haidong Zhu
- Normal College of Shihezi University, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832000, China
| | - Qiong Yao
- Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence Intervention, Hefei 230601, China; School of Educational and Psychological Science, Hefei Normal University, Hefei 230601, China
| | - He Wang
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China.
| | - Qiang Wang
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence Intervention, Hefei 230601, China.
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Jiang K, Zhao G, Feng Q, Guan S, Im H, Zhang B, Wang P, Jia X, Zhu H, Zhu Y, Wang H, Wang Q. The computational and neural substrates of individual differences in impulsivity under loss framework. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26808. [PMID: 39126347 PMCID: PMC11316248 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2024] [Revised: 07/08/2024] [Accepted: 07/21/2024] [Indexed: 08/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Numerous neuroimaging studies have identified significant individual variability in intertemporal choice, often attributed to three neural mechanisms: (1) increased reward circuit activity, (2) decreased cognitive control, and (3) prospection ability. These mechanisms that explain impulsivity, however, have been primarily studied in the gain domain. This study extends this investigation to the loss domain. We employed a hierarchical Bayesian drift-diffusion model (DDM) and the inter-subject representational similarity approach (IS-RSA) to investigate the potential computational neural substrates underlying impulsivity in loss domain across two experiments (n = 155). These experiments utilized a revised intertemporal task that independently manipulated the amounts of immediate and delayed-loss options. Behavioral results demonstrated positive correlations between the drift rate, measured by the DDM, and the impulsivity index K in Exp. 1 (n = 97) and were replicated in Exp. 2 (n = 58). Imaging analyses further revealed that the drift rate significantly mediated the relations between brain properties (e.g., prefrontal cortex activations and gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex and precuneus) and K in Exp. 1. IS-RSA analyses indicated that variability in the drift rate also mediated the associations between inter-subject variations in activation patterns and individual differences in K. These findings suggest that individuals with similar impulsivity levels are likely to exhibit similar value processing patterns, providing a potential explanation for individual differences in impulsivity within a loss framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keying Jiang
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - Guang Zhao
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - Qian Feng
- Epilepsy Center, Tsinghua University Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western MedicineBeijingChina
| | - Shunping Guan
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | | | - Bin Zhang
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - Pinchun Wang
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - Xuji Jia
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - Haidong Zhu
- Normal CollegeShihezi UniversityShiheziChina
| | - Ye Zhu
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
| | - He Wang
- Institute of Biomedical EngineeringChinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical CollegeTianjinChina
| | - Qiang Wang
- Faculty of PsychologyTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
- Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence InterventionHefeiChina
- Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary SciencesTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
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Halász P, Simor P, Szűcs A. Fearful arousals in sleep terrors and sleep-related hypermotor epileptic seizures may involve the salience network and the acute stress response of Cannon and Selye. Epilepsy Behav Rep 2024; 25:100650. [PMID: 38328672 PMCID: PMC10847862 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebr.2024.100650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Revised: 01/28/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
We consider the disorders of arousal and sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy as genetic twin-conditions, one without, one with epilepsy. They share an augmented arousal-activity during NREM sleep with sleep-wake dissociations, culminating in sleep terrors and sleep-related hypermotor seizures with similar symptoms. The known mutations underlying the two spectra are different, but there are multifold population-genetic-, family- and even individual (the two conditions occurring in the same person) overlaps supporting common genetic roots. In the episodes of disorders of arousal, the anterior cingulate, anterior insular and pre-frontal cortices (shown to be involved in fear- and emotion processing) are activated within a sleeping brain. These regions overlap with the seizure-onset zones of successfully operated sleep-related hypermotor seizures, and notably, belong to the salience network being consistent with its hubs. The arousal-relatedness and the similar fearful confusion occurring in sleep terrors and hypermotor seizures, make them alike acute stress-responses emerging from sleep; triggered by false alarms. The activation of the anterior cingulate, prefrontal and insular regions in the episodes of both conditions, can easily mobilize the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (preparing fight-flight responses in wakefulness); through its direct pathways to and from the salience network. This hypothesis has never been studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter Halász
- Szentágothai János Doctoral School, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Péter Simor
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Faculty of Education and Psychology, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anna Szűcs
- Institute of Behavioural Sciences Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
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