In different phrases, individuals who really feel happiness extra intensely, really feel unhappiness much less intensely, and are extra in a position to discover which means in life have a bigger precuneus. People started using the word after the 14th century (the word happy) because in that century, you could be glad but not happy, says our good ‘ol Oxford happy meaning.
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The researchers scanned the brains of participants with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Those with larger precuneus were generally more satisfied with their lives, felt happiness more intensely, and felt sadness less so. The participants who responded with high levels of happiness in the survey were found to have more grey matter mass in their precuneus.
The results showed there was a positive relationship between the subjective happiness score and grey matter volume on the right precuneus.
There are several reasons a few people are happier than others.
Wataru Sato and his team at Kyoto University have found an answer from a neurological perspective. The neural mechanism behind how happiness emerges, however, remained unclear. This region activates while experiencing consciousness, while the coming together of happy emotions and life satisfaction constitutes overall happiness. Studying the subjective experience of happiness is further complicated by the fact that scientists still aren’t sure about the exact neural mechanism that makes people feel happy.
According to Sato the study has a few major implications for future research into what makes people feel happy, but the study also suggests a few immediate means to increase happiness.
“Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have contemplated what happiness is”, said the paper’s lead author Wataru Sato.
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The researchers also found that meditation has been linked to increasing the grey mass within the precuneus. Mr. Sato used MRI to observe how happiness is reflected when conscious. “This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programs based on scientific research”, he said. The study’s participants were then required to fill out a survey that asked them about their general happiness, the intensity of their emotions, and their overall life satisfaction.
