George2828. George MS, Ketter TA, Parekh PI, Horwitz B, Herscovitch P, Post RM. Brain activity during transient sadness and happiness in healthy women. Am J Psychiatry. 1995;152:341-51.
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1995 |
11 healthy and never mentally ill adult women |
1) Transient sadness activated bilateral limbic and paralimbic structures (right medial frontal gyrus, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral cingulate gyrus, caudate, putamen, thalamus, fornix, left insula, and left midline cerebellum). 2) Transient happiness was associated with significant and widespread reductions in cortical regional cerebral blood flow, especially in the right prefrontal and bilateral temporoparietal regions. |
1) Small sample 2) Only women participated 3) Many memories are emotionally mixed. Sadness and happiness are not necessarily mutually exclusive |
Lane2929. Lane RD, Reiman EM, Ahern GL, Schwartz GE, Davidson RJ. Neuroanatomical correlates of happiness, sadness, and disgust. Am J Psychiatry. 1997;154:926-33.
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1997 |
12 healthy women |
1) Happiness, sadness, and disgust were each associated with increases in activity in the thalamus and medial prefrontal cortex (BA9). 2) Happiness, sadness, and disgust were also associated with activation of anterior and posterior temporal structures. 3) Recalled sadness was associated with increased activation in the anterior insula. 4) Happiness was distinguished from sadness by greater activity in the vicinity of the ventral medial frontal cortex. |
1) Small sample 2) Only women participated |
Pelletier3030. Pelletier M, Bouthillier A, Lévesque J, Carrier S, Breault C, Paquette V, et al. Separate neural circuits for primary emotions? Brain activity during self-induced sadness and happiness in professional actors. Neuroreport. 2003;14:1111-6.
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2003 |
Nine professional actors |
Relative to an emotionally neutral state, both sad and happy states were associated with significant loci of activation, bilaterally, in the orbitofrontal cortex and in the left medial prefrontal cortex, left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, left anterior temporal pole, and right pons. |
1) Small sample 2) Sample limited to professionally trained (i.e., expert) individuals, which may present certain problems, given that distinctions between experts and typical untrained individuals can be quite marked |
Habel3131. Habel U, Klein M, Kellermann T, Shah NJ, Schneider F. Same or different? Neural correlates of happy and sad mood in healthy males. Neuroimage. 2005;26:206-14.
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2005 |
26 healthy subjects |
1) Sad and happy mood, in contrast to the control task, produced similarly significant activations in the amygdala-hippocampal area extending into the parahippocampal gyrus, as well as in the prefrontal and temporal cortex, the anterior cingulate, and the precuneus. 2) During sadness, more activation was demonstrated in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, transverse temporal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus. 3) Happiness produced stronger activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, and cerebellum. |
Blocked designs are prone to habituation effects. |
Kim3232. Kim SH, Hamann S. Neural correlates of positive and negative emotion regulate. J Cogn Neurosci. 2007;19:776-98.
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2007 |
10 healthy, right-handed female volunteers (ages 18-29) |
1) Increasing negative and positive emotion engaged primarily left-lateralized prefrontal regions, whereas decreasing emotion activated bilateral prefrontal regions. 2) Regulation effects on amygdala activity were larger for positive than for negative stimuli, potentially reflecting a greater malleability of positive emotional reactions. |
1) Small sample 2) Only women were included 3) Psychiatric disorders were not measured |
Cerqueira3333. Cerqueira CT, Almeida JR, Gorenstein C, Gentil V, Leite CC, Sato JR, et al. Engagement of multifocal neural circuits during recall of autobiographical happy events. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2008;41:1076-85.
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2008 |
11 healthy subjects (six men, average age 32.4 years) selected according to their ability to vividly recall personal experiences |
1) In the happiness relative to the neutral condition, there was increased signal in the left dorsal prefrontal cortex, left insula, left anterior cingulate gyrus, mid-portions of the left middle temporal gyrus, left hypothalamus, and thalamus bilaterally. 2) In happiness relative to irritability, there was increased activity in the left anterior insula, left hypothalamus, thalamus bilaterally, inferior and middle temporal gyri bilaterally, and right posterior insula. |
1) Small sample 2) Remote period (6-12 months) used for selection of situations |
Mak3434. Mak AK, Hu ZG, Zhang JX, Xiao ZW, Lee TM. Neural correlates of regulation of positive and negative emotions: An fmri study. Neurosci. Lett. 2009;457:101-6.
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2009 |
12 healthy women |
1) Left superior and lateral frontal regions (BA8/9) are common neural correlates of regulation of positive and negative emotions. 2) Positive emotions: increased activation in the prefrontal regions (left superior medial, BA8, and dorsolateral, BA9, gyri) and decreased activation in the left insula, the right rolandic operculum (BA6), and the lingual (BA18) gyri. 3) Negative emotions: increased activation in the left orbitofrontal gyrus (BA11), left superior medial frontal gyrus (BA8), anterior cingulate gyrus (BA19), and right precuneus (BA30); decreased activation in the right precentral gyrus (BA6) and bilateral parietal gyrus (R:BA2; L: BA40). 4) Participants appeared to be more effective in regulating positive than negative emotions. |
1) Small sample |
Yu3535. Yu GM, Li B. How subjective well-being affects emotional processing: the role of event-related potentials. Soc Behav Pers. 2012;40:1285-92.
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2012 |
Two groups of 18 participants each: very happy group and not very happy group (nine males and nine females each); mean age 21.63 years. All had no history of psychiatric illness |
The negative emotional priming effect was greater in participants in the not very happy group. Thus, participants in the very happy group were more sensitive and subject to the influence of external stimuli, particularly negative emotional stimuli. |
1) Relatively small sample 2) The method used to rule out the presence of neuropsychiatric disorders in participants was not specified 3) The authors did not compare the effect of priming at different levels |
Yuan3636. Yuan J, Zhang J, Zhou X, Yang J, Meng X, Zhang Q, et al. Neural mechanisms underlying the higher levels of subjective well-being in extraverts: pleasant bias and unpleasant resistance. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2012;12:175-92.
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2012 |
16 extraverts and 16 ambiverts |
1) Significant emotion effects for highly positive and moderately positive stimuli at the P2 and P3 components in extraverts, but not in ambiverts. 2) Ambiverts displayed a significant emotion effect for moderately positive stimuli at the N2 and P3 components that was absent in extraverts. 3) The posterior cingulate cortices may mediate the extravert-specific emotion effect for pleasant stimuli. 4) Extraverts are less susceptible to unpleasant stimuli of mild intensity than are ambiverts, while extraverts have additional enhanced sensitivity to pleasant stimuli, regardless of emotion intensity. |
Relatively small sample |
Luo3737. Luo Y, Huang X, Yang Z, Li B, Liu J, Wei D. Regional homogeneity of intrinsic brain activity in happy and unhappy individuals. PLoS One. 2014;9:e85181.
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2014 |
50 young adults |
1) Decreased regional homogeneity (ReHo) in unhappy relative to happy individuals was observed within the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal lobe, superior temporal lobe, and retrosplenial cortex. 2) Increased ReHo in unhappy relative to happy individuals was observed within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, middle cingulate gyrus, putamen, and thalamus. 3) ReHo within the left thalamus was negatively correlated with Chinese Happiness Inventory scores in the happy group. |
1) Relatively small sample 2) Only examined traits of general happiness |
Greening3838. Greening SG, Osuch EA, Williamson PC, Mitchell DG. The neural correlates of regulating positive and negative emotions in medication-free major depression. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014;9:628-37.
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2014 |
19 non-medicated patients with major depressive disorder and 19 controls |
1) Controls were significantly better at modulating both negative and positive emotions. 2) Both groups recruited regions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex when regulating negative emotions, but only in controls was this accompanied by reduced activity in the sensory cortices and amygdala. 3) Both groups showed enhanced activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum when enhancing positive affect; however, only in controls was ventral striatum activity correlated with regulation efficacy. |
Small sample |
Luo3939. Luo Y, Kong F, Qi S, You X, Huang X. Resting-state functional connectivity of the default mode network associated with happiness. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2016;11:516-24.
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2016 |
148 healthy participants |
1) Increased functional connectivity in the Default Mode Network (DMN) was associated with lower levels of happiness. 2) Relative to happy people, unhappy people exhibited greater functional connectivity in the anterior medial cortex (bilateral), posterior medial cortex regions (bilateral), and posterior parietal cortex (left). 3) Increased functional connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal lobule correlated positively with inclination to ruminate. |
1) Cross-sectional design 2) Recent research indicates that dynamic functional connectivity may greatly enhance our understanding of the fundamental features of brain networks |