Scientists claim they have found the SECRET to HAPPINESS, and it may surprise you
NEUROLOGISTS believe a lifetime of bliss all boils down to a small section of the brain.
The pursuit of happiness is a popular path to explore.
Hundreds of theories have been developed over the decades in the hope of finding the ‘key’ to a lifetime of bliss.
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Our lifestyles, jobs and loved ones are commonly pegged as the key factors when it comes to finding happiness.
The latest study claims that it all comes down to one region of the brain.
Researchers from Kyoto University have examined the neural structures that cause people to be happy.
The study revealed that an overall feeling of happiness comes from happy emotions and life satisfaction.
According to scientists, true happiness is when these two feelings occur at once in the precuneus.
Located toward the back of your brain, the precuneus is involved in memory, reflecting on self and some aspects of consciousness.
Results found people who were more content with their lives had a larger precuneus.
Analysis revealed that people experience emotions in a variant of ways, for example some feel happiness more intensely when they receive compliments.
It also showed the people who experience happiness more intensely feel sadness at a lower intensity.
The Science of Happiness - An Experiment in Gratitude
The overall findings indicate the precuneus can mediate overall happiness by integrating emotional and cognitive components of the feeling.
Wataru Sato, who lead the study, said: “Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have contemplated what happiness is. I’m very happy that we now know more about what it means to be happy."
"Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus. This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programmes based on scientific research."
