Research shows that daily new experiences can improve connections in the brain and leave us feeling stronger and happier.
A new study Trusted Source published May 18 in the journal Nature Neuroscience has revealed a link between our physical environment and how happy we feel.
“Our work suggests that experiencing new and diverse experiences on a daily basis is linked to positive emotions,” said study co-author Aaron Heller, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
“We feel happier when we have variety in our daily routines and, in turn, we are more likely to seek out novel experiences when we are in a more positive mood,” he said. However, the authors acknowledge that it can be difficult to put this information into action during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people may be staying home most of the time.
What can we learn from this study that will help us cope with the isolation of physical distancing, and to feel more upbeat about our circumstances?
The researchers’ goal in conducting the study was to learn about whether a diversity of daily experiences leads to a more positive emotional state. To investigate this question, they did GPS tracking of the study participants in New York and Miami for a period of 3 to 4 months. The study participants were asked via text messaging to report about whether they felt positive or negative emotions during this time.
The researchers found that on days when people had more variation in their location, they reported feeling positive emotions like “attentive,” “excited,” “happy,” “relaxed,” and/or “strong.”
The researchers then wanted to see whether this association between variability in location and emotion would be in some way connected to activity within the brains of these individuals. To check for a connection, they had about half of the study participants come back to the lab and undergo MRI scans. An MRI scan uses a strong magnetic field, radio waves, and a computer to take pictures inside the body.
A special type of MRI scan called fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) can be used to observe changes in blood flow within the brain to determine which areas are active during certain activities.
The research team found that those who had the strongest link between diverse experiences and positive feelings also had a stronger connection between brain activity in the hippocampus and the striatum.
According to study co-author Catherine Hartley, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at New York University, the hippocampus is a region of the brain that’s “centrally involved in spatial navigation and memory formation, but is also sensitive to the novelty of spatial environments.” The striatum is involved in “learning what actions and elements of our environment are rewarding,” she added. Heller further explains that while they didn’t find more activity in these regions, they did find a connectivity between these areas that was linked to the degree to which exploration of one’s environment was associated with a day-to-day positive mood. This brain connection between the hippocampus and striatum is important for assigning value to different locations, Heller says.
According to Heller, this suggests that individual differences in engagement of this brain circuit might influence the degree to which novelty and diversity in one’s environment is experienced as being rewarding.
This might, in turn, promote more exploration or seeking of new experiences. ♦
