Corticolimbic structural connectivity encapsulates real-world emotional reactivity and happiness

Abstract

Emotional reactivity to everyday events predicts happiness, but the neural circuits underlying this relationship remain incompletely understood. Here, we combined experience sampling methods and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to examine the association among corticolimbic structural connectivity, real-world emotional reactivity and daily experiences of happiness from 79 young adults (35 females). Participants recorded momentary assessments of emotional and happiness experiences five times a day for a week, approximately 2 weeks after brain scanning. Model-based emotional reactivity scores, which index the degree to which moment-to-moment affective state varies with the occurrence of positive or negative events, were computed. Results showed that stronger microstructural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus and the external capsule was associated with both greater positive and negative emotional reactivity scores. The relationship between these fiber tracts and experienced happiness was explained by emotional reactivity. Importantly, this indirect effect was observed for emotional reactivity to positive but not negative real-world events. Our findings suggest that the corticolimbic circuits supporting socioemotional functions are associated with emotional reactivity and happiness in the real world.