New and diverse daily experiences are linked to enhanced happiness, according to a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Heller et al reveal a previously unknown connection between our daily physical environments and sense of well-being. Image credit: Frank MoreLight.

Our results suggest that people feel happier when they have more variety in their daily routines: when they go to novel places and have a wider array of experiences, said New York Universitys Dr. Catherine Hartley, lead co-author of the study.

The opposite is also likely true: positive feelings may drive people to seek out these rewarding experiences more frequently.

In the study, Dr. Hartley and colleagues investigated the following question: is diversity in humans daily experiences associated with more positive emotional states?

To do so, the researchers conducted GPS tracking of participants in New York and Miami for three to four months, asking subjects by text message to report about their positive and negative emotional state during this period.

The results showed that on days when people had more variability in their physical location visiting more locations in a day and spending proportionately equitable time across these locations they reported feeling more positive: happy, excited, strong, relaxed, and/or attentive.

The scientists then sought to determine if this link between exploration and positive emotion had a connection to brain activity.

To do this, about half of the subjects returned to a laboratory and underwent MRI scans.

The MRI results showed that people for whom this effect was the strongest those whose exposure to diverse experiences was more strongly associated with positive feeling (affect) exhibited greater correlation between brain activity in the hippocampus and the striatum.

These are brain regions that are associated, respectively, with the processing of novelty and reward beneficial or subjectively positive experiences.

These results suggest a reciprocal link between the novel and diverse experiences we have during our daily exploration of our physical environments and our subjective sense of well-being, Dr. Hartley said.

Collectively, these findings show the beneficial consequences of environmental enrichment across species, demonstrating a connection between real-world exposure to fresh and varied experiences and increases in positive emotions, said lead co-author Dr. Aaron Heller, a researcher at the University of Miami.

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A.S. Heller et al. Association between real-world experiential diversity and positive affect relates to hippocampal-striatal functional connectivity. Nat Neurosci, published online May 18, 2020; doi: 10.1038/s41593-020-0636-4

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Study Reveals Link between Diversity in Daily Experiences and Sense of Well-Being | Neuroscience, Psychology - Sci-News.com