Positive psychology is a promising branch in the field of psychology and the distinction of positive emotions receives increasing attention. Theoretical frameworks have proposed a "family tree" of nine positive emotions that developed during evolution. However, the neuroscientific basis of these emotions is poorly understood. To shed light on this issue, a crucial aspect is to effectively elicit specific positive emotions.
We utilized a novel, individualized approach to collect and rate positive emotions of memories. These memories were then used in fMRI experiments to investigate neural representations of positive emotions in healthy volunteers.
We were able to show distinct responses to individual positive emotions in our cohort. This opens the door for in-depth investigations of positive emotions as the experimenter can rely on the participants’ information about what they felt in the scanner. Furthermore, this approach may aid patients to engage in positive memories during clinical neurofeedback studies using emotion regulation training for depression treatment. Our insights also offer a promising path towards a biomarker of subjective well-being.
