The neural correlates of community subjective well-being and its relationship to social support.

Résumé

Community subjective well-being (CSWB) represents the degree to which individuals feel satisfied with where they live and is crucial for personal flourishing and societal well-being. However, the neural mechanisms underlying CSWB remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we conducted an innovative study combining predictive analysis and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) to investigate spontaneous brain dynamics associated with CSWB. Our results identified distinct brain regions linked to social cognition and emotional regulation that contribute to predicting individuals' CSWB. Specifically, the fALFF of regions within the default mode network (DMN) and subcortical network (i.e., positively weighted group), including anterior cingulate cortex, parahippocampus, and putamen, showed positive correlations with CSWB. Conversely, the fALFF of regions within the DMN, salience network, and dorsal attention network (i.e., negatively weighted group), including middle temporal gyrus, precuneus, and supramarginal gyrus, exhibited negative correlations with CSWB. Additionally, the specificity of these contributing regions in predicting individuals' CSWB was demonstrated by excluding the effect of individual subjective well-being. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that the average fALFF of the positively weighted group statistically mediated the relationship between social support and CSWB. These findings provide the first robust evidence for the neural basis of individual differences in CSWB and advance our understanding of how social support influences CSWB.