Scientists at Kyoto University have used MRI to narrow in on the neural structures behind happiness, and hope their findings will have larger implications for happiness training.

Associate professor Wataru Sato and his team asked study participants to take a survey asking how happy they are generally, how intensely they feel emotions, and how satisfied they are with their lives.

They then scanned the brains of the research participants with MRI.

Their analysis revealed that those who scored higher on the happiness surveys had more grey matter mass in the precuneus, a region in the medial parietal lobe that becomes active when experiencing consciousness. In other words, people who feel happiness more intensely, feel sadness less intensely, and are more able to find meaning in life have a larger precuneus.

“Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have contemplated what happiness is,” said Sato. “I’m very happy that we now know more about what it means to be happy.”

Sato said that several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus, and he’s hopeful that this new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programmes based on scientific research.