Research Hit: Transcendental Thinking Can lead to Bigger Brains and Higher Life Satisfaction
New research sees a link between brain growth and life satisfaction in later life through seeing the bigger meaning in situations.
Aren’t you the one who tells me to treat grand claims of brain growth with scepticism?
Of course!
So what about this research?
Sure, it is a grand claim, but, nevertheless, interesting as these long-term studies give us good clues to the benefits of certain activities, or in this case certain ways of thinking.
And what was the study precisely?
Rebecca Gotlieb et al. of the University of California conducted a fascinating study:
First they recruited 65 teenage participants between the ages of 14-18. They then interviewed them after giving them real life scenarios that other teenagers had experienced and asked them to reflect on these situations.
After this they had their brains scanned, this was repeated two year later. There were then two other follow ups over the following three years as the participants got into their early twenties.
These longitudinal studies, are very useful but also time consuming, kind of obviously.
Wow, fascinating - and what did they find?
Well, they found that some of these teenagers and young adults reflected more on the bigger picture and how these events could have a bigger meaning, and could also be learning experiences. Everyone did to a degree, but some did noticeably more.
When they zoomed in on this subgroup who were the transcendental thinkers they found that they had increased coordination between the brains executive network (i.e. control and focus) but also the brain’s default mode network (i.e. daydreaming). Which is kind of fascinating in itself. But what is more amazing is that these areas also developed, grew, more when compared to their own earlier brain scans.
But what’s more, and this is just as important or it could also be a result of the above-mentioned coordination, these also correlated to higher sense of identity and life satisfaction when in their twenties.
Of particular note is that this was also independent of IQ or socioeconomic factors.
So transcendental thinking seems to be driving this?
At this stage it is a chicken or egg question - are these teens naturally prone to this type of thinking which is reflected in their natural brain growth? Whether transcendental thinking exercises improve cognitive function will have to be for another piece of research. However, knowing what I do, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
So encourage your teens to think transcendentally!?
Yes, but I encourage us all to think more transcendentally: it is likely to stimulate more coordination between different key brain circuits…and that ain’t a bad thing!
Research
Rebecca J. M. Gotlieb, Xiao-Fei Yang, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang.
Diverse adolescents’ transcendent thinking predicts young adult psychosocial outcomes via brain network development.
Scientific Reports, 2024; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56800-0