Association between Behavioral Ambidexterity and Brain Health

Abstract

Appropriately handling and switching exploration of novel knowledge and exploitation of existing knowledge is a fundamental element of genuine innovation in society. Moreover, a mounting number of studies have suggested that such “ambidexterity” is associated not only with organizational performance but also with the human brain. Among these reports, however, there have not been any definitive MRI-based parameters that objectively and easily evaluate such ambidexterity. Therefore, an MRI-based index derived from gray matter volume, called the gray-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ), was used to measure the association between ambidexterity and the entire human brain. For this purpose, 200 healthy adults were recruited as subjects to undergo structural T1-weighted imaging and to answer multiple psychological questionnaires. Ambidexterity was evaluated using two scales: the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory II and the Short Grit Scale, as exploration–exploitation indicators of curiosity and grit, respectively. Additionally, to enrich the understanding of these associations, three additional positive thinking scales were used—the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Life Orientation Test—to evaluate self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism, respectively. The authors discovered the GM-BHQ was weakly associated with curiosity, grit, and self-efficacy individually after controlling for age and sex. Furthermore, the GM-BHQ was directly associated with curiosity but indirectly associated with grit in the path model. However, no significant association was found between the GM-BHQ and the other outcome indicators (i.e., self-esteem and optimism). These results suggest that brain health is weakly associated with ambidexterity evaluated using psychological tests.

The link between the brain volume derived index and the determinants of social performance

“…Moreover, to date, no definite neuroimagingderived measures were available to assess motivation or empathy at the whole-brain level. Previously it was shown that the whole brain GMV is related to age (Nemoto et al, 2017), fatigue (Kokubun et al, 2018), curiosity (Kokubun et al, 2020), dietary balance (Kokubun & Yamakawa, 2019), and lifestyle (Kokubun et al, 2021) using a neuroimaging-derived whole-brain measure, the "gray-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ)" an international standard (H.861.1) approved by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). Here, GM-BHQ is an average of standardized gray matter measures for 116 brain regions based on the AAL atlas (Tzourio-Mazoyer et al, 2002).…”

“…Moreover, GM-BHQ was more strongly correlated with cognitive function than its regional subscales including hippocampus-BHQ or parahippocampus-BHQ (Watanabe et al, 2021), indicating that the whole-brain GMV reflects cognitive function better than individual regional GMV. As the whole-brain GMV is influenced by one's personality, cognitive ability, and surrounding environment (Kokubun & Yamakawa, 2019;Kokubun et al, 2018Kokubun et al, , 2020Kokubun et al, , 2021Nemoto et al, 2017;Watanabe et al, 2021), it has been shown that motivation (Subramanian et al, 2020;Włodarska et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020) and empathy (Jami et al, 2021;Putrino et al, 2021) are also influenced by those factors. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that whole-brain GMV correlates with motivation and empathy.…”

“…This study reveals the relationship between GM-BHQ and the various motivation-and empathy-related psychological measures mentioned above. GM-BHQ is a measure that reflects whole brain GMV which is associated with various personal and environmental factors (Kokubun & Yamakawa, 2019;Kokubun et al, 2018Kokubun et al, , 2020Kokubun et al, , 2021Nemoto et al, 2017;Watanabe et al, 2021). Previous studies have clarified the relationship between individual brain regions and motivation-and empathy-related psychological indicators (Barrós-Loscertales et al, 2006b;Ide et al, 2020;Li et al, 2014;Schulze et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2016).…”

Unhealthy lifestyles and brain condition: Examining the relations of BMI, living alone, alcohol intake, short sleep, smoking, and lack of exercise with gray matter volume

“…To quantify the GMV, we used a brain health measuring tool, called the gray-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ: ITU-T, 2018). Based on previous studies and experiments, the GM-BHQ is found to be inversely correlated with age, BMI [11], stress, fatigue [33], personalities [34], and alcohol and animal food intake [19]. The GM-BHQ is derived as an average of standardized gray matter measures for 116 brain regions based on the automated anatomical labeling atlas [35].…”

The Personal Trait of Spiritual Growth Is Correlated With the White Matter Integrity of the Brain

“…BHQ includes two subordinate indices: the gray matter (GM)-BHQ, based on the volume of the GM of the whole brain, as assessed by voxel-based morphometry, and the fractional anisotropy (FA)-BHQ, based on the FA value of the white matter (WM) integrity of the whole brain, as assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) ( Nemoto et al, 2017 ). The GM-BHQ is inversely correlated with age and negative wellbeing, such as obesity, fatigue, and stress ( Nemoto et al, 2017 ; Kokubun et al, 2018 ) and is positively correlated with positive traits, such as curiosity, grit, and self-efficacy ( Kokubun et al, 2020b ). The FA-BHQ is inversely correlated with age and is positively correlated with a sense of life improvement that is assessed by two preliminary questions (“How is your life now compared to this time last year?” and “How do you think your life will be in the future?”) ( Nemoto et al, 2017 ).…”