The mediating role of default mode network during meaning-making aroused by mental simulation between stressful events and stress-related growth: a task fMRI study

Abstract

Background Stressful events and meaning-making toward them play an important role in adolescents’ life and growth. However, ignoring positive stressful events leads to negativity bias; further, the neural mechanisms of meaning-making are unclear. We aimed to verify the mediating role of meaning-making in stressful events and stress-related growth and the function of the default mode network (DMN) during meaning-making in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Methods Participants comprised 59 university students. Stressful life events, meaning-making, and stress-related growth were assessed at baseline, followed by fMRI scanning during a meaning-making task aroused by mental simulation. General linear modeling and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses were used to explore the activation and functional connectivity of DMN during meaning-making. Results Mental simulation triggered meaning-making, and DMN activity decreased during meaning-making. Activation of the DMN was negatively correlated with coping flexibility, an indicator of stress-related growth. PPI analysis showed that meaning-making was accompanied by diminished connectivity in the DMN. DMN activation during meaning-making can mediate the relationship between positive stressful events and coping flexibility. Conclusions Decreased DMN activity and diminished functional connectivity in the DMN occurred during meaning-making. Activation of the DMN during meaning-making could mediate the relationship between positive stressful events and stress-related growth, which provides a cognitive neural basis for the mediating role of meaning-making in the relationship between stressful events and indicators of stress-related growth. Implications This study supports the idea that prosperity makes heroes, expands the meaning-making model, and suggests the inclusion of enhancing personal resources and meaning-making in education. This study was the first to validate the activation pattern and functional connectivity of the DMN during meaning-making aroused by mental simulation using an fMRI task-state examination, which can enhance our sense of meaning and provide knowledge that can be used in clinical psychology interventions. Trial Registration The study protocol was pre-registered in Open Science Framework (see osf.io/ahm6e for details).

The relationship between positive and negative stress and posttraumatic growth in university students: the mediating role of resilience

“…For their part, Lee et al [ 31 ] investigated the mediating effects of resilience and its relationship with stress and PTG. The international precedents coincide in affirming that a conditioning factor that is added to the perception of stress is individual differences as a personality resource [ 32 ]; to which is added the mediating role of the creation of new meanings in the relationship of stressful events and stress-related growth in university students, through the use of coping strategies can contribute to stress resilience as a predictor of mental health [ 33 , 34 ]. This shows that when the person interprets having the power to control stressful events, they develop greater adaptive functioning [ 35 ].…”