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

Abstract

Determining the relationship between the entire brain structure and individual differences is important in extending healthy life expectancy, which can be affected by brain atrophy. The entire brain structure has been gradually known to be correlated not only with age but also with individual differences, such as quality of life, general intelligence, and lifestyle. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between the entire brain structure and personal traits. We herein focused on one personal trait, namely spiritual growth, and examined its relationship with the entire brain structure using two neuroimaging-derived measures, namely the gray matter Brain Healthcare Quotient (GM-BHQ), a measure of GM volume, and the fractional anisotropy Brain Healthcare Quotient (FA-BHQ), a measure of white matter (WM) integrity, in 229 healthy participants (53 female, 176 male). The results indicated no significant relationship between the GM-BHQ and spiritual growth, but there was a significant positive correlation between the FA-BHQ and spiritual growth after controlling for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) with partial correlation analysis. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the FA-BHQ and spiritual growth after controlling for physical characteristics, such as age, sex, and BMI, as well as other variables related to lifestyle that were collected using the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile. These results support the idea that there is a relationship between the entire WM brain structure and spiritual growth. Further studies are required to clarify the causal relationship between the entire WM brain structure and spiritual growth with some interventions to improve spiritual growth. Such studies will help extend healthy life expectancy from a new perspective of personal trait.

Examination of the Impact of Curiosity and Fatigue on Brain Condition

“…In our previous studies, we discovered that whole-brain GM-BHQ exhibited positive correlations with dietary balance [17], curiosity [18], behavioral activation [19], while showing negative correlations with fatigue [20] and unhealthy lifestyles [21]. On the other hand, we observed that whole-brain FA-BHQ was positively associated with cognitive function [22][23], fish diet intake [24], housing quality [25], anxiety [22][26], the personal trait of spiritual growth [22], training and work engagement [23], and happiness [26].…”