ArticleBehavioral and brain functions : BBF2023
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.
Article in Behavioral and brain functions : BBF, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nature-based meaning-focused photography intervention enhances subjective well-being: A three-arm randomized controlled study.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- Intrinsic resting-state connectivity and personal meaning across the transition to fatherhood.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- The Mediating Role of Meaning-Making in the Relationship Between Mental Time Travel and Positive Emotions in Stress-Related Blogs: Big Data Text Analysis Research.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- The relationship between positive and negative stress and posttraumatic growth in university students: the mediating role of resilience.BMC psychology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStressful 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.
methodsParticipants 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.
resultsMental 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.
conclusionsDecreased 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 registrationThe study protocol was pre-registered in Open Science Framework (see osf.io/ahm6e for details).
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