ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2024
Purpose in life as a resilience factor for brain health: diffusion MRI findings from the Midlife in the U.S. study.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Major Lifetime Discrimination Exposure Accelerates Brain Microstructural Aging: Diffusion MRI Evidence From MIDUS.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2026Article
- Well-Being Profiles of Family Caregivers of Patients With Dementia From Romania: A Latent Profile Analysis.Cureus · 2025Article
- Spiritual well-being and perceived stress in primary health care nursing professionals.Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2025Article
- The Privilege of Well-Being in an Increasingly Unequal Society.Current directions in psychological science · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: A greater sense of purpose in life is associated with several health benefits relevant for active aging, but the mechanisms remain unclear. We evaluated if purpose in life was associated with indices of brain health. Methods: We examined data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Neuroscience Project. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging data ( Results and discussion: Greater sense of purpose in life was associated with brain microstructural features consistent with better brain health. Positive associations were found in both white matter and the right hippocampus, where multiple convergent associations were detected. The hippocampus is a brain structure involved in learning and memory that is vulnerable to stress but retains the capacity to grow and adapt through old age. Our findings suggest pathways through which an enhanced sense of purpose in life may contribute to better brain health and promote healthy aging. Since purpose in life is known to decline with age, interventions and policy changes that facilitate a greater sense of purpose may extend and improve the brain health of individuals and thus improve public health.
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