The Neuroscience of Well-Being: A General Framework and Its Relation to Humanistic Flourishing

Studying the two main components of well-being—hedonia and eudaimonia—can shed insight into its psychological and neural aspects. This chapter begins by highlighting how neuroscience research in two related domains—creativity and meditation—has been useful. Then, the authors review the extant neuroscientific research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Finally, they propose a testable, general framework on how the brain may realize both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. This approach is inspired by advances in neuroscience research that examines the structure and dynamics of largescale brain networks. Identifying these neural markers of well-being can elucidate what motivates human flourishing, and how neural mechanisms might be enhanced to facilitate well-being.