biostudies-literatureLuo YNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaChina Postdoctoral Science FoundationMinistry of Education of China1678-1686https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5647812biostudies-literatureUnknown12(10)What is a good life and how it can be achieved is one of the fundamental issues. When considering a good life, there is a division between hedonic (pleasure attainment) and eudaimonic well-being (meaning pursuing and self-realization). However, an integrated approach that can compare the brain functional and structural differences of these two forms of well-being is lacking. Here, we investigated how the individual tendency to eudaimonic well-being relative to hedonic well-being, measured using eudaimonic and hedonic balance (EHB) index, is reflected in the functional and structural features of a key network of well-being-the default mode network (DMN). We found that EHB was positively correlated with functional connectivity of bilateral ventral medial prefrontal cortex within anterior DMNSocial cognitive and affective neurosciencePleasure attainment or self-realization: the balance between two forms of well-beings are encoded in default mode network.PMC564781211JZD0442016M590918 and 2017T100724 to Y.L.31600913Yang ZHuang XLuo YChen XQi SYou XfalsePleasure attainment or self-realization: the balance between two forms of well-beings are encoded in default mode network.What is a good life and how it can be achieved is one of the fundamental issues. When considering a good life, there is a division between hedonic (pleasure attainment) and eudaimonic well-being (meaning pursuing and self-realization). However, an integrated approach that can compare the brain functional and structural differences of these two forms of well-being is lacking. Here, we investigated how the individual tendency to eudaimonic well-being relative to hedonic well-being, measured using eudaimonic and hedonic balance (EHB) index, is reflected in the functional and structural features of a key network of well-being-the default mode network (DMN). We found that EHB was positively correlated with functional connectivity of bilateral ventral medial prefrontal cortex within anterior DMN2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017 Oct2025-05-29T22:06:35.297Z2025-05-29T22:06:35.297ZS-EPMC56478122898537310.1093/scan/nsx078