The correlation between gray matter volume and perceived social support: a voxel-based morphometry study

Social support refers to interpersonal exchanges that include the combinations of aid, affirmation and affection. Perceived social support is a kind of subjective judgment of one's availability of social support. In spite of the importance of perceived social support to health, however, its neural substrate remains unknown. To address this question, voxel-based morphometry was employed to investigate the neural bases of individual differences in responses to the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) in healthy volunteers (144 men and 203 women; mean age = 19.9; SD = 1.33, age range : 17-27). As a result, multiple regression analysis revealed that the PSSS scores were significantly and positively correlated with gray matter volume in a cluster that mainly included areas in posterior parts of posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral lingual cortex, left occipital lobe and cuneus. Highly-supported individuals had larger gray matter volume in these brain regions, implying a relatively high level of ability to engage in self-referential processes and social cognition. Our results provide a biological basis for exploring perceived social support particularly in relationship to various health parameters and outcomes.