Atypical neural activation associated with implicit negative emotional facial processing in fMRI tasks in individuals with neuroticism personality traits

Abstract

Neuroticism is a personality trait that reflects emotional instability and is related to negative emotions, such as sensitivity to negative information and negative appraisal. Existing studies on the neural basis of the neuroticism personality trait have focused on explicit emotion processing and neglected to acknowledge the potentially important role of implicit emotion processing, especially using an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) task with a Chinese sample. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate differences in brain activation in an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task between individuals with high and low neuroticism scores within a Chinese sample. To this end, the revised NEO-PI-R (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory) was used to identify 82 high-neuroticism participants and 82 low-neuroticism participants, who were then scanned during an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task. Compared to the participants with low neuroticism scores, those with high neuroticism scores showed significantly decreased brain activation in the mPFC (medial prefrontal cortex), which plays a pivotal role in implicit emotion processing; these data might suggest that individuals with high neuroticism have deficits in implicit negative emotion processing, which may be related to their emotional instability, emotional regulation and attention-related spontaneous activity.