Abstract
There have been many neuroimaging studies of human personality traits, and it have already provided glimpse into the neurobiology of complex traits. And most of previous studies adopt voxel-based morphology (VBM) analysis to explore the brain-personality mechanism from two levels (vertex and regional based), the findings are mixed with great inconsistencies and the brain-personality relations are far from a full understanding. Here, we used a new method of surface-based morphology (SBM) analysis, which provides better alignment of cortical landmarks to generate about the associations between cortical morphology and the personality traits across 120 healthy individuals at both vertex and regional levels. While to further reveal local functional correlates of the morphology-personality relationships, we related surface-based functional homogeneity measures to the regions identified in the regional-based SBM correlation. Vertex-wise analysis revealed that people with high agreeableness exhibited larger areas in the left superior temporal gyrus. Based on regional parcellation we found that extroversion was negatively related with the volume of the left lateral occipito-temporal gyrus and agreeableness was negatively associated with the sulcus depth of the left superior parietal lobule. Moreover, increased regional homogeneity in the left lateral occipito-temporal gyrus is related to the scores of extroversion, and increased regional homogeneity in the left superior parietal lobule is related to the scores of agreeableness. These findings provide supporting evidence of a link between personality and brain structural mysteries with a method of SBM, and further suggest that local functional homogeneity of personality traits has neurobiological relevance that is likely based on anatomical substrates.
Highlights
Personality is what makes every human unique, as it donates individual differences in behaviors, cognition, and emotion, which is stable over time and across situation
After controlling for age, sex, and intracranial volume (ICV), a multiple regression analysis revealed that higher agreeableness was associated with larger areas in the superior temporal gyrus
After controlling for age, sex, and ICV, a multiple regression analysis revealed extroversion was negatively related with the volume of the left lateral occipito-temporal gyrus and agreeableness was negatively associated with the sulcus depth of the left superior parietal lobule (Figure 3)
Summary
Personality is what makes every human unique, as it donates individual differences in behaviors, cognition, and emotion, which is stable over time and across situation. The “five-factor model” or the “big five” is the most widely accepted taxonomies of personality (Costa and McCrae, 1992; Funder, 2001; Hu et al, 2011), representing tendencies to various aspects of social behavior and emotional stimulus: neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Neuroticism reflects dimensions of negative emotions, includes traits, such as anxiety, vulnerability, and irritability (Costa and McCrae, 1992; Clark and Watson, 2008). Extroversion is linked to the tendency to experience positive emotions, encompasses traits, such as assertiveness, sociability, and talkativeness (Costa and McCrae, 1992; Clark and Watson, 2008). The Neuroticism Extroversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) designed by Costa and McCrae is widely used to explore the big five personality traits (Costa and McCrae, 1992)
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