Abstract
Although adolescence is a period in which developmental changes occur in brain connectivity, personality formation, and peer interaction, few studies have examined the neural correlates of personality dimensions related to social behavior within adolescent samples. The current study aims to investigate whether adolescents’ brain functional connectivity is associated with extraversion and agreeableness, personality dimensions linked to peer acceptance, social network size, and friendship quality. Considering sex-variant neural maturation in adolescence, we also examined sex-specific associations between personality and functional connectivity. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a community sample of 70 adolescents aged 12–15, we examined associations between self-reported extraversion and agreeableness and seed-to-whole brain connectivity with the amygdala as a seed region of interest. Then, using 415 brain regions that correspond to 8 major brain networks and subcortex, we explored neural connectivity within brain networks and across the whole-brain. We conducted group-level multiple regression analyses with the regressors of extraversion, agreeableness, and their interactions with sex. Results demonstrated that amygdala connectivity with the postcentral gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and the temporal pole is positively associated with extraversion in girls and negatively associated with extraversion in boys. Agreeableness was positively associated with amygdala connectivity with the middle occipital cortex and superior parietal cortex, in the same direction for boys and girls. Results of the whole-brain connectivity analysis revealed that the connectivity of the postcentral gyrus, located in the dorsal attention network, with regions in default mode network (DMN), salience/ventral attention network, and control network (CON) was associated with extraversion, with most connections showing positive associations in girls and negative associations in boys. For agreeableness, results of the within-network connectivity analysis showed that connections within the limbic network were positively associated with agreeableness in boys while negatively associated with or not associated with agreeableness in girls. Results suggest that intrinsic functional connectivity may contribute to adolescents’ individual differences in extraversion and agreeableness and highlights sex-specific neural connectivity patterns associated with the two personality dimensions. This study deepens our understanding of the neurobiological correlates of adolescent personality that may lead to different developmental trajectories of social experience.
Highlights
Understanding the neural correlates of individual differences in extraversion and agreeableness in adolescence is important because these two personality dimensions seem to have a critical role in shaping favorable peer relationships
We examined whether rsFC correlated with the two personality traits differently for girls and boys per recent recommendation for sexspecific analysis when examining the neural basis of personality (Nostro et al, 2018) and the observed sex differences in intrinsic functional connectivity and its development during adolescence (Alarcón et al, 2015; Satterthwaite et al, 2015; Ernst et al, 2019)
To identify the regions whose connectivity with left or right amygdala are associated with extraversion, agreeableness, extraversion by sex, or agreeableness by sex, the connectivity maps were submitted to group-level multiple regression analyses with the predictors of extraversion, agreeableness, extraversion by sex, agreeableness by sex, sex, age, and scan length category (200 volumes: 1, 168 volumes: -1)
Summary
Understanding the neural correlates of individual differences in extraversion and agreeableness in adolescence is important because these two personality dimensions seem to have a critical role in shaping favorable peer relationships. A study with a wide age range of adult samples (Simon et al, 2020) found that agreeableness is associated with reduced within-network connectivity of the dorsal attention (DA) network, the task-positive brain network known to have anticorrelation with the DMN during rest (Fox et al, 2005). Despite such a considerable amount of studies linking rsFC with extraversion and agreeableness in adult samples, separate investigation within adolescent samples is necessary. We examined whether the observed effect of extraversion and agreeableness on rsFC remained significant after controlling for depression and anxiety symptoms, which are often associated with extraversion and agreeableness (Klimstra et al, 2010; Lyon et al, 2021)
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