Abstract
Research has discovered structural differences in the brains of people with different personality types. In the present voxel-based morphometry study we focused on the association between disgust propensity (DP: the temporally stable tendency to experience disgust across different situations) and grey matter volume (GMV) in regions of interest [insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), basal ganglia]. We collected structural brain scans from 498 healthy individuals (352 females, 146 males; mean age = 27 years). Regression analyses were performed to test the association between three domains of DP (core, animal-reminder, contamination) and GMV. We observed negative correlations between animal-reminder DP and the volume of the insula, and contamination DP and OFC volume. Animal-reminder DP correlated positively with GMV in the basal ganglia (putamen). This study identified weak correlations between local brain volume and disgust propensity. The association between DP and insula volume concerned the posterior insula and was in the opposite of the expected direction. The findings of this study are inconsistent with the concept of the anterior insula as a region that specifically mediates DP.
Highlights
Research has discovered structural differences in the brains of people with different personality types
Animal-reminder Disgust propensity (DP) was negatively correlated with grey matter volume (GMV) in the bilateral posterior insula and positively with GMV in the bilateral basal ganglia
Contamination DP was negatively associated with GMV in the right orbitofrontal cortex (Fig. 1)
Summary
Research has discovered structural differences in the brains of people with different personality types. Feeling disgusted was correlated with increased activity in the insula, the basal ganglia, and frontal brain regions, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Other a uthors[11] have followed a ‘constructionist approach’, which assumes that emotions are built from more basic neural processes In their meta-analysis, Lindquist et al.[11] identified the insula and prefrontal regions as central for emotion processing; across all basic emotion categories. Food-related DP (disgust-related oral rejection) was positively correlated with grey matter volume (GMV) in the anterior insula, while DP concerning contact with decaying and dead organisms correlated negatively with GMV in the dorsomedial/ lateral prefrontal cortex
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