Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Campus Mitte, Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Berlin, Germany.
Mol Psychiatry. 2013 May;18(5):624-30. doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.56. Epub 2012 Jun 5.
Impulsiveness is a pivotal personality trait representing a core domain in all major personality inventories. Recently, impulsiveness has been identified as an important modulator of cognitive processing, particularly in tasks that require the processing of large amounts of information. Although brain imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex to be a common underlying representation of impulsiveness and related cognitive functioning, to date a fine-grain and detailed morphometric analysis has not been carried out. On the basis of ahigh-resolution magnetic resonance scans acquired in 1620 healthy adolescents (IMAGEN), the individual cortical thickness (CT) was estimated. Correlations between Cloninger's impulsiveness and CT were studied in an entire cortex analysis. The cluster identified was tested for associations with performance in perceptual reasoning tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC IV). We observed a significant inverse correlation between trait impulsiveness and CT of the left superior frontal cortex (SFC; Monte Carlo Simulation P<0.01). CT within this cluster correlated with perceptual reasoning scores (Bonferroni corrected) of the WISC IV. On the basis of a large sample of adolescents, we identified an extended area in the SFC as a correlate of impulsiveness, which appears to be in line with the trait character of this prominent personality facet. The association of SFC thickness with perceptual reasoning argues for a common neurobiological basis of personality and specific cognitive domains comprising attention, spatial reasoning and response selection. The results may facilitate the understanding of the role of impulsiveness in several psychiatric disorders associated with prefrontal dysfunctions and cognitive deficits.
冲动性是一个关键的人格特质，代表了所有主要人格量表中的一个核心领域。最近，冲动性被认为是认知加工的一个重要调节因素，特别是在需要处理大量信息的任务中。尽管脑成像研究表明前额叶皮层是冲动性和相关认知功能的共同基础，但迄今为止，还没有进行过精细和详细的形态测量分析。基于在 1620 名健康青少年（IMAGEN）中获得的高分辨率磁共振扫描，估计了个体皮质厚度（CT）。在整个皮层分析中研究了 Cloninger 冲动性与 CT 的相关性。对识别出的聚类与韦氏儿童智力量表（WISC IV）中知觉推理任务的表现进行了关联测试。我们观察到特质冲动性与左侧额上回（SFC）的 CT 之间存在显著的负相关（蒙特卡罗模拟 P<0.01）。该聚类内的 CT 与 WISC IV 的知觉推理得分相关（经 Bonferroni 校正）。基于大量青少年样本，我们确定了 SFC 中一个扩展区域与冲动性相关，这似乎与该突出人格特征的特质特征一致。SFC 厚度与知觉推理的关联表明人格和特定认知领域（包括注意力、空间推理和反应选择）具有共同的神经生物学基础。这些结果可能有助于理解冲动性在与前额叶功能障碍和认知缺陷相关的几种精神障碍中的作用。
