Privado Jesús, Román Francisco J, Saénz-Urturi Carlota, Burgaleta Miguel, Colom Roberto
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA.
Neuroscience. 2017 May 4;349:174-184. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.02.039. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
Personality neuroscience defines the scientific study of the neurobiological basis of personality. This field assumes that individual differences in personality traits are related with structural and functional variations of the human brain. Gray and white matters are structural properties considered separately in previous research. Available findings in this regard are largely disparate. Here we analyze the relationships between gray matter (cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA), and cortical volume) and integrity scores obtained after several white matter tracts connecting different brain regions, with individual differences in the personality traits comprised by the Five-Factor Model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience). These psychological and biological data were obtained from young healthy women. The main findings showed statistically significant associations between occipital CSA variations and extraversion, as well as between parietal CT variations and neuroticism. Regarding white matter integrity, openness showed positive correlations with tracts connecting posterior and anterior brain regions. Therefore, variations in discrete gray matter clusters were associated with temperamental traits (extraversion and neuroticism), whereas long-distance structural connections were related with the dimension of personality that has been associated with high-level cognitive processes (openness).
人格神经科学定义了对人格神经生物学基础的科学研究。该领域假定人格特质的个体差异与人类大脑的结构和功能变化有关。灰质和白质是先前研究中分别考虑的结构特性。这方面的现有研究结果差异很大。在这里，我们分析了灰质（皮质厚度（CT）、皮质表面积（CSA）和皮质体积）与连接不同脑区的几条白质束之后获得的完整性分数之间的关系，以及由五因素模型（外向性、宜人性、尽责性、神经质和经验开放性）构成的人格特质的个体差异。这些心理和生物学数据来自年轻健康女性。主要研究结果显示，枕叶CSA变化与外向性之间存在统计学上的显著关联，顶叶CT变化与神经质之间也存在显著关联。关于白质完整性，经验开放性与连接后脑和前脑区域的神经束呈正相关。因此，离散灰质簇的变化与气质特质（外向性和神经质）相关，而长距离结构连接与与高级认知过程相关的人格维度（经验开放性）相关。
