Jawinski Philippe, Markett Sebastian, Sander Christian, Huang Jue, Ulke Christine, Hegerl Ulrich, Hensch Tilman
Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany.
LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Brain Sci. 2021 Sep 26;11(10):1272. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11101272.
Based on Eysenck's biopsychological trait theory, brain arousal has long been considered to explain individual differences in human personality. Yet, results from empirical studies remained inconclusive. However, most published results have been derived from small samples and, despite inherent limitations, EEG alpha power has usually served as an exclusive indicator for brain arousal. To overcome these problems, we here selected N = 468 individuals of the LIFE-Adult cohort and investigated the associations between the Big Five personality traits and brain arousal by using the validated EEG- and EOG-based analysis tool VIGALL. Our analyses revealed that participants who reported higher levels of extraversion and openness to experience, respectively, exhibited lower levels of brain arousal in the resting state. Bayesian and frequentist analysis results were especially convincing for openness to experience. Among the lower-order personality traits, we obtained the strongest evidence for neuroticism facet 'impulsivity' and reduced brain arousal. In line with this, both impulsivity and openness have previously been conceptualized as aspects of extraversion. We regard our findings as well in line with the postulations of Eysenck and consistent with the recently proposed 'arousal regulation model'. Our results also agree with meta-analytically derived effect sizes in the field of individual differences research, highlighting the need for large (collaborative) studies.
基于艾森克的生物心理特质理论，大脑唤醒长期以来一直被认为可以解释人类个性的个体差异。然而，实证研究的结果仍然没有定论。不过，大多数已发表的结果都来自小样本，并且尽管存在固有局限性，脑电图α波功率通常一直作为大脑唤醒的唯一指标。为了克服这些问题，我们在此选取了LIFE-成人队列中的468名个体，并使用经过验证的基于脑电图和眼电图的分析工具VIGALL，研究了大五人格特质与大脑唤醒之间的关联。我们的分析表明，分别报告外向性和经验开放性水平较高的参与者，在静息状态下表现出较低的大脑唤醒水平。贝叶斯分析和频率学派分析结果对于经验开放性尤其有说服力。在低阶人格特质中，我们获得了关于神经质方面“冲动性”与大脑唤醒降低之间最强有力的证据。与此一致的是，冲动性和开放性此前都被概念化为外向性的方面。我们认为我们的研究结果也符合艾森克的假设，并与最近提出的“唤醒调节模型”相一致。我们的结果也与个体差异研究领域通过元分析得出的效应量一致，突出了进行大型（合作）研究的必要性。
