Eysenck Personality And Resting State Fmri Study

There is an increasing body of evidence pointing to a relationship betweenpersonality and brain markers. The purpose of this study was to identify theassociations between personality traits and the local characteristics of resting brainfunction using resting-state fMRI. In the study of the relationships between personalitydimensions of extraversion and neuroticism and local synchronization of spontaneousblood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity assessed by regional homogeneity(ReHo) approach, we revealed the significant negative correlation between neuroticismand ReHo in the left middle frontal gyrus, providing evidence for the left frontalactivation involved in pleasant emotion. ReHo was correlated negatively withextraversion in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), an important portion of thedefault mode network (DMN), thus further indicating the relationship between DMNand personality. In addition, ReHo in the insula, cerebellum and cingulate gyrus wascorrelated positively with extraversion, suggesting the associations between individualdifference in extraversion and specific brain regions involved in affective processing.These findings shed light on the important relationship between the synchronization ofspontaneous fluctuations and personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism,which provide further evidences for the neural underpinning of individual difference inpersonality traits.The biological model of extraversion and neuroticism identified by Eysenck hasstimulated increasing interest in uncovering neurobiological substrate of the twofundamental dimensions. Here we aim to explore brain disturbances underlyingextraversion and neuroticism using fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations(LFF) on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Two different frequencybands (slow-5:0.01–0.027Hz; slow-4:0.027–0.073Hz) were analyzed. Our resultsshowed a positive correlation between LFF amplitude at slow-5and extraversion inmedial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and precuneus (PCu), important portions of thedefault mode network, thus suggesting a link between default network activity and personality traits. LFF amplitude at slow-5was correlated positively with neuroticismin right prefrontal cortex (PFC) while negatively with neuroticism in left inferiorfrontal cortex (IFC), further validating neuroticism with frontal lateralization. Inaddition, LFF amplitude at slow-4was negatively associated with extraversion andneuroticism in left hippocampus (HIP) and superior temporal cortex (STC) respectively,supporting the hypothesized (inverse) relationship between extraversion and restingarousal, also implying neural circuit underlying emotional process influencing onpersonality. Overall, these findings suggest the important relationships, betweenpersonality and LFF amplitude dynamic, are depended on specific frequency bands.