Exploring the relationship between personality and regional brain volume in healthy aging

Jonathan Jackson; David A. Balota; Denise Head

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009

Exploring the relationship between personality and regional brain volume in healthy aging

Jonathan Jackson, David A. Balota, Denise Head

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

Aging is characterized by a reduction in regional brain volumes, particularly in prefrontal and medial temporal regions. Recent evidence suggests that personality may be related to neuroanatomical integrity. The present investigation explored whether the three targeted personality traits of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion moderated cross-sectional age-related decline in measures of neural integrity. Estimates of the personality traits and volumes of cerebral gray and white matter, prefrontal and medial temporal regions were obtained in a sample of 79 healthy adults aged 44-88. Higher neuroticism was associated with smaller regional volumes and greater decreases in volume with increasing age. Higher conscientiousness was related to larger regional volumes and less decline with advancing age. These results suggest that personality may not only relate to, but may also moderate age-related cross-sectional decline in prefrontal and medial temporal regions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2162-2171
Number of pages	10
Journal	Neurobiology of Aging
Volume	32
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009
State	Published - Dec 2011

Keywords

Amygdala
Atrophy
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Hippocampus
Neuroticism
Prefrontal cortex
Volumetry

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10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009

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title = "Exploring the relationship between personality and regional brain volume in healthy aging",

abstract = "Aging is characterized by a reduction in regional brain volumes, particularly in prefrontal and medial temporal regions. Recent evidence suggests that personality may be related to neuroanatomical integrity. The present investigation explored whether the three targeted personality traits of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion moderated cross-sectional age-related decline in measures of neural integrity. Estimates of the personality traits and volumes of cerebral gray and white matter, prefrontal and medial temporal regions were obtained in a sample of 79 healthy adults aged 44-88. Higher neuroticism was associated with smaller regional volumes and greater decreases in volume with increasing age. Higher conscientiousness was related to larger regional volumes and less decline with advancing age. These results suggest that personality may not only relate to, but may also moderate age-related cross-sectional decline in prefrontal and medial temporal regions.",

keywords = "Amygdala, Atrophy, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Hippocampus, Neuroticism, Prefrontal cortex, Volumetry",

author = "Jonathan Jackson and Balota, {David A.} and Denise Head",

note = "Funding Information: We thank John Morris and the Clinical Core of the Washington University Alzheimer Disease Research Center for the clinical assessments and the Imaging Core for the structural MRI data, and Martha Strorandt for helpful comments. This work was supported by NIH grants P50 AG05861 , P01 AG 03991 , and PO1 AGO26276 . Jonathan Jackson was supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant T32-GM81739 . ",

year = "2011",

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doi = "10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009",

language = "English",

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AU - Jackson, Jonathan

AU - Balota, David A.

AU - Head, Denise

N1 - Funding Information: We thank John Morris and the Clinical Core of the Washington University Alzheimer Disease Research Center for the clinical assessments and the Imaging Core for the structural MRI data, and Martha Strorandt for helpful comments. This work was supported by NIH grants P50 AG05861 , P01 AG 03991 , and PO1 AGO26276 . Jonathan Jackson was supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant T32-GM81739 .

PY - 2011/12

Y1 - 2011/12

N2 - Aging is characterized by a reduction in regional brain volumes, particularly in prefrontal and medial temporal regions. Recent evidence suggests that personality may be related to neuroanatomical integrity. The present investigation explored whether the three targeted personality traits of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion moderated cross-sectional age-related decline in measures of neural integrity. Estimates of the personality traits and volumes of cerebral gray and white matter, prefrontal and medial temporal regions were obtained in a sample of 79 healthy adults aged 44-88. Higher neuroticism was associated with smaller regional volumes and greater decreases in volume with increasing age. Higher conscientiousness was related to larger regional volumes and less decline with advancing age. These results suggest that personality may not only relate to, but may also moderate age-related cross-sectional decline in prefrontal and medial temporal regions.

AB - Aging is characterized by a reduction in regional brain volumes, particularly in prefrontal and medial temporal regions. Recent evidence suggests that personality may be related to neuroanatomical integrity. The present investigation explored whether the three targeted personality traits of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion moderated cross-sectional age-related decline in measures of neural integrity. Estimates of the personality traits and volumes of cerebral gray and white matter, prefrontal and medial temporal regions were obtained in a sample of 79 healthy adults aged 44-88. Higher neuroticism was associated with smaller regional volumes and greater decreases in volume with increasing age. Higher conscientiousness was related to larger regional volumes and less decline with advancing age. These results suggest that personality may not only relate to, but may also moderate age-related cross-sectional decline in prefrontal and medial temporal regions.

KW - Amygdala

KW - Atrophy

KW - Conscientiousness

KW - Extraversion

KW - Hippocampus

KW - Neuroticism

KW - Prefrontal cortex

KW - Volumetry

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U2 - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009

DO - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009

M3 - Article

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AN - SCOPUS:80053623073

SN - 0197-4580

VL - 32

SP - 2162

EP - 2171

JO - Neurobiology of Aging

JF - Neurobiology of Aging

IS - 12

ER -

Exploring the relationship between personality and regional brain volume in healthy aging

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Keywords

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