TY - JOUR
T1 - Personality Associations With Amyloid and Tau
T2 - Results From the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and Meta-analysis
AU - Terracciano, Antonio
AU - Bilgel, Murat
AU - Aschwanden, Damaris
AU - Luchetti, Martina
AU - Stephan, Yannick
AU - Moghekar, Abhay R.
AU - Wong, Dean F.
AU - Ferrucci, Luigi
AU - Sutin, Angelina R.
AU - Resnick, Susan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (Grant Nos. R01AG068093 [principal investigator, AT] and R01AG053297 [principal investigator, ARS). The BLSA studies are supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging . The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (Grant Nos. R01AG068093 [principal investigator, AT] and R01AG053297 [principal investigator, ARS). The BLSA studies are supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We thank the participants in the BLSA, Wendy Elkins and Alisa Bannerjee for their assistance with the BLSA neuroimaging study, and Dr. Duchek and Dr. Giannakopoulos for gracefully responding to our questions. The anonymized BLSA data are publicly accessible on request at https://www.blsa.nih.gov. All data used in the meta-analysis are available in the article or the Supplement. The authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Society of Biological Psychiatry
PY - 2022/2/15
Y1 - 2022/2/15
N2 - Background: Higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, but the underlying neuropathological correlates remain unclear. Our aim was to examine whether personality traits are associated with amyloid and tau neuropathology in a new sample and meta-analyses. Methods: Participants from the BLSA (Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging) completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and underwent amyloid (11C-labeled Pittsburgh compound B) and tau (18F-flortaucipir) positron emission tomography. Results: Among cognitively normal BLSA participants, neuroticism was associated with higher cortical amyloid burden (odds ratio 1.68, 95% CI 1.20–2.34), and conscientiousness was associated with lower cortical amyloid burden (odds ratio 0.61, 95% CI 0.44–0.86). These associations remained significant after accounting for age, sex, education, depressive symptoms, hippocampal volume, and APOE ε4. Similar associations were found with tau in the entorhinal cortex. Random-effects meta-analyses of 12 studies found that higher neuroticism (N = 3015, r = 0.07, p =.008) and lower conscientiousness (N = 2990, r = −0.11, p <.001) were associated with more amyloid deposition. Meta-analyses of 8 studies found that higher neuroticism (N = 2231, r = 0.15, p <.001) and lower conscientiousness (N = 2206, r = −0.14, p <.001) were associated with more tau pathology. The associations were moderated by cognitive status, with stronger effects in cognitively normal compared with heterogeneous samples, suggesting that the associations between personality and proteopathies are not phenomena that emerge with neuropsychiatric clinical symptoms. Conclusions: By aggregating results across samples, this study advances knowledge on the association between personality and neuropathology. Neuroticism and conscientiousness may contribute to resistance against amyloid and tau neuropathology.
AB - Background: Higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, but the underlying neuropathological correlates remain unclear. Our aim was to examine whether personality traits are associated with amyloid and tau neuropathology in a new sample and meta-analyses. Methods: Participants from the BLSA (Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging) completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and underwent amyloid (11C-labeled Pittsburgh compound B) and tau (18F-flortaucipir) positron emission tomography. Results: Among cognitively normal BLSA participants, neuroticism was associated with higher cortical amyloid burden (odds ratio 1.68, 95% CI 1.20–2.34), and conscientiousness was associated with lower cortical amyloid burden (odds ratio 0.61, 95% CI 0.44–0.86). These associations remained significant after accounting for age, sex, education, depressive symptoms, hippocampal volume, and APOE ε4. Similar associations were found with tau in the entorhinal cortex. Random-effects meta-analyses of 12 studies found that higher neuroticism (N = 3015, r = 0.07, p =.008) and lower conscientiousness (N = 2990, r = −0.11, p <.001) were associated with more amyloid deposition. Meta-analyses of 8 studies found that higher neuroticism (N = 2231, r = 0.15, p <.001) and lower conscientiousness (N = 2206, r = −0.14, p <.001) were associated with more tau pathology. The associations were moderated by cognitive status, with stronger effects in cognitively normal compared with heterogeneous samples, suggesting that the associations between personality and proteopathies are not phenomena that emerge with neuropsychiatric clinical symptoms. Conclusions: By aggregating results across samples, this study advances knowledge on the association between personality and neuropathology. Neuroticism and conscientiousness may contribute to resistance against amyloid and tau neuropathology.
KW - Alzheimer disease
KW - Amyloid
KW - Meta-analysis
KW - Neuropsychiatric disorders
KW - Personality
KW - Tau
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117244457&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.021
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 34663503
AN - SCOPUS:85117244457
SN - 0006-3223
VL - 91
SP - 359
EP - 369
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
IS - 4
ER -