Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2011 Dec;32(12):2162-71.
doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.12.009. Epub 2009 Dec 24.

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

Jonathan Jackson  1 , David A Balota, Denise Head
Affiliations
Comparative Study

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

Jonathan Jackson et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2011 Dec.

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Statement

The authors and their institution have no conflicts of interest related to this work. The sources of financial support were NIH grants P50 AG05861, P01 AG 03991, PO1 AGO26276 and National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant T32-GM81739. The data contained in this manuscript have not previously been published, nor has the manuscript been submitted elsewhere, nor will it be submitted elsewhere while under review. Appropriate ethical guidelines were followed with regard to the treatment of human subjects. Participant consent was obtained in accordance with the Washington University Human Research Protection Office. All authors have reviewed the manuscript and approve of its contents and validate the accuracy of the data.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of neuroticism on global and regional atrophy. A) cerebral gray matter; B) VLPFC/DLPFC; C) orbitofrontal cortex. Data are standardized residuals controlling for age and education.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moderation of age effects by neuroticism. A) cerebral white matter, B) amygdala. Plots based on data points estimated using the simple regression equation and represent the age × neuroticism interaction controlling for main effects of age, neuroticism and education (see text for details of regression analysis).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of conscientiousness on regional atrophy. A) VLPFC/DLPFC; B) orbitofrontal cortex. Data are standardized residuals controlling for age and education.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Moderation of age effects by conscientiousness. A) cerebral white matter; B) amygdala, C) parahippocampal gyrus. Plots based on data points estimated using the simple regression equation and represent the significant age × conscientiousness interaction controlling for main effects of age, conscientiousness and education (see text for details of regression analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Andrews-Hanna JR, Snyder AZ, Vincent JL, Lustig C, Head D, Raichle ME, Buckner RL. Disruption of large-scale brain systems in advanced aging. Neuron. 2007;56:924–935. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balota DA, Dolan PO, Duchek JM. Memory changes in healthy older adults. In: Tulving E, Craik FIM, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Memory. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000. pp. 395–409.
    1. Balsis S, Carpenter BD, Storandt M. Personality change precedes clinical diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. J Gerontol B-Psychol. 2005;60B:98–101. - PubMed
    1. Bennur S, Shankaranarayana Rao BS, Pawlak R, Strickland S, McEwen BS, Chattarji S. Stress-induced spine loss in the medial amygdala is mediated by tissue-plasminogen activator. Neuroscience. 2007;144:8–16. - PubMed
    1. Berg L. Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Psychopharmacol Bull. 1988;24:637–639. - PubMed

Publication types