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. 2020 Feb;10(2):e01515.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.1515. Epub 2020 Jan 5.

Associations between personality and whole-brain functional connectivity at rest: Evidence across the adult lifespan

Sharon S Simon  1 , Eleanna Varangis  1 , Yaakov Stern  1
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Associations between personality and whole-brain functional connectivity at rest: Evidence across the adult lifespan

Sharon S Simon et al. Brain Behav. 2020 Feb.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Introduction: Personality is associated with cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, and can play a role in age-related cognitive decline and dementia risk; however, little is known about the brain dynamics underlying personality characteristics, and whether they are moderated by age.

Methods: We investigated the associations between personality and resting-state functional MRI data from 365 individuals across the adult lifespan (20-80 years). Participants completed the 50-item International Personality Item Pool and a resting-state imaging protocol on a 3T MRI scanner. Within-network connectivity values were computed based on predefined networks. Regression analyzes were conducted in order to investigate personality-connectivity associations, as well as moderation by age. All models controlled for potential confounders (such as age, sex, education, IQ, and the other personality traits).

Results: We found that openness was positively associated with connectivity in the default-mode network, neuroticism was negatively associated with both the ventral and dorsal attention networks, and agreeableness was negatively associated with the dorsal attention network. In addition, age moderated the association between conscientiousness and the frontoparietal network, indicating that this association become stronger in older age.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that personality is associated with brain connectivity, which may contribute to identifying personality profiles that play a role in protection against or risk for age-related brain changes and dementia.

Keywords: aging; big five; connectivity; five-factor model; functional magnetic resonance imaging; personality; resting-state.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regions of interest (ROIs) reflecting each cognitive network. Note: Regions of interest (ROIs) making up each of the six cognitive networks were superimposed on a standard 3D brain template. Images were generated using BrainNet Viewer by creating spheres around each of the Power (2011) ROI coordinates corresponding to the networks used in the present analysis
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age moderation of the effect of conscientiousness on FPC network connectivity. Note: Graph represents conscientiousness–FPC network within connectivity as a function of age. X‐axis represents age group; y‐axis represents beta values. Values above zero represent positive associations and below zero represent negative associations. Error bars = standard error; FPC = frontoparietal control network
Figure 3
Figure 3
Conditional effects of age moderation. Note: FPC = frontoparietal control network; C = conscientiousness. Younger = −1 SD; Middle Age = mean age; Older = +1 SD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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