Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain
Highlights:
- An international team of researchers from Italy, UK and US combined, have identified that brain morphology correlates with specific personality traits.
- The five personality traits that include neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness are associated with the area, folding and thickness of the brain cortex.
- This could be used to understand the personality traits of people and detect psychological illness based on brain morphology.
There are so many clues to how we behave and our personality, not only by how our brain functions, but also by its shape. Moreover, there is a risk of developing mental health disorders, according to a study conducted by an international team of researchers from the UK, Italy and the U.S.
The psychologists have found that the vast variety of personality traits can be categorized into the �Big Five' traits and they are:
- How moody a person is - neuroticism
- How enthusiastic a person is - extraversion
- Measure of altruism - agreeableness
- How open minded a person is - openness
- Measure of self-control - conscientiousness
This study involved the analysis of more than 500 individuals, and is available in the Human Connectome Project, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Thickness, area and amount of cortex were the three measures of the brain cortical anatomy that were analyzed by the psychologists. The brain cortex is the outer layer of the brain.
‘Brain morphology studies can be used to predict mental health disorders for early detection.’
The team of researchers tried to find how these measures related to the �Big Five' personality traits. Dr. Luca Passamonti from the University of Cambridge said that evolution shaped the anatomy of our brains in such a way that there was maximization of the area and folding but at the expense of reduced thickness of the cortex. The psychologist further explained that this was like stretching a rubber sheet and that the increase in surface area that was achieved was at the cost of the sheet becoming thinner. This is called the �cortical stretching hypothesis'.
DOI: https:doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw175Source: Medindia
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APA
Amrita Surendranath. (2017, January 27). Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain. Medindia. Retrieved on Dec 16, 2024 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm.
MLA
Amrita Surendranath. "Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain". Medindia. Dec 16, 2024. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm>.
Chicago
Amrita Surendranath. "Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm. (accessed Dec 16, 2024).
Harvard
Amrita Surendranath. 2017. Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain. Medindia, viewed Dec 16, 2024, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm.
Cite this Article ⇣⇡
Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:
-
APA
Amrita Surendranath. (2017, January 27). Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain. Medindia. Retrieved on Dec 16, 2024 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm.
MLA
Amrita Surendranath. "Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain". Medindia. Dec 16, 2024. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm>.
Chicago
Amrita Surendranath. "Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm. (accessed Dec 16, 2024).
Harvard
Amrita Surendranath. 2017. Personality Traits Associated With Area and Thickness of the Brain. Medindia, viewed Dec 16, 2024, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/personality-traits-associated-with-area-and-thickness-of-the-brain-167310-1.htm.