Testing Predictions From Personality Neuroscience: Brain Structure and the Big Five
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We used a new theory of the biological basis of the Big Five personality traits to generate hypotheses about the association of each trait with the volume of different brain regions. Controlling for age, sex, and whole-brain volume, results from structural magnetic resonance imaging of 116 healthy adults supported our hypotheses for four of the five traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Extraversion covaried with volume of medial orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region involved in processing reward information. Neuroticism covaried with volume of brain regions associated with threat, punishment, and negative affect. Agreeableness covaried with volume in regions that process information about the intentions and mental states of other individuals. Conscientiousness covaried with volume in lateral prefrontal cortex, a region involved in planning and the voluntary control of behavior. These findings support our biologically based, explanatory model of the Big Five and demonstrate the potential of personality neuroscience (i.e., the systematic study of individual differences in personality using neuroscience methods) as a discipline.
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The finding that descriptions of behavior as measured by tests, self-reports, and observer reports cluster reliably into five groups has not so far been satisfactorily explained by any scientifically grounded theory.
“While research is under way on determining the neural substrates of the Big Five (see Canli [2006] and DeYoung, Hirsh, Shane et al. [2010]), the finding that descriptions of behavior as measured by tests, self-reports, and reports of observers cluster reliably into five groups has not so far been satisfactorily explained by any scientifically grounded theory.”
From Personality Psychology and Economics (2011) · cites this paper as DeYoung, Hirsh, Shane et al. [2010]
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- Authors
- DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Mind Research Network (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeYoung, Colin G.
- Gray, Jeremy R.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-04-30
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 820-828
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3049165
- OpenAlex
- W2113348530
- Cited by
- 995
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 50 · 2020: 107 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 84 · 2017: 66 · 2016: 69 · 2015: 83 · 2014: 68 · 2013: 56 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 55.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Public Health Service (R01 66088)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH066088, F32MH077382)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- Big Five personality traits, personality neuroscience, brain volume, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, medial orbitofrontal cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex, individual differences, reward processing, threat processing, theory of mind
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Brain, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Globus Pallidus, Gyrus Cinguli, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Models, Neurological, Parietal Lobe, Personality, Personality Inventory, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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