Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 20, Issue 4, December 2003, Pages 2031-2039
NeuroImage

Regular article
Personality influences limbic-cortical interactions during sad mood induction

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.08.022Get rights and content

Abstract

The current study examined limbic-cortical activation under transient emotional stress as a function of personality style. A ventral cingulate (Cg25)-centred limbic-cortical network was identified using positron emission tomography (PET) measures of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during a sad mood challenge that demonstrated differences for individuals selected for specific patterns of Negative and Positive emotional traits, indexed by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised. Healthy subjects scoring both low on the dispositional Depression facet of Neuroticism (N3) and high on the Positive Emotions facet of Extraversion (E6) were compared to those scoring high on the Depression facet (N3) and low on Positive Emotions (E6), a combination of traits previously linked to normal variations in mood reactivity. Scan analyses were designed to further characterize known variations in Cg25 activity previously reported in studies of negative mood in both healthy subjects and depressed patients. A multivariate technique, partial least squares (PLS) demonstrated a divergent Cg25-mediated network that differentiated temperamentally negative (NAS) from temperamentally positive (PAS) subjects providing a potential neural link between these specific combinations of trait affective styles and vulnerability to depression.

Section snippets

Participants and group selection procedure

Personality traits were identified and quantified using the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R), a validated tool that operationalizes the Five-Factor Model of Personality (Costa and McCrae, 1997). This inventory provides domain scores that correspond to the five orthogonal factors Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness-to-Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness with six more specific or narrow facet scales within each factor (Costa and McCrae, 1997). The NEO-PI-R consists of 240

Results

Both the NAS and PAS groups achieved the targeted maximinum sad mood state (minimum 6 out of 7) for each of the sad scans.

Discussion

The current study examined brain networks linking the subgenual cingulate (Cg25) to sad mood as a specific combination of personality traits. Subjects were divided into a negative affective style group (NAS; high Depression, N3, facet of Neuroticism and low Positive Emotion, E6, facet of Extraversion) versus a positive affective style group (PAS; low N3, high E6), according to their scores on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Participants were scanned using positron emission tomography to

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