Cerebral Blood Flow and Personality: A Positron Emission Tomography Study

• Published in: The American journal of psychiatry Vol. 156; no. 2; pp. 252 - 257
• Main Authors: Johnson, Debra L., Wiebe, John S., Gold, Sherri M., Andreasen, Nancy C., Hichwa, Richard D., Watkins, G. Leonard, Boles Ponto, Laura L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychiatric Publishing 01.02.1999; American Psychiatric Association
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Blood flow; Brain; Brain - blood supply; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Circulatory system; Extraversion (Psychology); Female; Frontal Lobe - blood supply; Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Functional Laterality - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gyrus Cinguli - blood supply; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Humans; Introversion (Psychology); Male; Memory - physiology; Middle Aged; Oxygen Radioisotopes; Personality; Personality - classification; Positron emission tomography; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Regional Blood Flow; Relationship; Temporal Lobe - blood supply; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Thalamus - blood supply; Thalamus - physiology; Thinking - physiology; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Water; Human; Regional blood flow; Radiodiagnosis; Extraversion introversion; Central nervous system; Medical imagery; Personality; Computerized axial tomography; Hemodynamics; Brain (vertebrata); Positron
• ISSN: 0002-953X; 1535-7228
• DOI: 10.1176/ajp.156.2.252

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to describe brain regions associated with the personality dimension of introversion extraversion. METHOD: Measures of cerebral blood flow (CBF) were obtained from 18 healthy subjects by means of [15O]H2O positron emission tomography. Correlations of regional CBF with introversion extraversion were calculated, and a three-dimensional map of those correlations was generated. RESULTS: Overall, introversion was associated with increased blood flow in the frontal lobes and in the anterior thalamus. Regions in the anterior cingulate gyrus, the temporal lobes, and the posterior thalamus were found to be correlated with extraversion. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the study lend support to the notion that introversion is associated with increased activity in frontal lobe regions. Moreover, the study suggests that individual differences in introversion and extraversion are related to differences in a fronto-striato-thalamic circuit.