TY - JOUR
T1 - Personality and complex brain networks
T2 - The role of openness to experience in default network efficiency
AU - Beaty, Roger E.
AU - Kaufman, Scott Barry
AU - Benedek, Mathias
AU - Jung, Rex E.
AU - Kenett, Yoed N.
AU - Jauk, Emanuel
AU - Neubauer, Aljoscha C.
AU - Silvia, Paul J.
N1 - Funding Information:
R.E.B. was supported by grant RFP-15-12, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. This research was also supported in part by a grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): P23914.
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - The brain's default network (DN) has been a topic of considerable empirical interest. In fMRI research, DN activity is associated with spontaneous and self-generated cognition, such as mind-wandering, episodic memory retrieval, future thinking, mental simulation, theory of mind reasoning, and creative cognition. Despite large literatures on developmental and disease-related influences on the DN, surprisingly little is known about the factors that impact normal variation in DN functioning. Using structural equation modeling and graph theoretical analysis of resting-state fMRI data, we provide evidence that Openness to Experience-a normally distributed personality trait reflecting a tendency to engage in imaginative, creative, and abstract cognitive processes-underlies efficiency of information processing within the DN. Across two studies, Openness predicted the global efficiency of a functional network comprised of DN nodes and corresponding edges. In Study 2, Openness remained a robust predictor-even after controlling for intelligence, age, gender, and other personality variables-explaining 18% of the variance in DN functioning. These findings point to a biological basis of Openness to Experience, and suggest that normally distributed personality traits affect the intrinsic architecture of large-scale brain systems. Hum Brain Mapp 37:773-779, 2016.
AB - The brain's default network (DN) has been a topic of considerable empirical interest. In fMRI research, DN activity is associated with spontaneous and self-generated cognition, such as mind-wandering, episodic memory retrieval, future thinking, mental simulation, theory of mind reasoning, and creative cognition. Despite large literatures on developmental and disease-related influences on the DN, surprisingly little is known about the factors that impact normal variation in DN functioning. Using structural equation modeling and graph theoretical analysis of resting-state fMRI data, we provide evidence that Openness to Experience-a normally distributed personality trait reflecting a tendency to engage in imaginative, creative, and abstract cognitive processes-underlies efficiency of information processing within the DN. Across two studies, Openness predicted the global efficiency of a functional network comprised of DN nodes and corresponding edges. In Study 2, Openness remained a robust predictor-even after controlling for intelligence, age, gender, and other personality variables-explaining 18% of the variance in DN functioning. These findings point to a biological basis of Openness to Experience, and suggest that normally distributed personality traits affect the intrinsic architecture of large-scale brain systems. Hum Brain Mapp 37:773-779, 2016.
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U2 - 10.1002/hbm.23065
DO - 10.1002/hbm.23065
M3 - Article
C2 - 26610181
AN - SCOPUS:84955207319
VL - 37
SP - 773
EP - 779
JO - Human Brain Mapping
JF - Human Brain Mapping
SN - 1065-9471
IS - 2
ER -