A longitudinal study of the relationship between personality traits and the annual rate of volume changes in regional gray matter in healthy adults.

To investigate whether personality traits affect the rate of decline of gray matter volume, we ana- lyzed the relationships between personality traits and the annual rate of changes of gray matter volume in 274 healthy community dwelling subjects with a large age range by applying a longitudinal design over 6 years, using brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) at base- line. Brain MRI data were processed using voxel-based morphometry with a custom template by applying the DARTEL diffeomorphic registration tool. For each subject, we used NEO-PI-R to evaluate the five major per- sonality traits, including neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The results show that the annual rate of change in regional gray matter volume in the right inferior parietal lobule was cor- related significantly and negatively with a personality of openness, which is known to be related to intellect, in- tellectual curiosity, and creativity adjusting for age, gender, and intracranial volume. This result indicates that subjects with a personality trait of less openness have an accelerated loss of gray matter volume in the right infe- rior parietal lobule, compared with subjects with a personality trait of more openness. Because the right inferior parietal lobule is involved in higher cognitive function such as working memory and creativity, a personality trait of openness is thought to be important for preserving gray matter volume and cognitive function of the right inferior parietal lobule in healthy adults. Hum Brain Mapp 00:000-000, 2012. V C 2012 Wiley-Periodicals, Inc.