Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively constrain and facilitate short‐term plasticity within the working memory neural network

Abstract

Individual differences in cognitive efficiency, particularly in relation to working memory (WM), have been associated both with personality dimensions that reflect enduring regularities in brain configuration, and with short‐term neural plasticity, that reflects task‐related changes in brain connectivity. To elucidate the relationship of these two divergent mechanisms, we tested the hypothesis that personality dimensions, which reflect enduring aspects of brain configuration, inform about the neurobiological framework within which short‐term, task‐related plasticity, as measured by effective connectivity, can be facilitated or constrained. As WM consistently engages the dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC), parietal (PAR), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), we specified a WM network model with bidirectional, ipsilateral, and contralateral connections between these regions from a functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset obtained from 40 healthy adults while performing the 3‐back WM task. Task‐related effective connectivity changes within this network were estimated using Dynamic Causal Modelling. Personality was evaluated along the major dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Only two dimensions were relevant to task‐dependent effective connectivity. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness respectively constrained and facilitated neuroplastic responses within the WM network. These results suggest individual differences in cognitive efficiency arise from the interplay between enduring and short‐term plasticity in brain configuration. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4158–4163, 2015. © 2015 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively positively and negatively correlated with the network characteristic path length in dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex: A resting‐state fNIRS study

“…Meanwhile, our results suggested that individuals with well‐organized, persistence and self‐discipline tend to process information more efficiently and economically, which showed good agreement with previous reports. For example, the relationship between the L p in dlPFC and neuroticism/conscientiousness was also highlighted in previous studies, in which they discovered that neuroticism and conscientiousness, respectively, constrained and facilitated neuroplastic responses within the working memory networks, which includes the dlPFC, parietal, and anterior cingulate cortex (Dima, Friston, Stephan, & Frangou, 2015). Interestingly, previous studies also demonstrated that compromised small‐world properties in dlPFC was associated with reduced levels of effort control, which was related with psychopathology in young children (Fekete et al., 2014).…”

“…Several limitations of this study should be mentioned here. First, although the validity and reliability of NEO‐FFI is stable, we cannot fully exclude subjective judgment because it is a self‐report measurement (Dima et al., 2015). Second, only the dlPFC is involved in this study, which somehow ignores the influence from other brain regions.…”

Surface-based morphometry reveals the neuroanatomical basis of the five-factor model of personality

“…Finally, we predicted that conscientiousness was linked to variations in cortical anatomy in PFC and parietal regions that belong to the multiple demand system (DeYoung, 2010; Kapogiannis et al , 2012; Duncan, 2013; Forbes et al , 2014; Dima et al , 2015; Rodrigo et al , 2016). …”

Apolipoprotein E genotype impact on memory and attention in older persons: the moderating role of personality phenotype

“…The collective and cumulative impact of low Conscientiousness may thus be to amplify or accelerate ε4 memory deficits. Disrupted connectivity in working memory tasks has also been recently reported among younger individuals low in Conscientiousness(Dima et al, ), as have greater cortical atrophy (Jackson et al, ) and neurofibrillary tangles(Terracciano et al, ) in older persons. By contrast, ε4 carriers in this sample who exhibited more Conscientiousness evidenced memory performance comparable to ε2 carriers or ε3 homozygotes.…”