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The Big Five Personality Traits: Reading People Like an Open Book: How Researchers are Linking the Shape of Your Brain to Your Personality Written by: Sarah Lukas Designed by: Divya Ganugapati When a person claims they can read you like an open book, what clear observations have you given them to confidently say such a statement? Reading a person encompasses using what you see on the outside of an individual to decipher how they are feeling, their possible motives, and likely actions. This can be done by observing body language, facial expressions, behavior, and by paying attention to key characteristics. Reading a person is a skill which comes with practice and experience; not only do so many factors influence one person, but also, not all people are as easy to read as others. This process is a part of the field of psychology. Just recently, researchers have used the psychological model of the Big Five to study brain anatomy. With a simple MRI scan of observing brain measurements due to the evolution of the brain, genetics, and other environmental factors, a knowledgeable researcher can read your personality like an open book without ever meeting you. This is possible through the combination of observations made of an individual on the outside accompanied by what is anatomically proven on the inside by the brain. The Big Five personality traits comprise the dimensions of the human personality broken down into five major traits that are studied in the research project Surface-based morphometry reveals the neuroanatomical basis if the five-factor model of personality. Researchers Roberta Riccelli, Nicola Toschi, Salvatore Nigro, Antonio Terracciano, and Luca Passamonti looked at differences in the brain cortical anatomy in over 500 healthy individuals. The brain is measured four different ways, by thickness, surface area, volume, and folding in different areas of
the brain. The individuals who volunteered were young healthy men and women ranging from 22 to 36 years old with no record of obesity, hypertension, alcohol misuse, anxiety, and other mental disorders. They all went under MRI brain scans and took the NEO-Five-Factors-Inventory personality assessment. This assessment is made up of 60 questions, each question is a description of behavior which is answered on a five point Likert scale. The results show that individuals who scored high on neuroticism are characterized by higher cortical thickness with this trait having a negative correlation to cortical surface area and volume. Those who scored higher on extraversion are linked to higher cortical thickness, lower surface area and volume in the temporal gyrus and higher cortical folding. Higher openness scores are characterized by lower cortical thickness and have a positive correlation to cortical surface area, volume, and folding. Those with larger agreeableness scores have negative associations with cortical thickness, surface area, and volume. Rather, this trait shows increased folding in the area of the temporal lobe. Lastly, individuals whose scores are high in conscientiousness are connected to higher cortical thickness, lower surface area, volume, and folding in specific areas of the brain. As most of the findings in this study have been in the cortex, it is helpful to understand that humans have the most highly evolved cortex, more specifically the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain distinguishes us from apes and other animals by our high level of social cognitive skills. These skills develop over our lifetime; for example, as we mature neuroticism decreases and conscientiousness increases as we are able to handle our emotions and reactions better. This is why there is a contrast between thicknesses for these two traits. However, those that suffer from mental illnesses will have brain different brain development and can show pronounced areas of the cortical regions that connect certain traits to their mental illness. There are limitations to this new research but it leads to open doors for mental illness research and detailed autopsies. Figure 1. Neural representations of default mode networks exhibiting correlation with the indicated Big Five traits. Figure taken from Sampaio et al. (2013).
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