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Personality Traits Are Linked To Differences In Brain Structure, Says Researchers (neurosciencenews.com)
New submitter baalcat quotes a report from Neuroscience News: Our personality may be shaped by how our brain works, but in fact the shape of our brain can itself provide surprising clues about how we behave -- and our risk of developing mental health disorders -- suggests a study published today. According to psychologists, the extraordinary variety of human personality can be broken down into the so-called 'Big Five' personality traits, namely neuroticism (how moody a person is), extraversion (how enthusiastic a person is), openness (how open-minded a person is), agreeableness (a measure of altruism), and conscientiousness (a measure of self-control). In a study published today in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, an international team of researchers from the UK, US, and Italy have analyzed a brain imaging dataset from over 500 individuals that has been made publicly available by the Human Connectome Project, a major US initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health. In particular, the researchers looked at differences in the brain cortical anatomy (the structure of the outer layer of the brain) as indexed by three measures -- the thickness, area, and amount of folding in the cortex -- and how these measures related to the Big Five personality traits. The study has been published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Which part of the brain is responsible for modifying the configuration of the brain. You know, the one that makes cognitive behavioral therapy work. In other words, where does meta thinking happen and what parts of the brain are responsible for that? That's an INFINITELY more interesting question.
We'll make great pets
Even neuroscience is jumping on the "fast five" bandwagon. Ugh!
So what this study actually does indicate is the areas of the brain that you exercise the most grow the biggest, whilst other areas shrink. It does not indicate why that change is originally trigged which is far more likely to be triggered in the cerebellum and temporal lobe, which will induce activity changes due to genetic biases (these thought preferences the cause certain parts of the brain to grow due to being repeatedly exercised). So a lack of an autonomic empathic response will cause many areas of the brain to shrink due to lack of activity whilst other areas grow, due to singular focus of the narcissist (those affected by a lack of an autonomic empathic response). Never forget diet and environment for also causing major cerebral differences and social biases ie lead poising in the majority of the US population, some worse than others, with a resulting high crime rate and a bias to anti-social politics (through use in fuels, lead water pipes and a love of firing lead at gun ranges).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Look, buddy, if you want to go to war, please do so, go ahead and get shot, nobody will hold you back.
In the meantime we'll stay here and find a way to coexist, ok? I guess that makes everyone happy.
See? We're open to your ideas. And we even support you!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
[Extroverts] tend to be energized when around other people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves
I can socialize much better than a lot of extroverts. I will admit, it does make me tired though. :)
IMHO, this is the key bit -- introverts can often thrive in social activities, but they need their alone time to recharge eventually. For example, after a few hours of theatre rehearsals etc., I usually want to go home, while the others want to go to a bar or something. It's tricky because at that point I wouldn't mind a pint myself, but I've already used up my social energy for that day.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
With computers, you'll see again and again that software architecture is heavily influenced by what is easy to achieve and/or efficient for a given piece of hardware. Humans' learning naturally gravitates towards ease and efficiency, so it is hardly surprising that this shows up in the brain. The thing that is hard to show, however, is the degree to which the interplay between personality and brain-structure influences the brain's development.
John_Chalisque
The Big Five is often studied, but is a really poor personality paradigm. It's based on randomly chosen traits, it's not orthogonal, it's not complete, and it's only frequently used in research because it's essentially a research fad that refuses to die.
The simple definition I've heard is that socializing drains introverts and energizes extroverts.
love is just extroverted narcissism