title: Linking novelty seeking and harm avoidance personality traits to basal ganglia: volumetry and mean diffusivity.
abstract: Novelty Seeking (NS) and Harm Avoidance (HA) temperamental traits are related to approaching or avoiding motivational circuits relying on the integrity and functionality of distributed brain areas implicated in arousal and action. The present study verified whether and how macro- and micro-structural variations of basal ganglia are correlated with scores obtained in the NS and HA temperamental scales of the Temperament and Character Inventory by Cloninger. To this aim, 125 healthy adults aged 18-67 years of both sexes completed the Temperament and Character Inventory and underwent a high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and a diffusion tensor imaging using a 3T scanner. The scores obtained in the temperamental scales were associated with volumes, mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy measures of basal ganglia of both hemispheres separately, by using linear regression analyses. We found increased bilateral caudate and pallidum volumes associated with higher NS scores, as well as increased mean diffusivity in the bilateral putamen associated with higher HA scores. Macro- and micro-structural variations of basal ganglia regions contribute to explain the biological variance associated with NS or HA personality phenotype. The present findings evidencing some brain-temperament relationships highlight the importance of obtaining macro- and micro-structural measures in relation to individual differences.
authors.affiliation: I.R.C.C.S. Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina 306, 00142, Rome, Italy, daniela.laricchiuta@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Laricchiuta
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrosini
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piras
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cutuli
authors.forename: Enrica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Macci
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Picerni
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chiapponi
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caltagirone
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spalletta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult