title: Narcissism is associated with weakened frontostriatal connectivity: a DTI study.
abstract: Narcissism is characterized by the search for affirmation and admiration from others. Might this motivation to find external sources of acclaim exist to compensate for neurostructural deficits that link the self with reward? Greater structural connectivity between brain areas that process self-relevant stimuli (i.e. the medial prefrontal cortex) and reward (i.e. the ventral striatum) is associated with fundamentally positive self-views. We predicted that narcissism would be associated with less integrity of this frontostriatal pathway. We used diffusion tensor imaging to assess the frontostriatal structural connectivity among 50 healthy undergraduates (32 females, 18 males) who also completed a measure of grandiose narcissism. White matter integrity in the frontostriatal pathway was negatively associated with narcissism. Our findings, while purely correlational, suggest that narcissism arises, in part, from a neural disconnect between the self and reward. The exhibitionism and immodesty of narcissists may then be a regulatory strategy to compensate for this neural deficit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA, davidchester@uky.edu.
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Chester
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Donald R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lynam
authors.affiliation: Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, and Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
authors.forename: C Nathan
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: DeWall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005084:Exhibitionism / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009289:Narcissism; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000473:pathology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology*; D010556:Personality Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D012201:Reward; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000473:pathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: diffusion tensor imaging; frontostriatal connectivity; narcissism; self-esteem; white matter