Authors

Johnson DL. Wiebe JS. Gold SM. Andreasen NC. Hichwa RD.

Watkins GL. Boles Ponto LL.

 

Institution

Mental Health Clinical Research Center and the Department of Psychology,

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, USA.

 

Title

Cerebral blood flow and personality: a positron emission tomography study.

Source

American Journal of Psychiatry. 156(2):252-7, 1999 Feb.

 

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to describe brain regions associated with the

personality dimension of introversion/extraversion. METHOD: Measures of

cerebral blood flow (CBF) were obtained from 18 healthy subjects by means of

[150]H20 positron emission tomography. Correlations of regional CBF with

introversion/extraversion were calculated, and a three-dimensional map of

those correlations was generated. RESULTS: Overall, introversion was

associated with increased blood flow in the frontal lobes and in the anterior

thalamus. Regions in the anterior cingulate gyrus, the temporal lobes, and

the posterior thalamus were found to be correlated with extraversion.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the study lend support to the notion that

introversion is associated with increased activity in frontal lobe regions.

Moreover, the study suggests that individual differences in introversion and

extraversion are related to differences in a fronto-striato-thalamic circuit.