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Personality and neurochemicals in the human brain: A preliminary study using1H MRS

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

To investigate the neuro-biological bases of introversion-extraversion personality traits, the concentration of four neurochemicals (Cho, ml, α-Glx and NAA) in anterior cigulate gyrus between normal extroverts and introverts were examined using non-invasive1H MRS technique. Our study revealed that introverts have significantly higher level of α-Glx, Cho and mI in the anterior cingulate gyrus than extroverts. This result provides new evidence that the anterior cingulate gyrus is related to personality traits partly in support of Eysenck’s supposition that introverts have higher arousal level than extroverts. Moreover, this result offers neurochemical data for psychobiological theories of personality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Labor relations and human resources, Renmin University of China, 100872, Beijing, China

    Shiyong Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing, China

    Shiyong Xu, Danling Peng, Hongyan Liu & Jie Yang

  3. Center for fMRI and Department of Radiology, 306 Hospital, 100101, Beijing, China

    Zhen Jin

Authors
  1. Shiyong Xu
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  2. Danling Peng
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  3. Zhen Jin
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  4. Hongyan Liu
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  5. Jie Yang
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Correspondence to Danling Peng.

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Xu, S., Peng, D., Jin, Z. et al. Personality and neurochemicals in the human brain: A preliminary study using1H MRS. Chin.Sci.Bull. 50, 2318–2322 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03183742

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03183742

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