Authors: Laura Petrosini Debora Cutuli Eleonora Picerni Daniela Laricchiuta
Publish Date: 2014/12/15
Volume: 14, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-46
Abstract
Personality traits are multidimensional traits comprising cognitive emotional and behavioral characteristics and a wide array of cerebral structures mediate individual variability Differences in personality traits covary with brain morphometry in specific brain regions A cerebellar role in emotional and affective processing and on personality characteristics has been suggested In a large sample of healthy subjects of both sexes and differently aged the macro and microstructural variations of the cerebellum were correlated with the scores obtained in the Temperament and Character Inventory TCI by Cloninger Cerebellar volumes were associated positively with Novelty Seeking scores and negatively with Harm Avoidance scores Given the cerebellar contribution in personality traits and emotional processing we investigated the cerebellar involvement even in alexithymia construct of personality characterized by impairment in cognitive emotional and affective processing Interestingly the subjects with high alexithymic traits had larger volumes in the bilateral Crus 1 The cerebellar substrate for some personality dimensions extends the relationship between personality and brain areas to a structure up to now thought to be involved mainly in motor and cognitive functions much less in emotional processes and even less in personality individual differences The enlarged volumes of Crus 1 in novelty seekers and alexithymics support the tendency to action featuring both personality constructs In fact Novelty Seeking and alexithymia are rooted in behavior and inescapably have a strong action component resulting in stronger responses in the structures more focused on action and embodiment as the cerebellum is
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