Open AccessNeuroticism and conscientiousness respectively positively and negatively correlated with the network characteristic path length in dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex: A resting‐state fNIRS study
Author(s) -
Wang MengYun,
Zhang Juan,
Lu FengMei,
Xiang YuTao,
Yuan Zhen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 41
ISSN - 2162-3279
DOI - 10.1002/brb3.1074
Subject(s) - conscientiousness , resting state fmri , neuroticism , prefrontal cortex , big five personality traits , psychology , personality , small world network , correlation , neuroscience , extraversion and introversion , cognition , social psychology , mathematics , complex network , geometry , combinatorics
Background Accumulating evidence shows that the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dl PFC ) is implicated in personality traits. In this study, resting‐state functional near infrared spectroscopy ( fNIRS ) combined with small‐world analysis was utilized to examine the relationship between the network properties of dl PFC and personality traits. Methods Thirty college students (aged between 20 and 29) were recruited from the University of Macau campus, whose personality scores were accessed with the NEO ‐ FFT questionnaire. Graph theory combined with resting‐state fNIRS data was used to quantify the network properties of dl PFC , whereas Pearson correlation analysis was performed to generate the relationship between the small‐world indicators and personality scores. Results Compared to matched random networks, the resting‐state brain networks exhibited a larger clustering coefficient ( C p , 0.1–0.66), shorter characteristic path length ( L p , 0.1–0.66), and higher global ( E g , 0.1–0.66) and local efficiency ( E loc , 0.1–0.65). In particular, conscientiousness ( r = −0.63) and neuroticism ( r = 0.40) respectively showed negative and positive correlation with the L p . Conclusions The resting‐state functional brain networks in dl PFC exhibited the small‐world properties. In addition, participants with higher conscientiousness scores showed a shorter L p .