Intellect as Distinct From Openness: Differences Revealed by fMRI ofWorking Memory

摘要

Relatively little is known about the neural bases of the Big Five personality trait Openness/Intellect. Thistrait is composed of 2 related but separable aspects, Openness to Experience and Intellect. On the basisof previous behavioral research (C. G. DeYoung, J. B. Peterson, & D. M. Higgins, 2005), the authorshypothesized that brain activity supporting working memory (WM) would be related to Intellect but notto Openness. To test this hypothesis, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) toscan a sample of 104 healthy adults as they performed a difficult WM task. Intellect (and not Openness)was found to correlate with WM accuracy and with accuracy-related brain activity, in left lateral anteriorprefrontal cortex and posterior medial frontal cortex. Neural activity in these regions mediated theassociation between Intellect and WM performance, implicating these regions in the neural substrate ofIntellect. Intellect was also correlated significantly with scores on tests of intelligence and WM capacity,but the association of Intellect with brain activity could not be entirely explained by cognitive ability.