Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| [b] Medical Direction, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| [c] Department of Rehabilitation and Geriatrics, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| [d] Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Diagnostic Department, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| [e] CIMC - Centre d’Imagerie Médicale de Cornavin, Geneva, Switzerland
| [f] Department of Surgical Sciences, Radiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| [g] Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| [h] Department of Radiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Prof. Panteleimon Giannakopoulos, Division of Institutional Measures, Geneva University Hospitals, 12 bis avenue de Rosemont, 1208 Geneva, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 22 305 5777; E-mail: Panteleimon.Giannakopoulos@unige.ch.
Abstract: Background: Several studies postulated that personality is an independent determinant of cognitive trajectories in old age. Objective: This study explores the impact of personality on widely used Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular imaging markers. Methods: We examined the association between personality and three classical AD imaging markers (centiloid-based-amyloid load, MRI volumetry in hippocampus, and media temporal lobe atrophy), and two vascular MRI parameters (Fazekas score and number of cortical microbleeds) assessed at baseline and upon a 54-month-follow-up. Personality was assessed with the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality Inventory-Revised. Regression models were used to identify predictors of imaging markers including sex, personality factors, presence of APOE ɛ4 allele and cognitive evolution over time. Results: Cortical GM volumes were negatively associated with higher levels of Conscientiousness both at baseline and follow-up. In contrast, higher scores of Openness were related to better preservation of left hippocampal volumes in these two time points and negatively associated with medial temporal atrophy at baseline. Amyloid load was not affected by personality factors. Cases with higher Extraversion scores displayed higher numbers of cortical microbleeds at baseline. Conclusion: Personality impact on brain morphometry is detected only in some among the routinely used imaging markers. The most robust associations concern the positive role of high levels of Conscientiousness and Openness on AD-signature MRI markers. Higher extraversion levels are associated with increased vulnerability to cortical microbleeds pointing to the fact that the socially favorable traits may have a detrimental effect on brain integrity in old age.
