Neuroticism is a personality trait that is associated with high levels of anxiety, anger, and loneliness. Biopsychologists in Bochum have now discovered a link between the cellular microstructure of the amygdala and neuroticism.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that is associated with high levels of anxiety, anger, and loneliness. Biopsychologists in Bochum have now discovered a link between the cellular microstructure of the amygdala and neuroticism. Brain images from 221 healthy participants were acquired using advanced multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging and the amygdala was segmented into its eight subnuclei. Lower neurite density in the lateral amygdala nucleus (LA) was significantly associated with higher scores in depression, one of the six neuroticism facets. The La is the sensory relay of the amygdala, filtering incoming information based on previous experiences. Reduced neurite density and related changes in the dendritic structure of the LA could impair its filtering function, causing harmless sensory information to be misevaluated as threatening and thus increase neuroticism-related behavior.

Schlüter, C., Fraenz, C., Friedrich, P., Güntürkün, O. and Genç, E., Neurite density imaging in amygdala nuclei reveals interindividual differences in neuroticism. Human Brain Mapping, 2022, 1–13 https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25775.