brain plasticity: wiring fits personallity (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, September 28, 2015, 18:53 (3345 days ago) @ David Turell

A complex study of individuals comparing their personal traits to their brain wiring
finds definite patterns:-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-your-brain-is-wired-reveals-the-real-you/?WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20150928-"In April, a branch of the project led by one of the HCP's co-chairs, biomedical engineer Stephen Smith at the University of Oxford, UK, released a database of resting-state connectomes from about 460 people between 22 and 35 years old. Each brain scan is supplemented by information on approximately 280 traits, such as the person's age, whether they have a history of drug use, their socioeconomic status and personality traits, and their performance on various intelligence tests.-" Smith and his colleagues ran a massive computer analysis to look at how these traits varied among the volunteers, and how the traits correlated with different brain connectivity patterns. The team was surprised to find a single, stark difference in the way brains were connected. People with more 'positive' variables, such as more education, better physical endurance and above-average performance on memory tests, shared the same patterns. Their brains seemed to be more strongly connected than those of people with 'negative' traits such as smoking, aggressive behaviour or a family history of alcohol abuse.-"Marcus Raichle, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, is impressed that the activity and anatomy of the brains alone were enough to reveal this 'positive-negative' axis. “You can distinguish people with successful traits and successful lives versus those who are not so successful,” he says."-Comment: We create our personalities as we develop and age. We obviously work back and forth with our brains as partners in the project.