Resting State Functional Connectivity and Conscientiousness

Abstract

Of the Big Five traits, Conscientiousness is most closely associated with individual differences in goal attainment, but little is known about its neural basis. We tested the novel hypothesis that a network resembling the salience and ventral attention networks may be one of the main neural substrates of Conscientiousness. Self- and peer-ratings of Conscientiousness were collected in a sample of adults (N = 218) who underwent a resting-state fMRI scan. An independent component analysis was conducted identifying four subcomponents of a network we named the goal priority network (GPN). We examined coherence within and between these GPN subcomponents, and results indicate that coherence in one of the components, comprising insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), is significantly associated with Conscientiousness. Our results support the hypothesis that variation in the GPN may be central to trait Conscientiousness, and that this network may be components of one overarching goal maintenance network.