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In November 2013, I wrote a Psychology Today blog post titled, “What Is the Human Connectome Project? Why Should You Care?” In recent weeks, some new findings from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) have been published and the results are compelling. In my initial post on the connectome project I predicted that:
The findings from HCP will help transform our understanding of the human mind and brain in health, and in disease. HCP will ultimately yield invaluable information about brain connectivity, its relationship to behavior, and the contributions of genetic and environmental factors on individual differences in brain circuitry and behavior.
This week, researchers from Oxford University published findings that there is a strong correlation between a particular set of connections in the human brain and positive or negative lifestyle and behavior traits based on state-of-the-art brain imaging provided by HCP.
What Is the Human Connectome Project?
The Human Connectome Project set out to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project (HGP) did for genetics. Mapping the human brain is one of the great scientific challenges of the 21st century. HCP is a $30 million program funded by the NIH which is mapping the connections between the neural pathways that underlie brain function, structure, and human behavior.
The images from the connectome project provide a detailed description of how over 200 separate brain regions communicate with each other via white matter tracts, which creates a virtual map of the brain's strongest connections in vivid color.
For their recent study, the Oxford team of neuroscientists examined the connections in the brains of 461 people and compared these images with 280 different behavioral and demographic measurements for each participant.
The team found that variations in brain connectivity and an individual's positive or negative human traits lay on a single axis. People with classically positive lifestyles and behaviors had different connections than those with classically negative ones.
The September 2015 study, ”A Positive-Negative Mode of Population Covariation Links Brain Connectivity, Demographics and Behavior,” was published in Nature Neuroscience. The researchers said that “subjects were predominantly spread along a single 'positive-negative' axis linking lifestyle, demographic and psychometric measures to each other and to a specific pattern of brain connectivity.”
The results show a strong correlation that relates specific variations in a subject's connectome with his or her behavioral and demographic statistics. Interestingly, the correlation shows that those with a connectome at one end of the scale scored highly on measures typically deemed to be positive, such as life satisfaction, years of education, income, working memory, and vocabulary.
On the flip side, those at the opposite end of the connectome scale had higher scores for traits typically considered to be negative, such as anger, rule-breaking, substance abuse, and poor sleep quality.
The University of Oxford team will continue to pursue this investigation as the images from the Human Connectome Project and the data made available to the researchers continues to grow in the months and years to come.
Wide Range of Human Traits Previously Linked to Brain Connectivity
Although the new research from Oxford University using the HCP imaging is groundbreaking, it isn’t the first time that neuroscientists have linked positive or negative human traits to specific brain connections and lifestyle factors.
Over the years, I’ve written a wide range of Psychology Today blog posts linking optimism, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, the ability to savor positive emotions, etc. with the size and connectivity of various brain regions. Below are some examples of these findings:
Last week, I wrote a blog post, “Optimism and Anxiety Change the Structure of Your Brain,” based on findings from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which showed that healthy adults who have a larger orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) tend to have less anxiety and more optimism.
Last month, I wrote a Psychology Today blog post, “Why Does Physical Activity Improve Cognitive Flexibility?” based on research from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology which found that regular exercise improves the integrity of white-matter tracts connecting various brain regions in a way that improved someone’s ability to multitask and think outside the box.
In July of 2015, I wrote a post, “The Neuroscience of Savoring Positive Emotions,” based on research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) which found that savoring things like a beautiful sunset and positive emotions is linked to sustained activation and connectivity of the ventral striatum.
In 2014, I wrote a Psychology Today blog post, “Chronic Stress Can Damage Brain Structure and Connectivity,” based on research from University of California, Berkeley which found that excessive amounts of the "stress hormone" cortisol created a domino effect that hardwired pathways between the hippocampus and amygdala in a way that increased anxiety.
In 2013, I wrote a blog post, "The Size and Connectivity of the Amygdala Predicts Anxiety," based on research from the Stanford University School of Medicine which found that measuring the size and connectivity of the amygdala can predict anxiety.
Conclusion: Do Human Traits Shape Brain Connections or Vice Versa?
_0.jpg?itok=M8WGGBkD "Courtesy of the Human Connectome Project")
As with any scientific finding, there is always going to be the question of correlation vs. causation. Do positive or negative traits hardwire certain brain connections, or do innate brain connections influence someone’s human traits? Nobody knows the answer to this question.
Most likely, the correlation and causation in this instance is a combination of someone's predisposition for a human trait combined with daily lifestyle choices, actions, and mindset that shape brain connectivity through a feedback loop.
Luckily, because the brain is plastic and mindset is never fixed, everyone has the ability to reshape his or her brain connections as well at their explanatory style by adopting positive daily habits, mindsets, and consciously diminishing negative traits.
© 2015 Christopher Bergland. All rights reserved.
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