The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, focused on the role played by three of the so-called “Big Five” personality traits (conscientiousness, neuroticism and extroversion) in cognitive function later in life. “Personality traits reflect relatively persistent patterns of thinking and behavior, which can cumulatively affect engaging in healthy and unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns throughout life,” said lead author Tomiko Yoneda, PhD, University of Victoria. . “The accumulation of lifelong experiences can then contribute to susceptibility to specific diseases or disorders, such as mild cognitive impairment, or contribute to individual differences in the ability to withstand age-related neurological changes.” People with a high degree of conscientiousness tend to be responsible, organized, hardworking and goal-oriented. Those with a high score on neuroticism have low emotional stability and a tendency to mood swings, anxiety, depression, self-doubt and other negative emotions. Extroverts draw energy from being around others and directing their energies towards people and the outside world. They tend to be enthusiastic, hospitable, talkative and assertive, according to Yoneda. To better understand the relationship between personality traits and cognitive impairment later in life, the researchers analyzed data from 1,954 participants in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a long-term study of seniors living in the greater Chicago metropolitan area and northeastern Illinois. Participants without a formal dementia diagnosis have been recruited by retired communities, church groups and subsidized nursing homes since 1997 and continue to this day. Participants received personality assessments and agreed to annual assessments of their cognitive abilities. The study included participants who had received at least two annual cognitive assessments or one pre-death assessment. Participants who scored either a high conscientiousness score or a low neuroticism score were significantly less likely to progress from normal cognitive function to mild cognitive impairment during the study. “A score of about six more on a conscience scale ranging from 0 to 48 was associated with a 22% reduced risk of transitioning from normal cognitive function to mild cognitive impairment,” Yoneda said. “In addition, a score of about seven more on a neuroticism scale of 0 to 48 was associated with a 12% increased risk of transition.” The researchers found no correlation between extroversion and the final development of mild cognitive impairment, but found that participants who scored high on extroversion – along with those who scored high on conscientiousness or low on cognitive function – retained more normal others. For example, 80-year-old participants with high conscience were estimated to have lived almost two years longer without cognitive impairment compared with those with low conscience. Participants with high extroversion were estimated to maintain a healthy mental capacity for about a year longer. In contrast, high neuroticism was associated with at least one year of less cognitive function, highlighting the damage associated with long-term experience of perceived stress and emotional instability, according to Yoneda. In addition, individuals lower in neuroticism and higher in extroversion were more likely to return to normal cognitive function after a previous diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that these traits may be protective even when a person develops dementia. In the case of extroversion, this finding may be indicative of the benefits of social interaction in improving cognitive outcomes, according to Yoneda. There was no correlation between any of the personality traits and overall life expectancy. Yoneda noted that the findings are limited due to the predominantly white (87%) and female (74%) makeup of the participants. The participants were also highly educated, with almost 15 years of training on average. Future research is needed on more diverse samples of older adults and should include the other two of the five major personality traits (agreement and transparency) to be more general and provide a broader understanding of the impact of personality traits on cognitive procedures and mortality later. life, he said.
