Analysis of Association between Norepinephrine Transporter Gene Polymorphisms and Personality Traits of NEO-FFI in a Japanese Population

Emotional dysregulation, alexithymia and neuroticism: a systematic review on the genetic basis of a subset of psychological traits

Neuroticism, alexithymia and emotion dysregulation are key traits and known risk factors for several psychiatric conditions. In this systematic review, the aim is to evaluate the genetic contribution to these psychological phenotypes. A systematic review of articles found in PubMed was conducted. Search terms included 'genetic', 'GWAS', 'neuroticism', 'alexithymia' and 'emotion dysregulation'. Risk of bias was assessed utilizing the STREGA checklist. Two hundred two papers were selected from existing literature based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among these, 27 were genome-wide studies and 175 were genetic association studies. Single gene association studies focused on selected groups of genes, mostly involved in neurotransmission, with conflicting results. GWAS studies on neuroticism, on the other hand, found several relevant and replicated intergenic and intronic loci affecting the expression and regulation of crucial and well-known genes (such as DRD2 and CRHR1). Mutations in genes coding for trascriptional factors were also found to be associated with neuroticism (DCC, XKR6, TCF4, RBFOX1), as well as a noncoding regulatory RNA (LINC00461). On the other hand, little GWAS data are available on alexythima and emotional dysregulation.

Anxious Personality Traits: Perspectives from Basic Emotions and Neurotransmitters

Objective: Recently, many emotional diseases, such as anxiety and depression, have prevailed, and it is expected that emotional disease will be the leading cause of social and economic burden in 2030. These emotional diseases may be due to certain personality traits, which could be the reasons for the development of mental illness. Personality theories have been constantly developed over the past hundreds of years, and different dimensions of personality traits corresponding to different physiological bases and emotional feelings have been proposed. However, personality may be the least studied area in psychology. Methods: In this paper, we will give a short review on the development of personality theories as well as dimensional emotional theory. Then, we will compare the similarities between the emotional dimension and personality dimension. Furthermore, we will also investigate the neural mechanisms of personality and emotions, focusing on neuromodulators for anxiety-related personality traits, in order to provide a clear relationship between different neurotransmitters and anxiety-related personality traits. Results: The results of our study suggest that the emotional dimension and personality dimension may be somewhat related, for example, the extrovert/introvert dimension of personality might be related to the hedonic dimension, which includes happiness/sadness, and the neurotic dimensions might be related to emotional arousal. In addition, our study found that personality traits are also related to basic emotions, for instance, people who are too self-centered are prone to feeling a mood of disgust or depression, while anger and fear correspond to unstable personality traits. The analysis suggested that the neural substrates of both personality and emotions might be described as follows: extroverted–joy–dopamine (DA); introverted–disgust–5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT); unstable (neuroticism)–anger/fear–noradrenaline (NE); stable–calmness. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that there is a correlation between personality traits and emotions, and both depend on monoamine neurotransmitters (dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin). In addition, personality disorders can be interfered via the regulation of emotions and neurotransmitters. This paper opens up a whole new perspective for future research on personality traits and emotional diseases and has great clinical value and practical significance.

Associations Among Monoamine Neurotransmitter Pathways, Personality Traits, and Major Depressive Disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex psychiatric disease requiring multidisciplinary approaches to identify specific risk factors and establish more efficacious treatment strategies. Although the etiology and pathophysiology of MDD are not clear until these days, it is acknowledged that they are almost certainly multifactorial and comprehensive. Monoamine neurotransmitter system dysfunction and specific personality traits are independent risk factors for depression and suicide. These factors also demonstrate complex interactions that influence MDD pathogenesis and symptom expression. In this review, we assess these relationships with the aim of providing a reference for the development of precision medicine.