How large is your cognitive reserve? Your personality may reflect this and protect you from memory loss. #ClinicSpeak #ResearchSpeak #MSBlog
Did you know that in the general population ‘openness‘, a personality trait, is associated with better memory. Why? Openness encompasses intellectual
curiosity, aesthetic sensitivity, and imagination and
is positively correlated with measured IQ and education. Therefore, openness is associated with greater cognitive reserve. In the study below the investigators have extended this work into MS and show that openness and lower neuroticism is associated with better memory in pwMS. In comparison lower conscientiousness is associated with memory impairment. If you are interested you can complete the 5-factor personality test online and see how open or neurotic you are.
Leavitt et al. Protective personality traits: High openness and low neuroticism linked to better memory in multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler. 2017 Jan 1:1352458516685417.
BACKGROUND: Memory impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) is common, although few risk/protective factors are known.
OBJECTIVE: To examine relationships of personality to memory/non-memory cognition in MS.
METHOD: 80 patients completed a cognitive battery and a personality scale measuring the “Big 5” traits: openness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness.
RESULTS: Memory was most related to openness, with higher openness linked to better memory and lower risk for memory impairment, controlling for age, atrophy, education, and intelligence quotient (IQ). Lower neuroticism was also related to better memory, and lower conscientiousness to memory impairment. Non-memory cognition was unrelated to personality.
CONCLUSION: Personality may inform predictive models of memory impairment in MS.
Fun! Like those things in women's magazines.
Extraversion: relatively low
Agreeableness: about average
Conscientiousness: relatively high
Neuroticism: relatively low
Openness: relatively high
Well, your colleagues at Imperial college recently discovered that this is modifiable
LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27151536
Note to self: stop reading Barts' MS blog over the New Year break – like Waldkauz said, it becomes a bit like women's magazines.