Personality traits related to the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease

This study focused on two characteristics previously associated with dementia risk: neuroticism, which measures the tendency to negative emotions, and conscientiousness, which measures the tendency to be cautious, organized, purposeful, and responsible

Antonio Tracciano, professor of geriatrics at the School of Medicine, said: “We have done some studies to show who is at risk for dementia, but other studies focus on clinical diagnosis

The research results are published in the online publication of "Biological Psychiatry" and can also be obtained through FSU's open access research knowledge base

In BLSA and meta-analysis, researchers found that participants with higher neuroticism scores and lower conscientiousness scores had more deposits of amyloid and tau (Alzheimer's disease is characterized by plaque and tangled proteins)

The research team also found that research on people with normal cognition is more relevant than people with cognitive problems

Research results show that personality can help prevent Alzheimer's disease and other neurological diseases, because for those with a strong sense of responsibility and low neuroticism, personality can delay or prevent the appearance of neuropathology

Tracciano said: "This protection against neuropathology may stem from people's different emotions and behaviors throughout their lives

BLSA is a scientific research on human aging carried out by the National Institute of Aging (NIA) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which began in 1958

Advances in brain scanning technology used to assess neuropathology of amyloid and tau in the body have made it possible for researchers to complete this work

Tracciano said: "Until recently, researchers have used autopsy to measure amyloid and tau in the brain after death

Journal Reference :

1. Antonio Terracciano, Murat Bilgel, Damaris Aschwanden, Martina Luchetti, Yannick Stephan, Abhay R.