Back in the 1980s and 90s, I, along with many others, was fascinated with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. You could take a test and find out which of 16 boxes your personality might fit into. It was kind of fun, and you could play parlour games with it. However, I began to believe that it was dangerous in that it encouraged people (like me) to unfairly pass judgement on others. It could also mean the difference between getting or losing out on a job when the HR department used it to screen people for different roles. I'm not sure it did such a great job at that. In time, the Myers-Briggs system was replaced by the "Big Five" personality traits, but I'm not sure it garnered the same level of attention in popular culture as the earlier system. But to psychologists, the Big Five system was a superior way of assessing someone's personality and aptitudes.
A question that occurred to me a long time ago was whether personality type might predict whether someone might develop Alzheimer's disease ... or any type of dementia. I guess I wasn't the only one with this question, because researchers have found some interesting correlations. One such study was published in the September 2021 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
The study found correlations with two of the Big Five traits. But first, what are the traits? You can read up on them in this Wikipedia article, but here they are:
1. openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
2. conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
3. extroversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
4. agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational)
5. neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)
So what did the study do?
The researchers gave participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging the Revised NEO Personality Inventory to identify where each stood with respect to the Big Five traits, and they administered PET scans to determine their load of amyloid and tau in their brains. The presence of beta amyloid peptides and certain tau proteins signal the advent of Alzheimer’s disease.
And what did they find?
"Higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness are risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, but the underlying neuropathological correlates remain unclear."
The underlying neuropathological correlates remain unclear, but allow me to speculate. I wonder if people with lower neuroticism and higher conscientiousness aren't just people who are more likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle, a lifestyle that touches on each element of the Dementia Toolkit we described in Beating the Dementia Monster. They may be people more likely to get exercise, eat right, adopt good sleep habits, maintain social connections, and remain interested in learning.
Others are thinking the same thing. Commenting on the research, Dr. Claire Sexton of the Alzheimer's Association told Medical News Today,“One potential pathway is inflammation, which is associated with personality and the development of Alzheimer’s biomarkers. Lifestyle is another potential pathway. For example, highly conscientious individuals have been shown to have healthier lifestyles — in terms of physical activity, smoking, sleep, depression, cognitive stimulation, etc. — than those with lower conscientiousness. There is a solid body of research connecting lifestyle, dementia risk, and biomarkers.”
Dr. Antonio Terracciano, a professor in the Department of Geriatrics at Florida State University, also suggested, “There are aspects of neuroticism and conscientiousness that might directly impact the risk of dementia. Traits like neuroticism shape our emotional life, the way we cope with stress and deal with our feelings. Conscientiousness is defined by our level of grit, persistence, and planful attitudes.”
So there is correlation, but causation is a bit more murky.
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