Deviation From Typical Brain Activity During Naturalistic Stimulation Is Related to Personality Traits
Authors:
- Lucia JajcayLJLucia Jajcay
- David TomečekDTDavid Tomeček
- Renáta AndrovičováRARenáta Androvičová
- Iveta FajnerováIFIveta Fajnerová
- Filip DěchtěrenkoFDFilip Děchtěrenko
- Jan RydloJRJan Rydlo
- Jaroslav TintěraJTJaroslav Tintěra
- Jiří LukavskýJLJiří Lukavský
- Jiří HoráčekJHJiří Horáček
- Jaroslav HlinkaJHJaroslav Hlinka
Open Access
- 14 December 2025
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Psychophysiology
- Vol. 62 (12) , e70203
Abstract
The relationship between personality and brain activity has been an increasingly popular topic of neuroscientific research. Naturalistic viewing has been shown to enhance individual differences and might, therefore, be particularly useful for exploring this relationship. Here, we thus examine neural signatures of personality using naturalistic fMRI of 82 healthy subjects. We implemented a simple dimensionality reduction method to characterize brain activity by its “typicality,” assessed a range of personality traits using widely‐used personality inventories, and tested the relationship between the two. We found that there is, indeed, a relationship between personality and the typicality of brain activity, which appears to be most consistently manifested by lower typicality in subjects with higher Neuroticism/Harm Avoidance. Our results highlight the usefulness of naturalistic viewing data for exploring the relationship between individual differences in personality and brain activity.Keywords
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Funding Information
- Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy (CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008715)
- České Vysoké Učení Technické v Praze (SGS23/119/OHK3/2T/13)
- European Regional Development Fund (CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004643)
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky (21‐32608S)
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