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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on April 5, 2007
Cerebral Cortex 2008 18(1):46-52; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm030
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Gender-Common and -Specific Neuroanatomical Basis of Human Anxiety-Related Personality Traits

Hidenori Yamasue1, Osamu Abe2, Motomu Suga1, Haruyasu Yamada2, Hideyuki Inoue1, Mamoru Tochigi1, Mark Rogers1, Shigeki Aoki2, Nobumasa Kato1 and Kiyoto Kasai1

1 Department of Neuropsychiatry, 2 Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan

Address correspondence to Hidenori Yamasue, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. Email: yamasue-tky{at}umin.ac.jp.

Exploration of the relationships between regional brain volume and anxiety-related personality traits is important for understanding preexisting vulnerability to depressive and anxiety disorders. However, previous studies on this topic have employed relatively limited sample sizes and/or image processing methodology, and they have not clarified possible gender differences. In the present study, 183 (male/female: 117/66) right-handed healthy individuals in the third and fourth decades of life underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging scans and Temperament and Character Inventory. Neuroanatomical correlates of individual differences in the score of harm avoidance (HA) were examined throughout the entire brain using voxel-based morphometry. We found that higher scores on HA were associated with smaller regional gray matter volume in the right hippocampus, which was common to both genders. In contrast, female-specific correlation was found between higher anxiety-related personality traits and smaller regional brain volume in the left anterior prefrontal cortex. The present findings suggest that smaller right hippocampal volume underlies the basis for higher anxiety-related traits common to both genders, whereas anterior prefrontal volume contributes only in females. The results may have implications for why susceptibility to stress-related disorders such as anxiety disorders and depression shows gender and/or individual differences.

Key Words: anxiety • gender • hippocampus • MRI • prefrontal cortex


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