Openness to experience and stress responsivity: An examination of cardiovascular and underlying hemodynamic trajectories within an acute stress exposure

Social participation is associated with a habituated blood pressure response to recurrent stress

Lower cardiovascular reactivity is a proposed marker of motivational dysregulation and is related to a range of adverse behavioural and health outcomes. Social participation is a form of motivated behaviour and represents the frequency in which an individual engages in social activities. Low social participation has recently been linked to lower cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. With recent work emphasizing the importance of assessing adaptation of the cardiovascular response to recurrent stress, the aim of the current study is to build on previous work by examining the relationship between social participation and cardiovascular stress response adaptation. This study utilised data from the Pittsburgh Cold Study 3 (PCS 3). Two hundred and thirteen participants (M = 30.13; SD = 10.85) completed a social participation measure and had their systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) monitored across two separate standardized stress testing sessions. The testing sessions consisted of a 20-minute baseline and a 15-minute stress task. Results indicated that higher levels of social participation were associated with greater blood pressure habituation to recurrent stress, extending previous work identifying that social participation was associated with higher cardiovascular responses to stress. The present study identifies that those reporting greater levels of social participation may show enhanced stress tolerance when exposed to recurrent stress.

Mediating role of coping styles on the relationship between personality types and mental disorders in cardiovascular patients: a cross-sectional study in Iran

BACKGROUND

Many mental problems lead to the occurrence of physical diseases, causing worse consequences of diseases. Despite many studies in the field of personality types and types of mental disorders, this relationship and the mediating role of coping styles in cardiovascular patients are still not well known. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the mediating role of coping styles in the relationship between personality types and mental disorders in cardiovascular patients.

METHOD

The present study is a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 114 cardiovascular patients at the heart center in Bushehr, Iran. The sampling method is simple random sampling. Demographic information form, MCMI-III questionnaire, NEO-FFI questionnaire, and Lazarus and Folkman coping styles questionnaire were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22 and Amos 24 software. Descriptive statistics methods (mean, variance and percentage), Pearson correlation, and structural equation model (SEM) were applied to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The findings showed that the two variables of personality types and problem-oriented explain 15.2% of the variable of mental disorders, of which 10.7% is related to the variable of personality types and 4.5% is related to the intermediate variable of problem-oriented. Among the personality types, the neurotic personality type has the biggest role (0.632) and has a direct and significant effect on mental disorders. Also, the personality types of extroversion (-0.460), agreeableness (-0.312), and responsibility (-0.986) exert inverse and significant effects on mental disorders.

CONCLUSION

The results of the present study showed the frequency of personality disorders and other mental disorders among heart patients. Problem-oriented coping style plays a mediating role between personality types and mental disorders.

Behavioural clusters characteristic of cardiovascular reactivity profiles relate to poorer health outcomes

OBJECTIVES

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity is associated with a distinct behavioural profile of greater exposure to early life adversity, coupled with higher levels of behavioural disengagement and symptoms of depression. The present study sought to extend on this work by investigating if behavioural clusters with distinct patterns of reactivity were related to health and behavioural outcomes at baseline and at a 4-year follow-up.

METHODS

Hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted using longitudinal data drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS 2) Biomarker Project and the MIDUS 3 follow-up 4 years later. During MIDUS, 2 participants (N = 513) underwent a standardized stress testing protocol and had their blood pressure and heart rate monitored throughout. In addition, hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted on responses from measures of early life adversity, behavioural disengagement and depression. Binary logistic regressions were conducted to determine whether cluster membership was related to health and behavioural outcomes which were taken at both time points.

RESULTS

Three behavioural clusters emerged with statistically different blood pressure reactivity patterns. The cluster characterized by greater exposure to early life adversity, higher levels of behavioural disengagement and depressive symptoms, had relatively lower blood pressure reactivity patterns compared with both the exaggerated reactivity cluster and the cluster similar to the sample mean. In fully adjusted models, this cluster was associated with hypertension (p = .050) and depressed affect (p = .033), while Cluster 1 characteristic of an exaggerated blood pressure reactivity profile was associated with depressed affect (p < .001). Cluster membership did not significantly predict future health status.

CONCLUSION

This study extends research on behavioural clusters characteristic of reactivity profiles to demonstrate how they relate to health and behavioural outcomes during MIDUS 2.

Baseline Differences in Long-term Survivors and Nonsurvivors of the Colorado/Columbia Fetal Implant Trial

OBJECTIVE

This study is based on long-term follow-up of participants in a randomized double-blind sham surgery-controlled trial (1995-1999) designed to determine the effectiveness of implantation of human embryonic mesencephalic tissue containing dopamine neuron precursors into the brains of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated differences between long-term survivors and nonsurvivors at baseline in order to contribute to information regarding optimal patient selection for upcoming stem cell trials.

METHOD

Forty participants were randomly assigned to receive either neural implantation or sham surgery. Thirty-four patients who ultimately received the implant were followed periodically with the most recent assessment occurring in 2015-2016. Demographic information, neurological measures, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, neuropsychological assessments, and a personality assessment were included in the current analyses. T-tests were used to compare survivors and nonsurvivors. Logistic regression analyses examined predictors of survivorship.

RESULTS

Five of six survivors were female. They were younger than nonsurvivors (p = .03) and more neuropsychologically "intact" across a broad range of cognitive areas (significance levels ranged from <.001 to .045). There were no differences between survivors and nonsurvivors off medications at baseline on neurological or PET assessments. Survivors reported more "Openness to Experience" (p = .004) than nonsurvivors. Using empirically derived predictor variables, results of logistic regression analyses indicated that Animal Naming (cognitive task) and Openness to Experience (personality variable) were the strongest predictors of survivorship.

CONCLUSIONS

Variables to consider when selecting participants for future cell-based therapies include being "intact" neuropsychologically, level of Openness to Experience, younger age, and inclusion of women.

OLD IDEAS, NEW DIRECTIONS: RE-EXAMINING THE PREDICTIVE UTILITY OF THE HEMODYNAMIC PROFILE OF THE STRESS RESPONSE IN HEALTHY POPULATIONS

The 'reactivity hypothesis' has a long and fruitful history in health psychology and behavioural medicine, with elements of its thesis taken as core and others lost in the plethora of research on its utility as a theory of psychosomatic disease. One such thesis is that the underlying hemodynamic profile of the stress response may be particularly revealing when detailing the impact of psychological stress on the development of cardiovascular disease. This paper re-examines old ideas surrounding the hemodynamic profile of the stress response, asking why its health-predictive properties were never fully explored. Further, this paper reviews the evidence that a vascular profile of stress responding may be especially predictive of disease development, particularly in the case of hypertension. In addition, measurement of hemodynamic profile as well as its known psychosocial moderators are reviewed including how examination of patterns of cardiovascular-stress response adaptation may extend the field. This paper highlights that the extension of the reactivity hypothesis to include both hemodynamic profile and patterns of cardiovascular stress-response adaptation may hold much explanatory power in detailing the impact of how stress responding and stress tolerance promotes disease development.

Personality Impact on Alzheimer's Disease-Signature and Vascular Imaging Markers: A PET-MRI Study

BACKGROUND

Several studies postulated that personality is an independent determinant of cognitive trajectories in old age.

OBJECTIVE

This study explores the impact of personality on widely used Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular imaging markers.

METHODS

We examined the association between personality and three classical AD imaging markers (centiloid-based-amyloid load, MRI volumetry in hippocampus, and media temporal lobe atrophy), and two vascular MRI parameters (Fazekas score and number of cortical microbleeds) assessed at baseline and upon a 54-month-follow-up. Personality was assessed with the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality Inventory-Revised. Regression models were used to identify predictors of imaging markers including sex, personality factors, presence of APOE ɛ4 allele and cognitive evolution over time.

RESULTS

Cortical GM volumes were negatively associated with higher levels of Conscientiousness both at baseline and follow-up. In contrast, higher scores of Openness were related to better preservation of left hippocampal volumes in these two time points and negatively associated with medial temporal atrophy at baseline. Amyloid load was not affected by personality factors. Cases with higher Extraversion scores displayed higher numbers of cortical microbleeds at baseline.

CONCLUSION

Personality impact on brain morphometry is detected only in some among the routinely used imaging markers. The most robust associations concern the positive role of high levels of Conscientiousness and Openness on AD-signature MRI markers. Higher extraversion levels are associated with increased vulnerability to cortical microbleeds pointing to the fact that the socially favorable traits may have a detrimental effect on brain integrity in old age.

The cardiovascular response to acute psychological stress is related to subjectively giving and receiving social support

The pathways linking giving and receiving emotional and instrumental social support, and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) are not yet fully understood. Eight-two healthy young adults completed psychometric measures of giving and receiving emotional and instrumental social support and participated in a standardised laboratory stress task. Cardiovascular and hemodynamic parameters were monitored throughout. Both giving and receiving emotional support were positively associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), such that those reporting giving and receiving more emotional support had higher reactivity. Only receiving instrumental was associated with DBP, with those receiving more instrumental support having higher reactivity. Moreover, while the significant association between giving social support and CVR withstood adjustment for several confounding factors (e.g., BMI, sex) it was abolished when receiving support was controlled for. These findings are novel and extend the literature on social support and CVR. Taken together, these findings suggest that receipt of support, rather than giving, may be more influential in this context.

Self-reported and mother-rated personality traits at age 16 are associated with cognitive function measured concurrently and 30 years later

BACKGROUND

Models of personality and health suggest that personality contributes to health outcomes across adulthood. Personality traits, such as neuroticism and conscientiousness, have long-term predictive power for cognitive impairment in older adulthood, a critical health outcome. Less is known about whether personality measured earlier in life is also associated with cognition across adulthood prior to dementia.

METHODS

Using data from the British Cohort Study 1970 (N = 4218; 58% female), the current research examined the relation between self-reported and mother-rated personality at age 16 and cognitive function concurrently at age 16 and cognitive function measured 30 years later at age 46, and whether these traits mediate the relation between childhood social class and midlife cognition.

RESULTS

Self-reported and mother-rated conscientiousness at age 16 were each associated with every cognitive measure at age 16 and most measures at age 46. Self-reported openness was likewise associated with better cognitive performance on all tasks at age 16 and prospectively predicted age 46 performance (mothers did not rate openness). Mother-rated agreeableness, but not self-reported, was associated with better cognitive performance at both time points. Adolescent personality mediated the relation between childhood social class and midlife cognitive function.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study advances personality and cognition by showing that (1) adolescent personality predicts midlife cognition 30 years later, (2) both self-reports and mother-ratings are important sources of information on personality associated with midlife cognition, and (3) adolescent personality may be one pathway through which the early life socioeconomic environment is associated with midlife cognition.

Personality pathways to mortality: Interleukin-6 links conscientiousness to mortality risk

Personality is associated consistently with mortality hazards, but the physiological pathways are not yet clear. Immune system dysregulation may be one such pathway due to its role in age-related morbidity and mortality. In this preregistered study, we tested whether interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) mediated the associations between personality traits and mortality hazards. The sample included 957 participants (M ± SD = 58.65 ± 11.51 years; range = 35-86 years) from the Midlife in the United States Survey that had 14 years of follow-up. Higher conscientiousness was associated with lower mortality hazards, with each one standard deviation higher conscientiousness associated with a 35% lower mortality risk. IL-6, but not CRP, partially mediated this association, with IL-6 accounting for 18% of this association in the fully adjusted model. While there was initial evidence that the biomarkers mediated both neuroticism and agreeableness and mortality risk, the indirect effects were not significant when controlling for the sociodemographic variables. Taken together, higher conscientiousness may lead to a longer life partially as a result of lower IL-6. This work highlights the importance of biological pathways that link personality to future mortality risk.

Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress: The mediating effects of social support and negative social relationships

Type D personality has been consistently associated with adverse cardiovascular health with atypical cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress one potential underlying mechanism. As Type D individuals have been noted to report lower social support and greater perceptions of negativity in social interactions, this study examined if the association between Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity was mediated by these social relationships. A sample of 195 undergraduate students (138 female) participated in this observational study, where they completed measures assessing Type D personality (DS14), social support, and perceptions of negative social relationships (National Institute of Health social relationship scales), before undergoing a traditional cardiovascular reactivity protocol. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP; DBP), heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were monitored throughout. ANCOVAs and regressions indicated that Type D personality was associated with lower cardiovascular reactivity to a mental arithmetic stressor. Furthermore, mediation analyses (process macro) indicated that the relationship between Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity was mediated via increased perceptions of negative social relationships, as well as lower levels of social support. Apart from a significant association between Type D personality and increased HR reactivity, all results failed to withstand adjustment for the individual effects of negative affect (NA) and social inhibition (SI) in controlled analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that the predictive utility of Type D personality on cardiovascular reactivity above and beyond the individual effects of NA and SI is limited, and may vary depending on the cardiovascular parameter of focus.

Less agreeable, better preserved? A PET amyloid and MRI study in a community-based cohort

The relationship between personality profiles and brain integrity in old age is still a matter of debate. We examined the association between Big Five factor and facet scores and MRI brain volume changes on a 54-month follow-up in 65 elderly controls with 3 neurocognitive assessments (baseline, 18 months, and 54 months), structural brain MRI (baseline and 54 months), brain amyloid PET during follow-up, and APOE genotyping. Personality was assessed with the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Personality Inventory-Revised. Regression models were used to identify predictors of volume loss including time, age, sex, personality, amyloid load, presence of APOE ε4 allele, and cognitive evolution. Lower agreeableness factor scores (and 4 of its facets) were associated with lower volume loss in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala, mesial temporal lobe, and precuneus bilaterally. Higher openness factor scores (and 2 of its facets) were also associated with lower volume loss in the left hippocampus. Our findings persisted when adjusting for confounders in multivariable models. These data suggest that the combination of low agreeableness and high openness is an independent predictor of better preservation of brain volume in areas vulnerable to neurodegeneration.

Trait dominance and cardiovascular functioning during social stress

Cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress has been found to be an important indicator of future ill health, and individual differences in personality have been posited to explain disparities in outcomes. Dominance is associated with forceful persons who desire hierarchy in social interactions. This study investigated dominance and CVR during social or asocial stressors. Sixty-one women, categorized as low, moderate, or high in dominance using the Jackson Personality Research Form, completed a social or asocial stressor while undergoing cardiovascular measurement during baseline, stressor, and recovery phases. A 3 × 2 × 3 analysis of covariance revealed a significant Phase × Stressor × Dominance interaction for systolic blood pressure (SBP). Women with lower and moderate dominance-but not women with higher dominance-exhibited greater SBP responses to stress in the social condition compared with the asocial condition. No significant difference was found for women with higher dominance, indicative of blunted SBP during the social stressor. During recovery, women with lower dominance had marginally elevated SBP in the social condition compared with the asocial condition. The current study extends prior knowledge of the association between dominance and CVR, such that greater dominance was associated with blunted SBP and lower dominance was associated with attenuated recovery to social stress.

Loneliness, Living Alone, and All-Cause Mortality: The Role of Emotional and Social Loneliness in the Elderly During 19 Years of Follow-Up

OBJECTIVE

The aims of the study were to examine the predictive value of social and emotional loneliness for all-cause mortality in the oldest-old who do and do not live alone and to test whether these varied by functional status and personality.

METHODS

Participants were 413 older adults from the Berlin Aging Study (M [SD] = 84.53 [8.61] years of age) who either lived alone (n = 253) or did not live alone (n = 160). Significance values for hazard ratios are reported having adjusted for age, sex, education, income, marital status, depressive illness, and both social and emotional loneliness.

RESULTS

Although social loneliness was not associated with mortality in those living alone, emotional loneliness was; with each 1 SD increase in emotional loneliness, there was an 18.6% increased risk of all-cause mortality in the fully adjusted model (HR = 1.186, p = .029). No associations emerged for social or emotional loneliness among those not living alone. Examinations of potential moderators revealed that with each 1 SD increase in functional status, the risk associated with emotional loneliness for all-cause mortality increased by 17.9% (hazard ratiointeraction = 1.179, p = .005) in those living alone. No interaction between personality traits with loneliness emerged.

CONCLUSIONS

Emotional loneliness is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in older adults who live alone. Functional status was identified as one potential pathway accounting for the adverse consequences of loneliness. Emotional loneliness that can arise out of the loss or absence of a close emotional attachment figure seems to be the toxic component of loneliness.