Top Ten 2010 Brain Posts

Here's a recap of ten of the most viewed Brain Posts from 2010.  The list comes from the count totals from Clicky and Blogpost stats.

1. Perfectionism as a Risk Factor for Anorexia Perfectionism when combined with other psychological problems (low-self esteem, body dissatisfaction) increases risk for developing anorexia nervosa
2. Why People Believe Weird Things Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine recently presented at TED looking at why humans tend to be open to self-deception. 
3. Vitamin B and Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer's Disease A group of subjects taking a vitamin B complex supplement showed a reduced rate of brain atrophy.
4. REM Sleep Latency in Autism Children with autism show reduced level of REM sleep. 
5. Do Personalities Converge After Marriage? People who get married often share similar personality features, but personalities do not appear to become more similar with time.
6. Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Adult ADHD ADHD is characterized by deficits in brain executive function.  These deficits are often not part of a diagnostic assessment. 
7. Neuroscience of Murder and Aggression, Part 1 Dr. Jim Fallon summarizes results of research into the minds of murders in a TED presentation. 
8. Deep Brain Stimulation for Depression Dr. Helen Mayberg summarizes research into the use of deep brain stimulation for depression at a NARSAD sponsored lecture. 
9. Chocolate Consumption and Depression A cross-sectional study found that people with higher depression scores tended to consume more chocolate.
10. Brain Neurocircuitry in Depression Dr. Wayne Drevets of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research summarizes research into the brain circuitry of depression.  


I want to thank the readers of Brain Posts.  It has been an exciting year in clinical neuroscience research.  I learned quite a bit through reading and posting on this blog.  Best wishes for a great 2011!


Photo of Santa Feeding Fish at the Oklahoma Aquarium Courtesy of Yates Photography.


Wade TD, Tiggemann M, Bulik CM, Fairburn CG, Wray NR, & Martin NG (2008). Shared temperament risk factors for anorexia nervosa: a twin study. Psychosomatic medicine, 70 (2), 239-44 PMID: 18158375


Krummenacher P, Mohr C, Haker H, & Brugger P (2010). Dopamine, paranormal belief, and the detection of meaningful stimuli. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 22 (8), 1670-81 PMID: 19642883


Smith, A., Smith, S., de Jager, C., Whitbread, P., Johnston, C., Agacinski, G., Oulhaj, A., Bradley, K., Jacoby, R., & Refsum, H. (2010). Homocysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial PLoS ONE, 5 (9) DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0012244


Buckley AW, Rodriguez AJ, Jennison K, Buckley J, Thurm A, Sato S, & Swedo S (2010). Rapid eye movement sleep percentage in children with autism compared with children with developmental delay and typical development. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 164 (11), 1032-7 PMID: 21041596


Humbad MN, Donnellan MB, Iacono WG, McGue M, & Burt SA (2010). Is Spousal Similarity for Personality A Matter of Convergence or Selection? Personality and individual differences, 49 (7), 827-830 PMID:21116446


Kessler RC, Green JG, Adler LA, Barkley RA, Chatterji S, Faraone SV, Finkelman M, Greenhill LL, Gruber MJ, Jewell M, Russo LJ, Sampson NA, & Van Brunt DL (2010). Structure and diagnosis of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: analysis of expanded symptom criteria from the adult ADHD clinical diagnostic scale. Archives of general psychiatry, 67 (11), 1168-78 PMID: 21041618


Mayberg HS (2009). Targeted electrode-based modulation of neural circuits for depression. The Journal of clinical investigation, 119 (4), 717-25 PMID: 19339763


Cadoret RJ, Yates WR, Troughton E, Woodworth G, & Stewart MA (1995). Genetic-environmental interaction in the genesis of aggressivity and conduct disorders. Archives of general psychiatry, 52 (11), 916-24 PMID: 7487340


Rose N, Koperski S, & Golomb BA (2010). Mood food: chocolate and depressive symptoms in a cross-sectional analysis. Archives of internal medicine, 170 (8), 699-703 PMID: 20421555


Price JL, & Drevets WC (2010). Neurocircuitry of mood disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 35 (1), 192-216 PMID: 19693001

Do Personalities Converge After Marriage?

Spouses tend to share some personality features in most studies of psychometric personality assessment.  This findings prompts the question of whether spousal personalities become more similar after marriage or are these features present at the time of marriage.  The concept of assortative mating is well known in studies of spousal selection.  Assortative mating is the concept that individuals tend to associate and select partners that share personality and other characteristics.  It is possible that similarities found in couples represents assortative mating rather than a convergence of personalities with time.

Humbad and colleagues at the Michigan State University recent examined this question.  Their study lacks a longitudinal design that would be the most powerful way to study this question.  Nevertheless, they have a large sample of couples with personality data on both spouses.  The study relied on an examination of the effect of duration of marriage on the similarities of personality between the spouses.  The hypothesis being that spouses that lived together longer should demonstrate higher correlations on personality variables than those who had only been married a brief time.

The key elements of the study included the following:

• 1298 couples with personality data on both spouse
• Personality assessed with 198-item version of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire
• Spouses compared for personality correlations
• Spousal personality differences compared related to length of marriage
• Statistical modeling examined the effect of years married on personality variables

The study found that spouses showed similar personality features across a variety of domains.  The highest correlations occurred in the personality variables traditionalism (.49), alienation (.31) and absorption (.18), well-being (.15) and aggression (.15).

However, longer years of marriage did not appear to contribute to similarity (or correlation of) personality variables.  The exception this finding was for aggression, where greater years of marriage predicted a greater similarity in aggression personality scores.

The authors conclude that marriage length of time do not appear to have a significant influence on personality convergence.  Assortative mating appears to be the key driver of this type of finding.  They note that assortative mating may increase the likelihood of some genetic transmission of parental traits (negative and positive) to their biological offspring.

Wedding photo courtesy of Yates photography

Humbad MN, Donnellan MB, Iacono WG, McGue M, & Burt SA (2010). Is Spousal Similarity for Personality A Matter of Convergence or Selection? Personality and individual differences, 49 (7), 827-830 PMID: 21116446